Bird Dogging

I am new to real estate and am looking to get into bird dogging. I am having trouble finding “motivated buyers” I know using public records is recommended, but what am I looking for in public records, notices of default, bankruptcy. I have made some contacts with investor in my area (4 of them so far). Is there any good course to take on bird dogging that wont kill my wallet?

Thanks for the help,
Robert Purdum

Hey Robert,

The short answer is marketing. This problem is not yours alone, it is very common one. There is this perceived notion that deals are everywhere. They are not. You have to dig for them and look for them.

What do you look for… You are looking for three things:

  1. Motivation
  2. Equity
  3. Price Range

You need to find someone who is extremely motivated and willing to sell his house at a discount. How do you find them? pre foreclosure lists, absentee owners (empty houses), landlords, divorces…etc. you need to market to them and find them.

You need them to owe much less than what the house is worth or it is no deal. You cannot buy a house at a discount if there is no equity to discount. Of course short sales could be a posibility for your end investor to pursue.

You also need the price range to be within investors comfort zone.

So? so you need to market and try hard to find a deal. It is not easy and takes skill. Not sure there is a simple answer, or a formula you could just follow other than tight marketing campaign.

i tell my bird dogs to find me properties with no equity or properties upside down in equity. why? because no one wants them. i tell my bird dogs to bring me these properties so i can give the homeowner their full asking price. homeowners would rather deal with me since im not asking for a significant discount. also i tell homeowners im willing to pay them to use their property creatively. so if youre passing up on dead deals because there’s no equity, refer them to me and ill take them.

From your post it says you are trying to find “Motivated buyers”, there are techniques for finding buyers in public records, but I think you mean that you are looking for motivated sellers.

I would suggest building your buyers list before wasting your time on looking at homes that you don’t even have a buyer for…Does that make sense?

You can pick up some pretty decent real estate bird dog courses on ebay for not much money

Good luck!