Hey investor friend, Cam Dunlap here, and I’m going to get right to it…
I get asked pretty regularly about bird dogs. And recently, someone brought it up again:
“I’ve had minimal success with bird dogs locating property.
Is there a secret sauce for success with them?”
Well, before I answer that, here’s a quick bird dog 101.
Bird Dogs 101
A bird dog is someone you’d hire to drive around and find distressed properties for you to potentially turn into sweet deals. You can post simple ads on Craigslist, for example, to find bird dogs. The most common ways to pay your bird dog is either a few bucks for each lead/property or a larger amount for each deal that actually closes.
A few housekeeping notes first…
With bird dogs, it’s important to manage your own expectations. Always keep this in mind: Don’t get upset when you discover a bird dog isn’t producing. In fact, I’m not even surprised by it anymore… I simply move on to the next one.
I’ve recruited 10, 12, 14 bird dogs at a time only to have 2 actually do the work.
So, you’ll need to continue to advertise for new bird dogs, even when you think you may have enough, because most are not going to pan out. It’s just the nature of the beast. And when you do find one who produces well, make sure you develop a great working relationship with them.
Next, consider their pay, relative to our current real-world craziness.
Right now, people are being paid a lot of money to do stuff that they weren’t getting paid a lot of money to do not that long ago. Here’s an example — I’ve got friends who own restaurants, and they’re paying people $20 an hour to bus tables. True story.
Having said all that, though, the ultimate solution is not asking them to find properties…
It’s giving them a list of properties to go and prescreen.
Before you cry uncle, lemme say this…
Many investors, present company included, have access to invaluable industry resources like my Vacant House Data Feed and Motivated Seller Data Feed. Tapping into services like those gives you direct access to verified vacant properties or properties that for some other reason are distressed and on a public list that’s little known and often overlooked by your competition.
So, you’ll hand your bird dogs lists of properties based on your criteria. Then, they’ll set out with a clear objective to go look at and take pictures of say, 10 houses, for example, in exchange for however many dollars per house.
In today’s world, I think you’re looking at $10 in some markets, maybe a good bit more in hot markets.
So, if they scope out at 10 houses and it takes a couple hours, they can make $100 bucks, which is a pretty good hourly rate.
And remember, they’ve got expenses too — fuel and car expenses. So, you’ve got to take all of these variables into account.
Working with Bird Dogs Differently
But all of that is why I work with bird dogs differently…
I discovered that asking a bird dog to go find me stuff — basically going on a scavenger hunt — isn’t the most effective approach.
Handing them a list of houses I want them to prescreen is dramatically better in terms of them actually doing the work, because it’s much clearer, more concise and provides greater direction.
They don’t really have to be proactive or think — you’ve supplied them with what they need.
Figuring that out was the real turning point for me.
So, no more scavenger hunts. Just lists of properties to go prescreen.