One of my biggest concerns is for us starting bird dogs:how do we not get ripped off?
We go out, find a great deal, tell an investor about it, and then they close and forget about you.
I’m sure it happens. Shouldn’t a bird dog get paid when the investor takes over the deal? Or sign a contract prior to handing the details over? How do you all handle this aspect of the deal?
Stephen
Bird dogs are a great resource… treat them as just that. I always pay my bird dogs a flat fee per deal. I do not pay the fee out to them until the deal closes escrow and is publicly recorded. If you get the deal under contract leaving yourself a safety net to get out like a contingency, then the investor you offer it to can not steal it from you very easily.
Stephen,
This business is also about establishing relationships. Work with active and experienced investors.
If a rehab investor is making $20k on a deal, they are not going to hesitate to give you $1k for bringing them the deal. Better yet, many will continually feed you a thousand bucks and sometimes much more if you “work” for them exclusively.
They would be out of their mind to cut you out of a deal as a bird-dog. Most investors only have his/her"good name" to fall back on. And no matter what city/state you work in, if you do not treat people “right” you will eventually find yourself on the short end of the stick.
Put the “rip off” factor out of your mind, that fear based and will not suit you well. Go out and find investors, find out exactly what they are looking for, find what that is and pass it on to them. Let them take care of the rest and you collect a check - rinse repeat!
Chris
So you think 1,000 is fair for what a bird dog does? At what point do you set the fee?
Thanks.
I was reading another board and an “experienced” investor BRAGGED (and laughed)about purposefully screwing a birddog out of the money he was due. And this is after he recorded something on the title to keep this from happening. I don’t know much, but I would ask around about the person you deal with before giving up the goods. IMHO.
That’s good advice, but how do you put it under contract as a bird dog.
I agree with smart homes. It seems a bird dog does everything, and then gives it away for the promise of pay later on. How do we protect ourselves?
If it seems that “a bird dog does everything”, then you’re not really bid dogging!
Keith
A birddog doesn’t do everything. They find the house, then turn the info over to an investor for a small fee. Kdhastedt is correct that if you’re doing it all, you’re not a birddog. You have to graduate sometime. I slipped from being a birddog to a (small time ) investor by accident. I found the house, spoke to the homeowner, they became comfortable with me and wouldn’t work through anyone else. I pulled out the list of investors I found and put a deal together. I made $5000 in a week. As a birddog I would have made maybe $500.
I can only say to make money you need to trust the people you work with. Anyone who wants to make money in any business for a long period of time can’t do so if they are ruining their name by screwing people over. If a name is good or bad you’ll find out by asking around.
I am under the impression that a bird dog:
Then gets this info into the hands of wholesalers/investors. Then hope we get paid if they close on it! 
You should only birddog 1-2 properties MAX before you head in the deepend and start swimming yourselves.
Don’t think of yourselves as “birddogs”, think of yourselves as wholesaleres trying to get the highest price for a deal.
Finding deals is the #1 skill in real estate, you are worth a lot more than 5000$.
I don’t even wholesale houses to my buyer’s list of “investors” anymore, I use a lot of options and auctions to sell to retail buyers looking for a deal… much better profits.
Would you mind expounding on the options you use and the auctions you do?
http://www.reiclub.com/forums/index.php/topic,36013.msg171763.html#msg171763
Wholesaling houses to investors suck. Like me, they are too greedy.
Sell em to retail buyers that want a “deal” that is 10% below market value.
Instead of a 5000$ fee, you get a 15 000-20 000$ payoff.
How do you auction a house, that you only have under contract instead of wholesaling it.