When insurance pays for the roof, Florida bans paying anyone for the referral, and Kentucky and Minnesota limit what you can give the homeowner. With no insurance money involved, those laws don’t apply. Realtors and public adjusters carry rules of their own: in Texas, a realtor who takes your fee has to tell the client, and a public adjuster can’t take one at all.
For how to ask for referrals and what to offer, see Roofing Referral Programs: Past Customers, Realtors and Insurance Agents.
Florida, Kentucky and Minnesota limit referral rewards on insurance jobs
Florida’s statute 489.147 bars “offering, delivering, receiving, or accepting any compensation, inducement, or reward, for the referral of any services for which property insurance proceeds are payable.” That language covers paying a realtor, an insurance agent or a past customer for sending you an insurance-funded roof. It has no small-dollar exception, and the fine runs up to $10,000 per violation.
Kentucky’s KRS 367.628, in the version effective July 15, 2026, covers work expected to be paid from insurance. It bars paying the insured more than $100 “for any reason”, and it names referral fees. It also bars the contractor from being “financially connected, directly or indirectly” to a public adjuster, an appraiser or anyone who specializes in insurance or supplements.
Minnesota’s 325E.66 bars a contractor paid from insurance proceeds from offering to pay the insured for referring the contractor to others. If you break it, the insurer doesn’t have to consider your estimate. The statute is silent on paying realtors or agents.
In Kentucky and Minnesota, what matters is whether the past customer’s own roof was an insurance job. In Florida, it is whether insurance pays for the roof they send you.
Colorado’s roofing statute, by contrast, bans rebating a deductible and says nothing on referral payments. Before you pay anyone, search your state’s roofing and contractor statutes for “referral” and “insurance proceeds”.
Texas bans covering the deductible, so keep a customer’s reward off their own roof
Texas Business and Commerce Code 27.02 bars anyone selling work paid from a property insurance claim from paying, waiving, absorbing or rebating the deductible without the insurer’s consent. It also bars them from “in any other manner” helping the insured avoid paying it, and a violation is a Class B misdemeanor. The Texas Department of Insurance’s consumer page on roofing and insurance restates that rule and says nothing about referral fees.
A reward to a past customer whose own roof was an insurance job can look like a deductible credit. Pay it as a separate check for the new job they sent you, never as money off their own roof.
A Texas public adjuster can’t take a roofer’s referral money
Insurance Code 4102.164 bars a Texas public adjuster from accepting “a fee, commission, or other valuable consideration of any nature, regardless of form or amount” for referring an insured to a contractor. A roofer also may not act as the public adjuster on a property it does or may roof.
An owner on r/Roofing posted a warning titled “Public Adjuster Screwed Me Out of 5% on Every Referral.” If an adjuster asks you for a cut, say no, because in Texas the adjuster can’t legally take it.
Texas realtors and NAR members must disclose your fee to their client
Texas real estate rules (22 TAC 535.148) bar a license holder from taking a fee from anyone but their client without first disclosing it and getting the client’s consent. They also bar paying or taking a fee to or from any other “settlement service provider” for referrals or for a spot on a preferred-provider list. That group includes inspectors and anyone whose service a settlement service provider requires a borrower or seller to pay for. Market-rate pay for work actually performed is exempt.
The NAR Code of Ethics applies the disclosure rule to its members in every state: a Realtor may not take a commission or rebate on a client’s spending without the client’s knowledge and consent.
At the federal level, RESPA bars kickbacks for referrals tied to a settlement service on a federally related mortgage loan. Its list of those services includes inspections and home warranties and doesn’t name roofing. No rule settles whether a roof repair before closing counts, so get a lawyer’s reading before you pay a listing agent per closed sale.
The realtor relationships owners describe on Reddit run on service. One owner charges realtors a $250 estimating fee to weed out time-wasters, and another said realtors “kept wanting more and more free” work. A licensed realtor who also owns a roofing company says roofers who do small repairs at good prices are worth a realtor’s time.
For a DFW roofer we work with, we emailed 342 realtors offering a free inspection with written findings and no payment. Twelve replied. One booked an inspection, and it has not become a job.
Offer realtors small repairs at good prices and a free inspection with written findings, and keep cash out of it.
One owner wins insurance agent referrals without paying for them
An owner on r/Roofing says most of his leads come from insurance agents. He met them in person, told them he wasn’t a bully supplement company, stood behind his work and asked to be a preferred vendor. A self-described insurance agent on r/RoofingSales said in March 2026 that his referrals gave his roofer $2M in revenue the year before. Neither post says money changed hands.
State Farm runs its own referral route for claim work. In its Select Service network, the claim handler decides whether a claim qualifies, and the network matches the homeowner with a background-checked local roofer in their ZIP code. How carrier networks take on roofers is covered in Insurance Company Referral Programs for Roofers: How Contractor Connection and Alacrity Work.
Ask agents to list you as a preferred vendor on the strength of your work, and look at the carrier networks for claim work.
Past customers are the simplest referrers to pay on a cash job
On r/RoofingSales, one owner pays $500 per referral and splits it with the sales rep, calling it the amount “that makes a homeowner go wide eyed.” Another gives a $200 gift card only when the referred homeowner buys, and keeps it off the original contract.
A third offers every client a $500 advertising credit per referral and asks at least three times. He says about 10% of his business comes that way. Calling the reward an advertising credit doesn’t change whether a state statute treats it as pay for a referral.
Pay once the referred job is signed. Skip the reward when insurance pays for the referred roof in Florida or for the customer’s own roof in Minnesota, and keep it to $100 or less for a Kentucky insurance customer.
Pay for the referral and never for a Google review
Google’s Maps policy bans businesses from offering payment, discounts or free services in exchange for posting any review, and from asking only happy customers for one. The FTC’s review rule is looser, so for a Google review, Google’s policy is the one to follow.
Ask for the review separately, with nothing attached to it.
Put the terms in writing, and check these before the first payment
A one-page agreement settles who gets paid and when. Have a lawyer in your state read it once, then reuse it.
Roofing referral agreement
- Parties. [Your company] and [referrer name, address, phone].
- What counts. A homeowner the referrer introduces who signs a contract with [your company] within [__] days of the introduction.
- Reward. $[____] per counted referral, paid by check within [__] days after the referred job is paid in full.
- Insurance jobs. No reward is paid on a job funded by property insurance where state law bars it. No reward is ever applied to the referrer’s own deductible or invoice.
- Reviews. The reward isn’t tied to any online review.
- Realtors. A licensed real estate agent who accepts a reward discloses it to their client in writing before the referral.
- Adjusters. No reward is paid to a public adjuster.
- Tax. A business referrer provides a W-9 before the first payment.
The IRS lists referral fees paid by one professional to another as Form 1099-NEC income, and for payments made after 2025, you file one for a referrer you pay $2,000 or more in a year.
Before the first payment:
- Search your state’s statutes for “referral” and “insurance proceeds”.
- In Florida, pay nothing for referring a roof that insurance pays for.
- In Minnesota, pay an insurance customer nothing for referrals, and in Kentucky keep everything you give one to $100 or less.
- In Texas, pay a past customer by separate check, never against their deductible.
- Never pay a public adjuster for a referral.
- Pay a realtor only if they disclose your fee to their client.
- Keep reviews and rewards apart.
- Collect a W-9 from business referrers.
A homeowner nobody refers will search for a roofer instead. To see where your company shows up when they do, run the free Google Maps heatmap: pick your Google profile and a search, and in a few minutes you’ll see your rank at 49 points around your office.