Hello. I would like to start a business flipping properties, but it was suggested to me that I first scout. Could anyone tell me how to start scouting- how to I find companies who want scouts? Should I scout for just one company? Should I incorporate or just have a business name or neither? What should I do to begin? Thank you.
You can scout for as many investors as you can find. It is a heck of a lot easier to find investors than it is to find deals. You can start by advertising here that you are available. There is a lot of leg work to find deals. I have ten or twelve properties that I would like to find the owners and find out why the property is setting vacant. They may be dead or druggies or just do not care. If you are scouting for may investors do not share information from one investor to another. If I gave you an address to help me locate the owner and to approach to see if they want to sell it would not be good practice to tell other investors unless I said i am no longer interested. If you find a lead it would be OK to show that to as many possible buyers as you can find and even advertise. hile working on one deal you may find others next door or even the same owner. I am closing a condo Monday and the same Realtor has shown me two more deals from the same REO Bank. I love making deals and networking like that.
There is really no need to form a company or anything at first. Once you know this is what you want to do and get good at it and make deals it is a waist of time and money.
I am too trying to get into the investing world but have a question for you. What specifically do you mean by scouting? Are you refering to bird dogging or assigning a contract to an investor or do you mean doing specific leg work for investors, i.e. finding out why the property is vacant or tracking down the morgage holder? If you could help me out with this I would greatly appreciate it.
Mike Crump
Mike,
Glad to meet you.
We all know that a Garbage Man is a Sanitation Engineer, you can call a Bird Dog a Scout, Reconnoiterer, Searcher, etc., bottom line a Bird Dog seeks out deals for investors no matter what fancy title you bestow on them.
Depending on the type of investing the investor is doing will dictate what services you will offer or what services the investor is interested in.
There is nothing wrong with having the title of Bird Dog, they are a valuable asset in this business and if they bring me deals I call them Sir or Ma’am.
John $Cash$ Locke
Hi Mike,
By scouting, I meant finding properties and doing the investigative work into them in order to make them attractive to an investor. Mr. Locke, though, is right. A scout is most commonly known as a bird dog, and he does whatever the investor asks of him in regards to a particular property.
Good luck,
Shmuel E. burnstein
Shmuel,
Glad to meet you.
I noticed that you posted back in Feb. Have you started looking for or doing deals or is there something you can use some help with?
John $Cash$ Locke
Hello John,
The truth is that I did start looking for deals, but I have yet to still profit financially from it. Although, I do feel that I am learning a lot.
Thanks for the response.
Shmuel E. Burnstein
Hello,
I was wondering how to go about getting investors in Central New Jersey. Is it marketable if I only want to sell my information,and what would be appropriate compensation?
Thank you,
Steven
i am also a new investor in the corpus christi,tx area & iam getting into flipping, also i would like to birddog for other
investors.
my question is this, how much do you charge to find properties for the buyer’s?
i thought $500.oo per deal is a fair price. to locate these
deals for the buyers
i have a nice list of buyer’s(17)
DOES ANY THINK THAT THIS IS A FAIR PRICE?
thanks,
wayne
wayne3352,
Glad to meet you.
$500 is a fair price for a lead that turns into a deal for your investor, you will quickly learn what you should be charging based on the quality of the lead.
Most investors can use assistance when it comes to finding deals, you read all the time about “how do I find sellers?”
Bird Dogs in my opinion are an intregal part of our industry for the serious investors.
John $Cash$ Locke
well, i just learned something new about birddoging,i called a realtor who had a ad that they buy houses, any price,cond. etc.
i talked to him about being a birddog & i explained how it worked & he told me that since he was a realtor it was against the law for him to pay me to bring him properteries.
has anyone herd of this?
please, let me know,
thanks,
wayne
Wayne,
Yes, real estate agents are not allowed to pay for bird dog services, do some do it, sure they do.
This is why most agents figure it is against the law because they are not allowed to do it, their rules are not the same rules of creative real estate investing.
John $Cash$ Locke
does anyone think its part of birddoging to give the investor a few properties from the newspaper as long as you call the sellers an get as much info as you can get to give the buyer or is it wrong?
wayne
Howdy Wayne:
Get leads from wherever you can. Good chance your invester reads the paper too and will know the property already. It will not cost you anything and you will get some experience and learn what type deals they want too.
You may be able to get the seller to pay you a birddog fee instead of your Realtor investor.
Hello,
I am new to the real estate world and would like to get into the field. I would like to start by becoming a bird dog. I found a site on the internet that pops up every where when you do a search on real estate bird dog. I was wondering if any one has tried this site and if it is valid and safe. I really, really want to get into real estate. All the help will be much appreciated.
Regards,
MJ
all that stuff on the internet that ask you to become a bird dog for them is illegal. its a pyramid scheme. i would not suggest getting cought up in it.
Then how do I get started. Most of the site including this one has said that the best way to start of is by bird dogging for someone.
Bird-dogging is one of the best ways to get started and a great way to learn the ropes, especially if you plan to become an Investor. You find motivated seller leads for pro Investors, and they will pay you a referral fee if they are able to close. More importantly you can learn a great deal from the real life transactions you will be exposed to. When you provide good usable information that saves Investors time and money, then they won’t mind taking time to help you learn the business. The key is providing useful, qualified leads for an Investor that you are compatible with. It’s win-win. Good luck.
Barry
I already have an understanding of the concept, but how do I start doing it and better yet, how do I get an investor to bird dog for?
Look for the “I Buy Houses” signs and ads. Give the Investors a call and explain what you want to do. Find out their criteria and start looking for those types of leads. Follow up with your investors and learn as much as you can.
Barry