Have any of you wholesalers/rehabbers used birddogs bringing you leads? If so, would you please share your experience? I’m interested in how you find your birddogs, train them what to hunt for etc.
Bird dogging is actually illegal in the state of NJ.
Could you please supply your legal reference for stating that “Bird dogging is actually illegal in the state of NJ”. I certainly wouldn’t want to find myself on the wrong side of the law!
jmd_forest
Your silence is deafening.
jmd_forest
All I know is that many times at my GSREIA (Garden State Reia) meetings they mention bird dogging as a great way to get started. I can’t imagine any reason why it would be illegal.
Prove it! :deal
Nick Tang, Real Estate Coach,
We are waiting for your answer!!! Since you are coaching real estate investing this one should be easy for you, as your credibility is on the line.
John $Cash$ Locke
Yeah, I’d kinda like to hear how the People’s Republic of New Jersey has made selling information illegal. Did they ban bookstores at the same time?
Keith
I wonder if he meant RE agents paying bird dogs which is illegal anywhere.
WOW, I apologize for keeping everyone waiting. I’ve been so busy I haven’t checked the forum in ages. In the future please just send me a private message to let me know I need to reply, my apologizes in advance. 
As for the question at hand, you have to start by asking yourself what is a bird dog? In the game of real estate, a bird dog is someone that gets paid to introduce or refer to you the investor a deal/opportunity that you should buy or flip.
In essence it can be broken down to getting paid to introduce a seller and buyer together. That is classified as brokering a transaction. The only people that can legally get paid to broker a transaction are licensed realtors and brokers.
I think you need to ask yourself, “Do you know what a bird dog really does?”
Bird Dog - someone who identifies a potential good real estate investment opportunity and passes that deal on to another investor for a fee.
There is no law in any state (at least none that anyone has ever pointed out) against selling information. If NJ has such a law, please provide a cite.
Stop being afraid of the Realtors…
Keith
I just want to make it clear that i am not here to try and scare anyone. I am just here to provide information so that fellow investors do not get in trouble. On top of that I love realtors, they work as bird dogs on my behalf all day long.
To start, if bird dogging is someone who identifies a potential good real estate investment opportunity and passes that deal on to another investor and gets paid regardless if the investor buys the property or not then that is a definetion I was not aware of.
But to my understanding of bird dogs, they only get paid if the investor decides to buy or flip the property. That in essence is being a transactional broker which is a legal job of a realtor.
Think of it like this. Why do investors put their properties under contract? Even if we both have a sales contract and they are all notarized on different dates it doesn’t mean anything unless its recorded. Even if your contract was notarized before mine, if i record mine first I win. Ignore clouding title. In essence, we get the sales contract so that we could LEGALLY SELL the information/opportunity/sales contract to someone else. Otherwise we are selling the introduction of a buyer and seller together which is classified as brokering.
I also want to make it clear that this doesn’t apply to every state. As for the legal reference to the law, I currently do not have the opportunity to look it up right now. If anyone on the site can help find the law I feel it be of benefit to everyone.
Nick
Nick,
I would suggest you gain some more knowledge about real estate investing before you try and teach it from reading what you just wrote.
The local Real Estate Boards impose regulation relevant to the distribution or aid in distribution of a homestead with the intent to protect the consumer (and in some rare cases monopolize the marketplace).
Whether or not this legislation is put into place in a criminal or a civil context, it does appear fairly evident that the enforcement of this legislation would be limited to that of:
a) When a consumer is being blind-sided (ie: you are acting on his or her behalf without proper licensing and steering him/her wrong)
b) You are continuously taking a “fee” for selling real estate.
If you are working with an investor, and you are paid by the investor, who has experience in real estate transactions, and you are not party to that transaction (ie: a consultant) you should, be ok, for the following reasons:
-
You are taking a fee for selling information, not real estate (nobody can prevent you from charging $5.00 to tell him or her were the nearest gas station is, or where the nearest “deal” is)
-
Even if legislation was in place to protect the consumer, you have conducted no harm to the consumer…so in a semi-perfect world, you can indeed pay for a lead on a house!
I think it is important to know, most investors are opposed to the local Real Estate Boards attempting to corner the market on Buying/Selling properties, I am certainly of the opinion that the local Boards would like to see no investors/creative RE at all so that they can continue to take a small chunk out of every property sold and have the properties sold according to their “rules & regulations”.
There is also such a thing as a simple Partnership Agreement, thereby making you and the investor principals in the transaction. The Bird Dog is bought out of the Partnership by the investor, thereby violating no State Statute.
John $Cash$ Locke