RESPA
What does RESPA stand for?
Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act
RESPA governs federally related mortgage loans and provides consumer protections throughout the mortgage settlement process.
Agent Jane Doe, closes a transaction with XYZ Title company. As a thank you, their Title Sales Executive, sent Agent Jane Doe a ”Thank you card that contain a $4.00 gift card to Starbucks.”
Is this legal to give and receive? YES or NO
NO.
While an “thing of value” is $4.37 per item; Oregon separately regulates things of value and title-company marketing activities. Dollar amount matters, but so does what the activity actually is. The 2026 Oregon limits are adjusted annually. Any ”cash gift” is never legal.
A brokerage charges Ticor $500 a month to advertise its logo on the brokerage website. Is paying for advertising automatically a RESPA violation?
No.
Legitimate marketing services may be compensable. The services actually have to be provided, and compensation must be reasonably related to the market value of those services.
What does CFPB stand for?
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Its job is to implement and enforce federal consumer financial laws and help ensure consumer financial markets are fair, transparent and competitive.
Enforcer over RESPA and Trade Practice Rules!
Who does #2 work for?
In an Oregon escrow transaction, who does the escrow officer represent?
A. The buyer
B. The seller
C. The Realtor who opened escrow
D. Neither side
D — Neither side. We are a neutral third party.
Oregon law specifically defines escrow as property, documents or funds being held by a neutral third party until the specified conditions are satisfied. The Oregon Real Estate Agency uses the same description.
We’re not Team Buyer or Team Seller. We’re Team Written Instructions.
Which of these is considered a settlement service under RESPA?
A - Real estate brokerage
B - Title and Escrow
C - Mortgage lending
D - All the above
D - All the above
Realtors, YOU are part of the settlement-service world too. RESPA specifically includes real estate agents/brokers, title services, settlement agents, mortgage origination, appraisals and other services in its definition.
Four Realtors and one Ticor employee go to a Ticor-sponsored business-development lunch. The total is $500. Is that within Oregon’s 2026 limit?
YES — potentially.
OAR 836-080-0325(1) allows a qualifying activity sponsored only by the title company, when five or fewer people actually attend and one attendee is a title-company employee. The adjusted 2026 limit is $164.80 per individual attending. Five people at $100 each falls below that limit.
The catch: Being below $164.80 isn’t enough by itself. The activity must actually qualify under the rule.
Key take away:
Don’t just remember $164.80. Remember: Who sponsored it? Who attended? What was the activity?
A brokerage offers Ticor paid advertisement on its website. Ticor recieves actual advertising and pays its fair share of the cost. Is this prohibited?
YES or NO
We are payin for advertising - not access to referrals. If the payments buys preferential access, referrals, or is based on the amount of business sent to Ticor; then we’ve crossed the RESPA lines!
The CFPB was created in response to what major financial event—and under what law?
A - the dot com crash - the Patriot Act
B - The 2008 financial crisis - Dodd-Frank Act
C - The COVID-19 pandemic - CARES Act
D - The savings & loan crisis - Gramm-Leach-Biley Act
B - The 2008 financial crisis; the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010.
Congress created the CFPB in 2010 through the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. One major goal was to consolidate consumer-financial protection authority that had previously been spread across seven federal agencies. The CFPB began exercising its transferred authorities on July 21, 2011.
Think 2008 crash → Dodd-Frank → CFPB.
A seller asks their agent, agent refers seller to the escrow officer:
Seller Asks, “Should I take title in my trust or in my individual name? What do you recommend?”
Can the escrow officer tell them which option is best?
No. Escrow can explain the options/documents, but cannot choose for them or provide legal advice.
As a neutral third party, escrow carries out the principals’ instructions; it does not advocate for either party or make legal decisions for them. Questions about the legal consequences of how title should be held should be directed to an attorney or other appropriate adviser.
We can tell you WHAT the options are. We can’t tell you WHICH one you should choose.
A buyer is purchasing a home with all cash.
Does RESPA apply to that transaction?
NO
RESPA generally applies to federally related mortgage loans. No mortgage loan = generally no RESPA-covered transaction.
A brokerage has 30 agents attending a meeting. Ticor wants to sponsor a business-development activity and provide lunch. Is this legal? YES or NO
Bonus points:
What’s the maximum 2026 Oregon amount per person reasonably expected to attend?
