Incentivizing tenants to profit off of their moves

[Kristina Heimstaedt]

I'm an agent in California and I've been managing my parents' portfolio of properties for several years and have established great rapport with the tenants. Being in an affluent area, many tenants move out and quickly become home owners. Because people move frequently in the community, I've been thinking about how to best capture the revenue from tenants every time they move even if I don't have another property for them. I was considering the following:

1. If their next move is a purchase and they use me as their agent, I will guarantee their entire security deposit back no questions asked. (Most recent deal I did was a commission of 15k for tenants who had a deposit of 4k)

2. If current tenants refer someone to me for a purchase, I will give them one month of free rent after the property has closed. (Most expensive rental is 5k/month and the low end commissions per deals are 10k)

In both scenarios I have a positive spread and increase my volume of traffic. I understand that this is more of a real estate related question, but thought I'd get some feedback on how crazy an idea this might be slash how legal it is. I know it's illegal to take kickbacks from escrows, title companies and lenders, but why not go direct to the source right? Thank you in advance!!!