Using Craigslist to find Birddogs

So I have tried using Craigslist in the past for finding birddogs, and it has worked to some extent. But they usually fall off after a while because of… well I really don’t know why to be honest. I guess they just don’t want to do it? I have had one successful closing with a birddog that I wholesaled and made $800, so nothing fancy.
What are you guys using as your posts? What exactly are you doing to make a craigslist post work to find a birddog? I look forward to hearing from you guys!

Game of numbers. Last month I had no buyers leads and this month I have over 20. People come and go you just got to keep the meat grinder going.

I’m getting ready to place another bird dog ad.

Property Finders Needed Make Huge Profits.
My partners and I flip a lot of houses. We need help finding them, and we will pay you $2,000 in cash for properties that you find for us to buy and flip. We specialize in distressed fixers, we are cash buyers and our deals go down in less than 30 days.
No license required, no money required and no experience needed.
If you have focused perseverance and are ready to make a ton of money, call now.
Rando 5555555

I may get 50 people to respond with 2 people actually sending me addresses.
Most will profess their love of real estate, it is in their blood, their Granma, uncle, Mom and Dad are Realtors, they spend all their time looking at houses and they will be the best finder you ever had.
Then guess what? You never hear from them again and they never sent you one address, you wasted an hour meeting them at Denny’s, and they called you 5 times asking how do they know they can trust me etc.
If you spend your time meeting these people and listening to their stories and promises you will soon be as frustrated as… Well, you will soon stop banging your head against a block wall…
Most of the time will be a useless exercise in futility, but occasionally it pays off.
Persistence is the key.
Rando

I use Craigslist, and boy oh boy does it work! I love using it and I’ve made some pretty solid cash flow from them.

For me, this was always a fallacious exercise. Hey, if you found the greatest bird-dog in the world on craigslist, more power to you. But it will be the first time I heard that. I am sure plenty of people find plenty of bird-dogs, and deals from them, but for me – I developed my own network of people, qualified, professionals or former professionals, made sure they were able to do the job, kept their eye on the ball, and so forth.

In all my years in the real estate business – my best bird-dogs have been real estate agents (because they know I am a serious/cash buyer and can do due diligence and close immediately), clean-out/contractors/developers/etc., attorneys (although they have a lot of people like me, so I have to give them strong reasons to come to me), and other professionals in related fields.

I am not looking for a contract-flip or wholesale deal. If there is not a substantial amount of money to be made, then I won’t do it. I’ve done small deals, but it has to have enough meat around the bone.

Good thread, thanks for the posts.

Careful finding bird dogs on Craigslist because most of them are just want to waste your time. If someone is very interested, don’t hire him/her immediately. Do some screen interview and background check if he/she is truly qualified for the job.

You need the attitude, luckily I was thinking this cud work… My first bird dog was 6 yrs ago, I was desperate w no car and of course no money. Back then running ads on help wanted on Craig’s List was free. One of my bird dog responses came from Bob, an old guy. He sent me a dozen fixers. I got him to take the contracts to our first seller and get it signed. He was showing the house to a dozen prospects. Then I had him get our buyer to sign the contract, then had seller put the check in Bob’s name and he cashed it and drove 70 miles to bring it to me. I was worried but… Bob took out his cut & brought me $3,500 cash in a plain white envelope. It was a ranch house sub to deal.
We’ve done about a dozen deals since then. It took awhile for Bob to learn how its done and now he’s using my contracts and has me send him the blank template now and then. I told him to save it to his desktop but Bob dont like computers and shot down my suggestion to do a night class. He carries tons of documents in 2 huge briefcases and seems to be most unorganized investor on the planet.
But anyways, just telling this story has got me wired up and I will place an ad soon. So even though 99% of ur bird dogs will flake, the occasional success makes me want to get it back in gear.

It is a game of numbers. I have posted to CL for bird dogs and have had not much at all happen. My favorite strategy is to use the UPS and Fedex drivers. They see the entire town every day. You have to be persistent but they are solid. Hope that helps!

I like the thought and idea, but also know Craigslist as being the wild wild west. Not saying it can’t work. It can. Overall, I think you need a strong 1) incentive in place to coax people to bird dog for you and 2) a system to hold them accountable and organize the process.

With those two pillars in place, you can scale up. I’ve been considering starting a bird dig program soon. Would love to hear from people who have successful done that and what helped them!