How To Be A Bird-Dogger and GET PAID FOR IT!

NO MONEY, NO CREDIT, NO EXPERIENCE, NO PROBLEM **

I am sure that this topic sounds familiar to some, as well as it should. It was posted here one before but I had to remove it for various reasons. Now I am posting this one - I am going to try to make it as comprehensive as possible and any questions you have you can ask here.

A Real Estate Bird-Dogger will canvas the ads and websites any any other venue to find deals on real estate for investors.

They will then be paid a "referral fee" for this information. Now it is completely up to the bird-dogger to negotiate their fee. Yet, some investors only pay a flat fee for referrals, but you know what I say, EVERYTHING IS NEGOTIABLE!

I bet by now you are asking yourself, :How Do I Get Paid?". Well lets take it step by step.

1. Advertise your services as a Bird-Dogger to every Investor you can find. Use craigslist, backpage, flyers, word-of-mouth and whatever elese you can find to get your service out there.
Now at this point you will start receiving phone calls and emails from REALTORS, telling you that Bird Dogging is illegal and that only a licensed Real Estate Agent can get paid in a real estate deal - NOT TRUE. You are not selling real estate you are providing a location service.

2. Once you have built a BUYERS list (this is what you have gotten from your ads for your service) you can then start looking for properties. When combining the list you should be asking what their price range is, where they want to buy, how soon can they close, etc... That would mean anything that YOU would need to make sure that YOU get paid faster and also these questions qualify the buyers.

You definitely DO NOT want to bird-dog for an investor that is NOT a REAL - rehabber. Why, you say....well because if you bird-dog for a guy and he turns around as ASSIGNS it to someone else and their financing falls through you were just left hanging, with no referral fee, and lost a really great deal. So when dealing with investors looking to use your service, make sure to tell them that you DO NOT do third party deals. Anything you find for THEM, MUST BE CLOSED BY THEM, and also in a timely manner.

REMEMBER.....

YOU ARE NOW A BUSINESS OWNER - SO RUN IT LIKE ONE!

3. Getting PAID!
a. If you agreed that you will receive your payment at close of escrow, then indicate so in he promisorry note. Make sure you stay in contact with buyer so you can track their progress.
b. Get PAID using a subscription list! I prefer this way and this is how I do it. I compile me list of buyers and then I compile a list of great deal (properties) I then charge a flat monthly fee for providing the list. I guarantee at least 10 deals on it and all at least 35% UNDER FMV. I then charge 250.00 permonth for this list and I send it out to whichever of my buyers want to subscribe. So if you have 5 buyers that want to subscribe, then you profit 1250.00 per month weher they close on the deal or not.
c. A COMBINATION OF BOTH. You can do both, provide individual deals as well as a subscription list.
d. GET PAID UP FRONT - sometimes you can get paid up fron, by accepting a smaller fee. A lot of investors would not mind giving you 200 - 500 dollars up front on a good solid deal, especially if they see where they will profit well from it. Keep in mind that they may be doing some rehab work that could take months or maybe its an FHA deal and there have to to repairs made - which again could take months.

4. Keep good account and referral records.

5. DO NOT GIVE OUT THE PROPERTY ADDRESS - until you have a nin disclosure agreement signed by buyer. This will prohibit them from acting on the property behingd your back and/or getting someone else to step in an buy it, so they will not have to pay YOU! Once you have the agreement signed, provide address and any other useable info to help the investor make up their mind.

Being a Bird-Dogger can and IS a profitable BUSINESS. Thats right, a business. If you run it half heartedly, you will never get paid, you will never succeed and you will never experience the full spectrum of becoming a real estate investor.

Think of this as the "walking" phase and you can only grow from there.

In the mean time you have done the following:

You'll work with investors that do not have the time to find deals but have guaranteed money.

What does all this mean? It means that a few good referral deals under your belt, a successful and qualified buyers list, a network of investors with money to spend and the vast knowledge of real estate you have just gotten from OJT (On Job Training) - you are now ready to tackle investing YOURSELF.

Using some of the funds you saved from bird-dogging you now have enough to start putting down the down payments and earnest money you would need to lock up those properties and start assigning and/or buying them.

BIRD-DOGGING......
Man is real estate fun!

I hope this helps you and I am sure you will have lots more questions and as I always say, the best advice I can give you is to - JUST DO IT!

Get up off the couch, step away from the computer, drop the books and put down the phone. GET TO WORK!

Good Luck and Much Success.

Bird-Dogging Tip: Start a notebook with picture and any thing else you have on each property. Use tabs to seperate the structure types and what ever else you would like. Keep it with you at all times - its now your business at a glance.