Make Money in Real Estate by Bird-Dogging
Posted by Mom at 8:59pm in Real EstateI recently joined the message boards at www.wahm.com and was pleased to find a board dedicated to moms and dads in the real estate business. As I have mentioned before, Dad is a full-time investor and realtor. I rather enjoy helping him with his business and have a knack for finding properties to rehab.
A member on the site asked about “Bird-Dogging” and how one could do this for a living. Here was my reply:
Bird-dogging involves finding real-estate investors (Specifically rehabbers, house flippers) houses to purchase, and in turn, you receive a “finders fee”. Such fees can range from $500 to $1000 or more. There are many ways to find such investors, like calling numbers on “We Buy Houses” signs and joining a local Real Estate Investor club.
You mentioned that there are quite a few “fixer uppers” in your area…well you could contact those owners and arrange the referral to the investors.
The key is to get the motivated sellers before they list through a realtor (and then the house is on MLS, accessible to buy by anyone). We find houses by looking for run down houses in decent neighborhoods, and then contacting the owners to see if they want to sell. Many times an owner is in a bad place financially and cannot afford to repair his/her home and selling (to the investor you are bird-dogging for) is an answer to prayers. They save money by selling “by owner” and not paying a realty firm commission.
Do real estate investors use bird-dog services? You betcha! My husband gets so busy at times that we would gladly pay a bird-dog fee for a decent rehabber that would be profitable for us to buy, fix-up and sell.
It’s important to treat bird-dogging as a business, not just your “real estate hobby”.
Building a successful bird-dogging business takes time, perseverance, and a willingness to learn. Investors will take you seriously if you are professional in both communication and appearance. Consistently looking for deals and building your network of investors can pay off.
This is a nice part-time business and who knows, a great deal could come along and jumpstart the purchase of your own real estate investment!
