Can somebody steer me in the direction of finding out how to bird dog commercial deals?
Hi,
Typically there are not Bird Dogs in commercial property deals as there are 50 types of commercial properties and the assessment of commercial property requires a lot higher level of sophistication and knowledge than residential real estate.
I buy a lot of commercial property and have never met a commercial bird dog and quite frankly don’t know anyone who is willing to spend the time and effort unless there intending to make there own investments in commercial real estate, but it takes years and years to develop the knowledge to be good at discerning and analysing commercial real estate deals!
GR
What type of commercial?
If you’re talking about small multifamily projects, you might be able to bird dog these. I have five bd’s that feed me names and addresses of beater buildings in five different farms. The quality of the leads has improved, which is to say they’re getting better at doing snapshot analysis for me, so I’m not wasting my time on pretty buildings with good management in place. Meantime, I’m paying $5000 or a 10% equity share, whichever they prefer when I close. I’m having to teach them how to find deals for me in the meantime since nobody I know trains people to do this, or has a course on commercial bird dogging. And this is supplemental income, not primary for any of my bird dogs (as far as I know).
I also teach a different approach to finding deals than ‘normal’ people do, so my bird dogs aren’t wasting their time, or mine.
So, what kind of commercial bird dogging are you trying to do?
Well, initially I was talking about businesses like hotels, gas stations, office buildings, that sort of thing… But it sounds like I’d get more info on bird dogging multifamily dwellings. So I think that may be the place to start…
The issue I see, is that brokers do the job of ‘bird dogging’ in effect. They just get paid more when there’s a sale. Otherwise a ‘bird dog’ does just about what the agent might do in regards to marketing, advertising, prospecting, digging, talking to sellers, mailing prospects, handing out business cards, flyers, building a buyer’s list, babysitting closings, driving property, and maintaining relationships with potential sellers, etc. etc…all short of selling MLS listings.
Is there a reason you believe that bird dogging for you is better than getting your real estate license…? There’s no wrong answer here, just trying to clarify the options.
Actually, all that to me sounds like wholesaling… I’ve noticed that some of the info I get is not all saying the same thing. I thought when you bird dog, all you do is find the property and the seller… Then in wholesaling, you actually have to go deeper, contracts, closing, that sort of thing. One investor even told me that wholesaling isn’t wholesaling unless you’re dealing what a whole package of properties… (shaking my head) I think you’re right about the re license.
You are right; when you bird dog you are finding the property, the seller, and then …the buyer.
Frankly, the definitions are not set in stone, because there are so many variations on a theme available amongst the parties.
Simplistically, however, you have to babysit the entire pipeline from finding the deal to getting your money out of the deal regardless of what business you’re in.
Meantime, generally, bird dogs get paid (very small amounts) for leads, not closings. That means your buyer pays for a block of leads, or whatever amount you’ve got, and sifts through them to see if any are worth a crap. Bird dogs never take title.
Wholesalers get paid to both control and subsequently transfer that control to another buyer and get paid regardless if the buyer closes or not (if done correctly). Some wholesalers will both take and transfer title.
Agents get paid to put sellers together with buyers, and get paid if this happens successfully. Agents never take title.
Of course then there are rehabbers…who buy, fix and retail their properties to end users.
And then there are ‘whole-tailers’ who buy, partially fix (bring up to code, or mitigate the worst situations), and sell for something less than retail to full rehabbers, or end users who want a ‘sweat equity’ deal.
All of these folks prospect, market, mail, phone, drive, and do whatever else it takes to find property to flip, sell, or otherwise merchandise. Whatever is involved in finding property (and sellers) is the common denominator.
Does that help any?
To: Javipa, Thanks so much for the great info on BirdDogging! Have you ever thought about writing a “Step-by-Step How-To” manual on “BirdDogging For Beginners”? I have only found one investor that has written a book/manual on BirdDogging before. Unfortunately, it wasn’t worth the paper it was written on. Please, let me know if you ever do. I’ll definitely be the first to buy one from you!
I appreciate that and you’re welcome! I don’t have a manual on commercial or residential Birddogging specifically, but as I said earlier, the need to prospect is the same for birddoggers as anyone looking for deals. The biggest difference to me is type of prospecting one uses, and the exit strategy one is looking to use (whether you control the property, or not, during the process of moving it).
Of course I offer niche training on how to get the sellers, who are willing to crawl over broken glass to get rid of their houses, to call me. Whether I wholesale the deal, buy it and flip it, or just get a birddog fee all depends on the condition, equity, location, and price point of what the seller wants to get rid of.
What types of properties are you wanting to birddog?
Meantime, “FlippingJunkie.com” has a fantastic blog series on this very issue that you’ll find extremely helpful and enlightening.
Thank you again for the compliment. Glad to help.
:beer