Anyone have a good formula for deciding how much to pay a Bird Dog?
The type of BD I’m thinking of is someone who’s regular occupation requires them to be out and about for 8+ hours in and around neighborhoods.
Thanks!
For a bird dog I would think $500-$1000 for a lead that you end up buying the property.
It depends on what they are doing and the information you are asking them to do. Some people pay as little as $100 for an address and a picture of an empty house. Others pay $500-$1000 - depending on the detail of information provided.
…So is the money paid for just finding the property, or when the deal closes?
The investor I was thinking about working with said I would be paid at closing, and that only makes sense. If he paid me just for finding the property and the house didnt close, he just wasted money.
Of course it depends seems to be the answer to so many different questions. Some determining factors on how much to ask for as a bird-dog and how much to pay a bird dog are: what is the price point of the current property? how much “work” did the bird-dog do (did they contact the owner, prequalify them, negotiate, etc. or just hand over a FSBO name/number?) and how much “work” do I have to do to close the deal and/or sell the contract or rehab the property.
So $500-$1,000 might be “standard” (whatever that means). My thoughts are that if a birddog takes the time and gets me a profitable deal that I would not have found otherwise, I will gladly pay him/her nicely (which normally means more than anyone else will) because I want them to call me FIRST when they find the next deal!
Chris
Many investors pay in the $500-1000 range. In beginning expect $500 and then as the deals progress and if you are getting many, you then sometimes would get $1000 or 1500. Sorta like a bonus.
I did some birddogging in the beginning (long time ago) and I was paid $500. After about 3 months of finding deals for the investor (he did rehabs and I went in and looked over properties, took pics and listed what basics needed to be done) he started paying me $1000 for those deals. Then when he would sell the home after rehab he would give me another $1000 or so since he wanted to show recongition for good work.
This is still a business and you do not want to over pay someone since there is still a bottom end. But if your making an easy $35K profit in 1 or 2 months off an easy rehab (when market was hot), then I didnt see anything wrong with giving the birddog an extra $1000 or even a gift of some type.
As much as I liked getting the money, I actually appreciated the gift certificated to nice resturants and electronic stores for $200-500. It made it feel more special and always went to good use , wether a nice dinner out for 2 thanks to the investor which I would not have done with the money or a chance to get some new stero equipment , computer upgrades, etc.
Just like any employee…treat them right and they will reward you with better and harder work…