What is a real estate "bird-dog" and what do they do? What is a real estate "bird-dog" and what do they do?
This is one of the easiest ways to get started in a real estate career and/or start your own business from home. Bird-dogging is basically this: finding good leads for real estate investors. Investment companies will generally pay you a lump sum at closing (somewhere between 500 and 1000 dollars), and sometimes will pay a set amount on a per lead basis. Either way, if you get good at digging up motivated sellers, you can make good money from your home computer. You may have to get out a little or do some cold calling to homeowners in your area, but there are numerous ways to be successful without doing much if any footwork.
Starting Out?
Most people start out referring people they know who want or need to sell their homes. In todays market, almost everyone knows someone facing a possible foreclosure. These tend to be good leads because the sellers are very motivated. No one wants to lose their home, but when mortgages adjust or other unfortunate circumstances occur, people are faced with this possibility. To avoid a foreclosure being applied to their credit reports, homeowners will opt for a "short-sale" or other form of "workout" with their lender. Real estate investors want these leads first, so that they can get first access to the lender, thereby increasing their chances of buying the property for the least amount of money. It is the investor's intention to buy and resell the property simultaneously, making money on a quick flip to another investor for cash(called "wholesaling")or to a traditional buyer with bank financing (generally for a higher yield). By bird-dogging pre-foreclosures, you can learn from the investor on how to structure your own real estate investing business and eventually branch out on your own.
Other Sources for Leads:
There are many on-line sources for pre-forclosur property leads. Some are free like Craigslist and E-Bay, but these tend to be picked over and many times have dry leads. There are Excellent services like RealtyTrac.com, but they charge a small monthly fee after a 7-day free trial. Many business publications list public notices and can give good information on NOD's (Notice of Defaults) and NOT's (Notice of Trustee's Sale), two stages of pre-foreclosure, but these are sometimes very time consuming to weed through. My suggestion is to just bite the bullet for the $39 dollars per month and use the established on-line pre-foreclosure listings on RealtyTrac. Then find the homes listed in your neighborhood, and start there.
What then?
Then simply contact the owners and ask them if they are in need of some help. Or just go by and drop off a flier advertising your services. The investor you are working with will supply all the needed materials. If not, find one to work with who will.
