Illustration for Pre-Listing Exterior Cleaning for Real Estate Agents

A washer on a real-estate forum recently asked agents when a partnership makes sense for them. Below is what the published rules say about it, plus what a package should contain and who should pay for it.

What to bundle before the photos

Listing photos show the front of the house, the walk, the entry and the windows. Package pages follow that logic. The Seattle company’s basic tier covers a soft wash of the house, exterior windows, the front entry, the driveway and basic gutter cleaning; its premium tier adds inside-and-out windows, roof moss removal, gutter brightening and a deck or patio. The Virginia washer’s one-story packages run from a low-pressure house wash with gutter cleaning at $199, to house plus gutters plus driveway at $325, to a bundle with a roof wash at $699; two-story homes start at $299, $399 and $899.

Package What it includes Starting price Who says so
Curb Appeal Basic Soft wash, exterior windows, front entry, driveway, basic gutter cleaning $599 (condos and townhomes) Seattle Wash Co. real estate page
Market Ready Premium Complete house wash, windows in and out, roof moss, gutters, driveway and walk, deck or patio, fence $999 (single-family) Seattle Wash Co.
Package One, one story Low-pressure house wash, gutter cleaning $199 Richmond Power Wash specials page
Package Two, one story House wash, gutters, driveway $325 Richmond Power Wash
Package Two, two story House wash, gutters, driveway $399 Richmond Power Wash

For timing, which jobs photograph well and which can backfire on a tight schedule, see washing a house before you list it. For what a stand-alone wash costs, see house washing cost.

Who pays

Three arrangements show up in practice:

  • The seller pays. This is the simplest. The washer quotes the seller, the seller signs, the agent simply recommends. A published package price lets the agent point to a number.
  • The agent pays as a listing perk. The invoice should go to the agent or brokerage, with no kickback flowing back to the agent.
  • Paid at closing. A seller may ask to settle the bill from proceeds. Whether that is possible depends on the brokerage and the closing agent, so ask before promising it, and keep a signed agreement with the seller.

What none of these involve is the washer paying the agent for the introduction. That is where the rules start.

The referral-fee line

Federal law. RESPA Section 8 and Regulation X prohibit giving or accepting a fee, kickback or thing of value under any agreement or understanding, oral or otherwise, for referrals of business that is part of a settlement service on a federally related mortgage loan. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s FAQ adds that there is no exception based on the value of the gift. Regulation X’s list of settlement services includes a real estate agent’s own services, loans and the like. It does not name exterior cleaning, though the list ends with a catch-all for other services, so a washer should not assume RESPA is irrelevant. Do not stop reading there.

State license law. Agents are licensed, and license rules can reach fees they take from a vendor. Texas is one example: a license holder may not receive a commission, rebate or fee in a transaction from anyone other than the client without first disclosing it to the client and getting the client’s consent, and must also get the consent of the other party when that party is paying the service provider. Florida’s license statute works in the other direction: it lists, as grounds for discipline, a licensee sharing a commission with or paying a fee to a person not licensed as a broker or sales associate for the referral of real estate business. Read the statute text itself for what it covers.

Brokerage policy. A brokerage can set its own rules on vendor payments on top of state law, so an agent may decline for that reason alone.

This is not legal advice. Before any payment to or from an agent, read your state’s real estate commission rules and ask a lawyer who handles real estate licensing.

What works instead

  • A published realtor rate. Put the package and its price on your site. Agents can quote it without owing you anything, and the discount goes to the seller.
  • Speed and a clean invoice. Quick scheduling and an invoice the seller can hand to the closing file make a recommendation easy.
  • Co-marketing with real services. The CFPB’s FAQ notes that Regulation X does not prohibit normal promotional and educational activities, subject to conditions; that is a different thing from a payment per listing, so check the conditions first. Our guide to where pressure washing leads come from compares the options.
  • Reviews. A happy seller may write one. See getting more reviews without breaking the rules.

For how we check facts and choose sources, see our methodology.

Sources

Based on 7 sources · How we price