Why would I pay any fees when I could just let my license lapse for free?

Because your license has value — you just haven't been capturing it. Every year, people in your network buy and sell homes. Without an active license and brokerage, you can't legally earn a referral fee for those connections.

At $39.95/month, one referral commission ($2,500–$5,000+) covers 5–10 years of membership. If you let your license lapse, you lose the ability to earn from your network permanently — and reactivating later costs more time and money than maintaining it now.