A - $19.00
B - $21.96
C - $43.50
Yes.
B - What is $21.96?
Under OAR 836-080-0325(2), when six or more people actually attend, the adjusted 2026 limit is $21.96 per individual reasonably expected to attend. The activity must be sponsored only by the title company, and a title-company employee must attend.
This isn’t ‘Here’s my credit card—buy your office lunch.’ Ticor has to be sponsoring the qualifying activity.
That’s an important distinction.
FREE EDUCATION
Under RESPA Section 8, providing agents free required Credit Hours can be considered a ‘thing of value’ the agent would normally have to expense themselves.
So how can we be here giving you this FREE CE?
Oregon Trade Practice Rules - allows title companies to offer CE as part of the business development rules - OAR 836-080
Which TWO federal laws behind today’s primary mortgage disclosures are administered through CFPB regulations?
A. RESPA & TILA
B. RESPA & ADA
C. Fair Housing Act & OSHA
D. TILA & HIPAA
A — RESPA and TILA.
Dodd-Frank directed CFPB to integrate certain mortgage disclosures required under the Truth in Lending Act (TILA) and Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA)—what we commonly know as the TRID framework.
Your transaction closed six months ago. Your client calls Ticor and says:
“You already have everything. Can you just prepare and record a new deed putting my house into my trust?”
NO.
Not simply because we handled the previous closing.
Our authority as the neutral escrow holder comes from the transaction and written instructions of its principals. A past escrow doesn’t give us continuing authority to prepare future transfers for a former customer.
We closed your escrow. We didn’t become your attorney for life.
A Realtor recommends a particular lender, title company, home inspector and appraiser to a buyer.
Under RESPA, which of those recommendations could potentially be considered a referral of a settlement service?
ALL OF THEM.
Under RESPA, a referral can be an oral or written action that affirmatively influences someone’s selection of a settlement-service provider. RESPA’s definition of settlement services is broad and includes real estate brokerage, mortgage origination, title services, appraisals and inspections, among others.
Recommending someone isn’t automatically illegal! The RESPA §8 problem arises when a thing of value is given or accepted pursuant to an agreement or understanding for that referral.
You’re holding an open house at your new listing this weekend. You ask Ticor to provide a $100 gift basket to make the open house special.
You know Oregon’s 2026 “open house gift” limit is $109.81.
The basket is only $100.
Can Ticor provide it?
NO.
OAR 836-080-0335 does allow an open-house gift within the adjusted limit—but read what the rule actually says. The exception is for a plant or flowers given in connection with an open house of an intermediary’s new or substantially remodeled OFFICE.
It does not mean an open house for a home the Realtor has listed for sale. The adjusted 2026 dollar limit is $109.81, but the underlying activity still has to qualify for the exception.
Being UNDER the limit doesn’t make it legal. You first have to fit the exception.
MSA‘s
A brokerage offers Ticor a Marketing Service Agreement that includes advertising, event exposure and regular access to its agents. Ticor pays a monthly fee and the brokerage sends Ticor business.
LEGAL or NOT LEGAL
NOT
When we are paying for access or referrals - not actual marketing services.
RESPA - an MAS cannot disguise payment for referrals. Access to agents or expected referrals cannot be what Ticor is buying.
In 2018, CFPB assessed a whopping $1 BILLION penalty against which major bank for illegal practices involving mortgage rate-lock extensions and auto-loan insurance?
A. Bank of America
B. Wells Fargo
C. Chase
D. U.S. Bank
CFPB found Wells Fargo improperly charged certain mortgage borrowers for interest-rate-lock extensions and committed violations involving a mandatory auto-loan insurance program. CFPB assessed a $1 billion penalty, with $500 million credited toward the OCC’s related fine.
Your former client calls Ticor:
“I’m leaving the country tomorrow. I need my daughter to handle my real estate while I’m gone. You guys prepare Powers of Attorney all the time, can you make one for me?”
Ticor prepared a POA for this same customer during a closing two years ago.
Can we prepare another one today?
NO — not just because we’ve done one before.
