Training & Building a Bird-Dog Network

God bless you always

When getting a bird dog to work for you, the criteria for properties you will have them look for is the critera your qualified cash buyers gave you.
- Show them how to find motivated sellers (financial distress, life occurance, eye sore props., long DOM/CDOM, and price reductions).
- show them how to figure repair costs.
- ARV through comps.
Bottom line, is have them do what you have done to find deals in your area of interest.

Some good information from Rick above. I agree that we have to pass along the criteria from our cash buyers to any potential bird dogs.

A method I have used to assist with this is to put together a list of what to look for on a 5 X 8 card. They can put this on their dash board while they are driving around and if they find something it will have your name and contact information on the bottom.

I even have them sign at the bottom of the card, and provide me with their contact information. They receive a copy, and so do I. It feels professional to them to do this, and they are more likely to treat their bird dogging like a job or assignment than an afterthought.

Hello Darlene,

I remember when I first got started I was looking at craigslist and saw an ad for bird dogs wanted. This particular investor had an amazing site that had all of the information, training, and qualifications for being a bird dog with him and his company. I remember that he had the following.

Must have transportation
Must have a camera
Must be able to read a map
Must have access to the internet/computer/smartphone
Must be able to follow direction
Must have drive and motivation

He would pay each " Birddog" an amount per qualified lead with a bonus if they closed on the house of $250 or something like that.

He had recommended ways of Identifying vacant properties ( with out realtor signs) driving and tracking areas. He also had on his website a place for them to upload all the information. If they didn't have the complete information then the property lead did not qualify and could not be sent. Before they got started they would need to go through the training on the website and then sign an agreement that stated compensation and qualification to get paid.

I thought that was amazing! I hope that helps and all communication was done by email or txt unless it was urgent to where you could contact him by phone.

I hope that helps

I know others who have variations on this, but I use my business cards to attract referrals (bird dogging). I bought a rubber stamp that has two lines on it:

Referred by: ________________________________
Telephone #: ________________________________

When I give out business cards, I'll give the person two or three and say: "One is for you, and the other is for the person you will meet in the next couple of days that needs my services. Since the average person moves every 5 years, then one out of every five people you talk to either needs to buy, sell, rent, or lease a property sometime in the next few months.

I explain that I love to pay referral fees because they make me money. I will pay $300 if they give out my card and it ends up in a deal. But I will pay $500 if they will get the contact info of the person they gave my card to, and contact me. If I have the contact info, I'm able to contact every person who gets my card--otherwise it's hit and miss. Note: I do explain that in order for them to get paid, it must result in an actual real estate deal.

Hi Darlene29,

You have gotten some great advice here. I just wanted to add, find your bird dogs at your local real estate clubs, next meeting you go to let them know you and your partners are looking for deals and need people to bird dog you some deals. That way you already have people who know what to do they just need to know what you want.

Hope this helps.

Happy Investing,
Shah Ali