Finding Bird Dogs – What You Ought to Know

What is a Bird Dog?

A bird dog refers to people with the ability to find good deals. Basically, a bird dog is someone who knows how to scout underpriced properties that might be for sale. This can be a family member, a neighbor, a friend, a lawyer, a doctor or anyone with the skills to identify prospective property deals. They do this for referral fees which cater for helping you expand your dealings while you focus on other concerning matters.

Where to Find Them

Through your Networks: Since bird dogs are people you may never suspect to be unless you talk to them, you need to reach out to everybody within your network. You need to talk to family, relatives, friends, neighbors, dentists, trash men and whoever else you have links to.

Through Business Cards: Business cards are meant to build connections, useful connections for that matter. You should therefore make it a habit to hand out your cards to people you meet or whenever the opportunity presents itself.

Real Estate Clubs, Websites or Forums: These are ideal platforms for networking and give you the opportunity to interact with people with real estate expertise as well as newbies. Examples of such platforms include indeed.com, simplyhired.com and Craigslist where you can recruit both accomplished and amateur dogs.

Bird Dog Hiring Sites: If the above options are overwhelming, you can go for dedicated hiring sites where everybody knows what is required of them and picking a candidate is much more clear-cut.

Via Direct Mail or Ads: You can also draw people to your dealings through simple ads specifying the rewards of getting you deals.

Hiring and Working with Bird Dogs

Recruitment of bird dogs is quite unique and differs from normal investor dealings for the fact that, in most cases, no contracts will be signed. Better yet, the hiring process can be done entirely through the word of mouth and this yields greater turn around.

You need therefore to explain to your recruits the kind of properties you prefer and let them know that you are willing to match their efforts in terms of pay. You can quote the price per lead by including pictures. The understanding should be such that payments are only made when a deal is closed and depending on the respective spread and effort invested. The payment can be through a regular check, personal check or in cash form.

Overall, finding bird dogs doesn’t have to be a daunting task as people presume it to be. Nonetheless, as a real estate investor, you should show your hired guns that you too can score some deals. This drives them to bring you more deals in faith. You may also consider enrolling outstanding bird dogs into a custom internship program to give them more responsibilities thus simplifying your work.