When a document is prepared as part of an escrow, it’s being prepared in connection with a transaction we are handling and pursuant to the principals’ instructions. Without that transaction and authority, we’re no longer simply carrying out our role as the neutral escrow holder. Oregon defines that role around the transaction and the principals’ written instructions.
We prepare documents to facilitate OUR transaction. We don’t operate as your personal document-preparation service.
THE NEUTRAL THIRD-PARTY TEST
Is there a transaction with us?
Do we have authority to do it?
Do we have the appropriate written instructions from the principals?
If not — STOP.
Two-part Daily Double:
1. What year was RESPA enacted?
2. What was its primary purpose—and what type of transaction brings a Realtor into the world of RESPA?
1974.
RESPA was enacted to give consumers greater transparency about settlement costs and protect them from unnecessarily high costs caused by abusive practices, including kickbacks and referral fees. It generally applies when the transaction involves a federally related mortgage loan.
Congress actually identified four purposes: better advance disclosure of settlement costs, elimination of kickbacks/referral fees that unnecessarily increase costs, limits involving escrow deposits, and modernization of land-title records.
RESPA wasn’t created just to keep Laura from buying you stuff. It was created to protect the consumer and the cost and integrity of their real estate settlement.
A Realtor is opening a brand-new office and asks Ticor to help celebrate.
She gives you three choices:
A. Send a $100 flower arrangement to the office.
B. Send a $100 Amazon gift card so she can choose her own office decorations.
C. Send a $100 charcuterie basket for everyone attending the grand opening.
All three cost less than Oregon’s $109.81 adjusted 2026 gift limit.
Which one can qualify under Oregon’s open-house gift exception?
A — THE FLOWERS.
OAR 836-080-0335 isn’t a general $109.81 gift allowance.
The rule specifically allows a plant or flowers in connection with an open house of an intermediary’s new or substantially remodeled office. The $109.81 is simply the inflation-adjusted 2026 maximum for that permitted gift.
A Top Producing Realtor sends Ticor all of their business. To show appreciation, your Ticor Sales Executive has two extra Oregon Ducks tickets worth $250 each. Your Ticor Sales Executive says, ”you’ve been so good to us, these are for you!”
Can the agent accept them is there was never an agreement to refer business?
YES or NO
NO
Oregon title-company trade-practice rules independently restrict things of value provided to real estate intermediaries. A $500 gift of tickets doesn’t fit within the ordinary permitted miscellaneous-item limit.
And under RESPA §8, repeatedly rewarding referral sources with valuable gifts can also establish evidence of an agreement or understanding based on a pattern or course of conduct—even without someone explicitly saying, “Send me business and I’ll give you tickets.”
Under the CFPB’s TRID ‘Know before owe rule,’ a buyer must receive the Closing Disclosure 3 business days before closing.
Which of these changes would trigger a NEW three-business-day waiting period?
A. Seller agrees to a $2,000 credit after the final walkthrough
B. A typo is corrected on the Closing Disclosure
C. The loan changes from a fixed-rate to an adjustable-rate mortgage
D. The buyer’s cash-to-close changes because of a minor fee adjustment
Answer: C — The loan product changes.
CFPB says only three categories of changes generally restart the three-business-day waiting period:
Most ordinary changes—including many seller credits, walkthrough adjustments and corrected fees—do not restart the three-day clock. The consumer still must receive a corrected Closing Disclosure, but generally doesn’t have to wait another three business days.
A Realtor asks their Ticor sales executive to help with a big luxury listing. Which activity creates the biggest neutral-third-party problem?
A. Providing available property/title information for the agent
B. Attending a brokerage meeting to explain title and escrow services
C. Co-hosting the listing’s open house, greeting buyers and helping promote the home
D. Answering general title questions about the property
DAILY DOUBLE BONUS:
“What if the agent says, ‘You don’t have to pay for anything—I just want you there helping me host it’?”
C — Co-hosting and promoting the listing.
Title and escrow must maintain their role as a neutral third party. We can provide appropriate title information and educate consumers and agents, but we shouldn’t become part of the agent’s sales team by actively marketing or helping sell a particular property.
We can help with the TRANSACTION. We can’t help you SELL the house.
DAILY DOUBLE BONUS:
Still no. The issue isn’t only who pays. Participating in the marketing and sale of one party’s listing compromises the neutral role we’re required to maintain.