I’ve responded to a few Investors who’ve posted ads, looking for Birddogs. They have responded to me and discussed what types of properties they are looking to invest in. Everything seems legit.
I then spend hours of my time locating a number of properties for them. I contact the Investor(s) and discuss, in detail, the description of the property, etc. They then tell me to go forward with contacting the Seller of the property to receive further information. I do exactly that and get all of the important questions answered and documented. I then contact the Investor and leave several messages regarding all of the information I’ve collected about the Seller and their property. I receive no return phone call. Several days go by as I try again and again and finally the Investor answers the call. I tell him who I am and reference them to the Seller/property we’ve previously discussed, he then tells me that he will call me right back. Days go by and I have not heard anything, so I then leave several messages with no return phone call.
This has happened on several occasions with different Investors.
Why does this continue to happen? Is this typical of an Investor who’s offered me to locate properties for them? Do I continue to call them day after day? I’m beginning to lose the drive in this Birddogging adventure. Please help me to understand.
I’m from Michigan and if anyone knows of an Investor, looking for a hardworking and dedicated Birddog, your response will be highly appreciated.
I could be that you are not finding the type of deals the investors want, seems though that you prescreened them, so the other thing that comes to mind is they are not real investors. I have come accross many in my day claiming to be investors then when its time to pull the trigger they are no where to be found.
It sounds to me like you are expecting too much of the investors. There are a couple of websites and other free resources you might want to check out on birddogging that spells out the steps and how you can take better control of the process and in turn your business.
There is an ebook in the free ebook section of this site on real estate jobbing which is nothing more than birddogging. It is a good introduction. I went ahead and brought the remaining books in his series and it gave an extremely thorough look at the business of bird dogging. I believe his name is Barry Grimes. There are 2 websites that might be of help to you as well. http://www.birddogz.com and http://www.therealestatearena.com
Although the people at birddogz aren’t as responsive as on the real estate arena they provide free training including a 10 day action plan for starting your business. It took a few days for them to respond to my initial application for membership but it was worth it.
Both of these sites have training on how to effectively locate property and screen investors and set up your business. They were extremely helpful to me.
In regards to your reply of not finding the types of deals the Investors want is not the problem, because I’ve had long discussions with these “Investors” about the types of deals they are looking for and have confirmed a property deal to them before contacting the property Seller and the Investor will give me further instructions to go further with the deal, but after that, I receive no other response.
I believe your second notion sounds more accurate. When everything is set to go and it’s time to seal the deal, the “Investor” is no where to be heard of again. The “Investor” claims to be an Investor, but in reality, they are probably bored and looking for someone to chat with. This has been my gut feeling. What a bust! Thanks for your input. :smile
I only expected them to return my phone calls. They expected more from me than I did from them. I searched the properties they wanted, made contacts to the Sellers with the questions they wanted answered and I received nothing in return. How is that expecting too much?
I will take your advice on reading those ebooks. It sounds very educational and I’m sure I can learn alot from them. Thank you so much for giving me these helping website links! :biggrin
I only expected them to return my phone calls. They expected more from me than I did from them. I searched the properties they wanted, made contacts to the Sellers with the questions they wanted answered and I received nothing in return. How is that expecting too much?
Well… from what I read in your initial post it seems there are several contacts with the investors before they are actually provided with the lead. You find a property, call the investor, contact the property owner, call the investor…that sounds a lot like mentorship. To effectively birddog you’ll want to field like 125-300 leads per week just working part time. If you have to touch basis with an investor 2 or 3 times via telephone before you pass off each lead that is going to be hard to do. Full time investors are busy people. At least the investors I work with are. They really don’t have time to manage their projects and hold our hands too just for a lead that might not turn into a deal. Sometimes a lead might not get followed up on for a couple weeks depending on the situation and at what stage in their business the investor is in when he or she receives it.
As birddogs we provide leads and wholesalers provide deals for the pipeline. An investor may be working with 10 or 20 or 100 birddogs not to mention the leads that will come directly from their own marketing efforts which I’m sure take priority. And phone calls are the biggest time zappers in any business. You want the phone free to receive calls from motivated sellers.
Try communicating via email so that the investor can reply to your questions at their leisure. Learn the basic questions your investors need answered and create yourself a script to ask those questions when the lead contacts you. Set up a database of the investors you’ve already made contact with and had an extensive discussion about their needs so that when you do come across something that is perfect for that investor you’ll know it. Your first contact with the investor should be with the lead and all the information they require.
