Be a Real estate investor Bird dog
Bird dogging real estate has been around for awhile now, but with the recent mortgage, forcelosure, and housing mess, it could be present an even better opportunity to those looking to make a bit of money in the real estate arena. So here’s an overview of how college students with some analytical skills, patience, and networking skills can make some money bird dogging real estate.
What is Bird dogging?
A dog is a man’s best friend, and a bird dog is a real estate investor’s best friend. Simply, a bird dog researches properties for sale or forclosure and presents the best opportunities and qualified deals back to the real estate investor for a fee – either fixed or percentage.
How to Start
Well, first off, you need to find an active real estate investor in your area who has s a decent bankroll and is an honest upstanding individual. Try your local real estate investing club. You’ll have to meet with him, evaluate his character, and then straight out ask him if he’d be interested in having you as a bird dog. Generally, I think most investors would be down for having a bird dog since they translate into more good deals with less effort and due dilligence. Also, have a pitch ready for the investor to convince him if need be based on the previous sentence, and have your 30 second resume ready off the top of your head.
Finding properties
Theoretically, real estate is a simple game when you have the numbers and data. Most investors are looking to acquire properties for passive revenue from rent – or cash flow. So as long as the cash flow is good and positive, and the return on investment is good, the investor should be interested. Knowing the local market, rent rates, interest rates, general tax laws, and market conditions are vital when creating your leads for investors. The investor could supply you with all this information and his requirements so don’t get too anxious for not really having all the info off hand. So just understanding the investor’s desires are vital and will help you create accurate spreadsheets and other reports that the investor wants.
Getting Paid
The whole character issue comes into play here. First, you should have some sort of written contract written out stating how much you’ll get paid for a lead. It should start at atleast $500 and can go up to $5,000 depending on the size of the deal, so work out some scalable referral fee structure. Also, make sure the contract states something about not getting screwed over, because with the data and information you present to the investor, he could probably just bypass your involvement and purchase it by himself without paying you. — Hence, why the character and trustworthiness factor comes into play.
Real estate investing is a great vehicle to make a passive income, and by learning the ropes as a bird dog you can learn a lot, make some good money, and spring board your way into the real estate investing circle. There is surely a lot more to bird dogging than what is in this post since this was just a simple overview, so do some more research, network with a couple real estate investors, and get to bird dogging in this buyer’s market.
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