How do you guys protect yourself with large interstate investment type deals?
I am a commercial broker with a national CRE firm but in a "large" tertiary market.  We tend to have a lot of out of state interest in our market so through the years I have been able to develop some great relationships with large REIT's and development groups that invest around the U.S., surprisingly enough my office is the leading firm in the region yet I am the first one to really make a push for these institutional type sales.  The majority of the office is 60+ and they do things they have always done it, they are generally the leaders in our market every year, I am in my 30's however and see the big picture of what's out there beyond just local.

One issue I have seen now that I have been doing this is the loyalty is not the same as when working with local clients.  I have put deals together only to have the two parties track each other down and move forward without me to save the six digits of commission.  It looks like in most cases I have nothing to defend myself with being that any commission or agency agreements are state specific and we generally are dealing with out of state where I need to piggy back off of another broker anyway to get paid in most states.  

I am curious those that primarily work in this environment how you protect yourself through the transaction to make sure you get paid?  I am in uncharted water here for my firm so I have little help there.  Also, how are these big firms handling transactions over numerous states when no one in their firm seems to be licensed in those states?  Being with a national firm I can easily cut someone into the deal in that state to make it happen but that does not seem to be the case with some of these specific capital market companies that have a single office.
[{"id": "flu6dgu", "text": "If you're with a large firm, I would assume their NDA or legal team can protect your commission if clients look to circumvent you.", "replies": [{"id": "flu6slt", "text": "That is entirely dependent on the size of the commission.  If it is not big enough to justify the legal costs then they will only make a few threats and then drop it if they don\u2019t comply.", "replies": [{"id": "fludt5z", "text": "This. A firm I worked at 3-4 years ago is STILL embroiled in a lawsuit where a client circumvented us over like an $85k fee. I cannot even imagine how many multiples of that will be spent on legal by the time this is done. Not even remotely worth the effort.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}, {"id": "flu7ivo", "text": "We use all NAR commercial forms and I was told they were state specific so they can defend a transaction when its in another state our firm is not licensed in.", "replies": [{"id": "fluj29p", "text": "Broker fee agreement and Non-circumvention Non-disclosure.  You don't need a license to broker commercial loans, and non-respa non-owner occupied investment 6+ units residential.", "replies": [{"id": "flujccr", "text": "These are really only as good as the client you are working with because no firm wants to get a reputation for suing their clients even if it\u2019s justified.", "replies": [{"id": "flumcrz", "text": "Any contract is as good as it's enforcement, but there is no other way to protect yourself.", "replies": [{"id": "flus1xm", "text": "It does not matter what brokerage agreement you have, or whether a CA, non-circ, etc, has been exected, if you are not in conformance with the licensing requirements in the state where the property is located, you run a significant risk of not being paid.", "replies": [], "depth": 6}], "depth": 5}], "depth": 4}, {"id": "flujqg9", "text": "I am in NY and one certainly does need a license to broker commercial loans: \"Anyone who negotiates or attempts to negotiate any mortgage loan other than a mortgage loan on residential property, in the state of New York, is required to be licensed as a real estate broker, or as a salesperson associated with a real estate broker\".", "replies": [{"id": "flulx9f", "text": "&gt;on residential property    \n\n\n6+ units is not considered residential.  And we're talking about loan brokering, not real estate brokering.  \n\nEDIT: I'm reading conflicting information on the subject online.  I've never heard of commercial loan brokering being regulated.  Lending, maybe.  And even that usually has a 'if you do less that 5 deals in a year, it's ok' and 'if you own the prop, it's ok' stip.  \n\nEDIT2: In NY, you might be right..... https://www.dos.ny.gov/licensing/re_salesperson/re_sales_broker_faq.html#1  \nNow, I'm copletely confused:\n&gt;Who licenses mortgage brokers?\nThe license is issued by the Department of State. Anyone who negotiates or attempts to negotiate any mortgage loan other than a mortgage loan on residential property, in the state of New York, is required to be licensed as a real estate broker, or as a salesperson associated with a real estate broker.\n\n&gt;When is registration with the Department of Financial Services Necessary?\nTo negotiate a mortgage loan on residential property (one to four family building) registration with the Department of Financial Services is required.", "replies": [{"id": "fluojt8", "text": "As said, you are required to be licensed in order to broker any mortgage loan **other** than a mortgage loan on residential property.", "replies": [{"id": "fluv6t3", "text": "Most states don't require it.", "replies": [], "depth": 7}], "depth": 6}], "depth": 5}], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "flujrul", "text": "Do you control these deals? Are you working as the sellers agent or the buyers agent?  \n\nIf you are the sellers agent and you have an agreement in place I believe technically you can hold up closing by filing a lien for your commission.  This is the fastest way to get paid quickly.  \n\nIf you are acting as the buyers agent then you could technically sue them but the best thing you can do is stop bringing deals to them and bring them to their competitors instead.", "replies": [{"id": "flv8vn4", "text": "I\u2019ve been working on both sides. Obviously the buy side is the one where I\u2019ve had the issues. It\u2019s generally a situation where the seller initially says they will take care of commission followed by the deal being held up because they won\u2019t put it on paper.  Buyer then doesn\u2019t want to cover the entire thing because the seller previously stated they would take care of it. My goal is to protect myself more on the front end so I won\u2019t have to worry about suing, it will be clear on paper up front.  Often times the challenge in this is nobody wants to negotiate a specific commission until we know where we will be at on price.", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "fluwvi8", "text": "We're talking about local properties with remote buyers/sellers, right? If the transaction is happening in your state, how is your local listing agreement or buyer rep agreement not protecting you?", "replies": [{"id": "flv7wbg", "text": "No. I am talking i institutional buyers looking to buy numerous properties over multiple states.", "replies": [{"id": "flvbw9z", "text": "So, just to clarify, you're helping people in New York buy property in Texas, just as an example?", "replies": [{"id": "flvls8n", "text": "Correct.", "replies": [{"id": "flvxzcv", "text": "My advice (as a tertiary market broker myself) is to avoid playing that game unless you have a pre-existing relationship (have already done a deal) with at least one of the parties. Too many deals where NYC seller trades to LA buyer via NYC broker. They will have some local agent from their company as the broker of record, but that person will get paid very little on the deal (likely actually just \"doing paperwork,\" if anything). Unless you're insanely good at what you do, you're never going to compete with the local guys who drink at the same bars as these principals, go to the same gym as them, etc.\n\nFor the deals you do, pay an attorney (shouldn't be a large fee) to draw up a boilerplate consulting agreement between you and whichever party you are working for that clarifies that it's not an agency relationship and you are not \"practicing real estate\" - even if it says your sole compensation will be a referral fee when that property closes - since whether or not you can be paid a \"real estate commission\" without being licensed in the state is murky and varies state-to-state. Get them to sign it before you start working on the property. But the consulting agreement should be pretty simple and if you're providing actual value I don't see a reason why the parties you're dealing with wouldn't sign it. If they won't sign, you don't show them the prospect.", "replies": [], "depth": 5}], "depth": 4}], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}]