If the investors on your list are requiring you to practically negotiate the deal and then actually are deciding not to contact you open the specifics of the deal to the remaining investors via email and cause some urgency. Now don’t give out contact information or enough of the address so anyone can go around you and contact the owners but give the formula ARV-Repairs and asking price profit spread and find out how much the lead is worth to them. When someone bites have them sign a fee agreement between you and them then release the contact information.
There is a lot you can do to take control of the process. My comment of high expectation was not a criticism but an observation. Birddogging is a business like wholesaling or any other investing activity. You are in business for yourself. Yes, the investor is your client but you are still in business for yourself. Check out the resources I mentioned earlier believe me they will help you put this into perspective.
Good info SJB. What do you think is a good time frame to let your investor act on the lead?
I know full time investors are busy people, but it gets a little frustrating when you have other investors interested in a property and they don’t act on it.
I just turned over a lead with $150K in equity in it, the seller needs to move out of state next week. My investor who I contacted a week ago, said he is extremely interested and has an end buyer, but is not to be heard from by me or my seller. All the while, the seller is calling me everyday asking me what the deal is.
I try to give my investors a fair amount of time to contact the seller, but how much time is too much when the seller needs to sell fast and I have other investors waitiing to act on it?
I understand your frustrations Zareya. You work hard to track down the deals and then put your fate into someone else’s hands to act on it. Maybe it’s this market here in Michigan that has them running all over town bailing out homeowners.
If you find that investor who will act fast on your leads, let me know. It will be nice to be the one acting on leads one day.
That needs to be up to you, especially a lead with 150k, you need to tell them that if they don’t move in 24 or 48 hours you’re going shopping with the lead. Never let people control the money you make. I haven’t had to yet, but I am fully prepared to tell an investor, be it mentor or the guy from the REI club if you don’t call me back, this lead is going to someone else.
You shouldn’t have only one person you bird dog for because of this very reason.
I have a fair amount of bird dogs in michigan out looking for properties for me. The main reason that I would not call one of my bird dogs back is if they show me 2-5 deals that are no good and I end up thinking " If this deal is as good as the last deal they called with, it aint worth my time".
Now I realize that some deals wont always be perfect matches for me. I do have bird dogs that call me that I always return calls because they know a good deal when they see one, and if they call they mean business.
That brings up a good point, a bird dog has to have a clear idea what constitutes a good deal for their wholesaler. Also, if a bird dog keeps calling an investor with leads that are bad deals, then the investor needs to point out what exactly they want. There is no excuse to not return anyone’s calls and the bird dog has no clue they are bringing junk. Because let me tell you this, the bird dog you don’t call back, and train will be bringing deals to someone else.
I am extremely comfortable using email. I’m not saying not to expect a response from your investor what I’m saying is to make it easy on both of you. Respect their time and your own. I have 1 investor that has acted more in the role of a mentor to me. He gets first shot at EVERYTHING I find. Sometimes he’s a little slow to respond the way I’d like but he is true to his word and I’ve learned a lot from him. Because I bring deals his way and because I know how to analyze a market he takes my calls and will always make time to go out and look at a property with me. Now, if I can’t reach him the first time I call I email him the information. I don’t leave voice messages or request pager responses. He doesn’t respond to those. But he checks his email throughout the day from his treo.
Realize in running your birddog business the goal is to properly locate investment opportunities and sell the knowledge to whomever will purchase it from you. If you put together 1 email to an investor and they choose not to respond to it. You can edit the contact information from that same email and send it to a slew of other contacts on your list. Someone will respond and you will find out if you have a deal or not. You have leveraged your efforts.
What I currently do is contact my investor and discuss the situation if time is of the essence. I then email him the photos and my market analysis. He has 24 to 48 hours to make a definitive decision and tie up the property. After that I open it up to the rest of my list and begin aggressively marketing the property throughout the investment community in my area. I say that in the email.
Ok…I am not afraid to put the property under contract with a 10 day inspection period which is the time period I expect it to take to find a buyer. If someone else steps forward before my investor gets back to me I’ll give him a heads up but whomever shows up with a non refundable deposit for my fee ready to sign the agreement wins.
If you are totally opposed to putting properties under contract but you are 100% sure that it is a deal maybe it is time you started marketing on craigslist or through your local REIA for your own end buyers or find some wholesalers. Also put the info about the property on Rehablist.com. It takes 2 days for it to show up for the public but during that time the subscribers in that area are deciding whether it really is a deal and one good enough for them to purchase. Make sure they have to come through you for the lead contact info and it could be sold before the 2 days are up.