How Much to Charge For Bird-Dog Fees

Question

A RE investor reached out to me on FB and asked if I would consider bird-dogging for them. I know what that is, but can someone clarify for me what exactly am I required to do? What should I ask for payment of services? I'm not very good at wholesaling so I guess this is better than nothing. right?

Will Barnard · Answer

Birddogging is the process of identifying/locating a potential motivated home seller for a wholesaler or investor. You bring that lead to the wholesaler or investor and let them take it from there including negotiations of price and contract terms. The rate would be location dependent and deal dependent. It could be $100, $500, $1000, or perhaps even more if the deal is good enough with a large enough spread. Taking photos of the exterior could be part of it, but it is not the basis of this process as most investors can simply use street view on the online maps to see what the exterior looks like along with the neighborhood.

Karl B. · Answer

Bird-dogging can be many things. It can mean locating a property and presenting it to an investor; I'm not certain of how much one should charge for this.

Perhaps the most typical bird-dogging job is to go to a property the investor is already interested in and to take photos or video of the exterior of the property to send to the investor.

As far as payment goes choose a number you're happy with that would pay for your time to drive to the property, do the documentation, drive home and upload any photos. I see investors typically offering $50 for exterior photos of a property.

There was a website I had signed up for when I lived in Los Angeles that had a lot of bird-dogging gigs - I forget which is was but it had a format somewhat similar to Taskrabbit.

Shari P. · Answer

@Alethia Hines my bird dogs find me properties that meet a basic criteria. Some are from ppl they know, they talk to at a yard sale, a for sale by owner, or just talk to ppl In the selected neighborhood.

If working for new ppl, you probably won’t make much bc they are starting out.  I’ve heard 15-50$

I pay well bc I want to keep them bringing me deals (and they do!)

My guys make 1/2-1.5% of the sale price if I buy  (its scaled ) for average= 1/2%   Great deal 1.5% of the Purchase price.

They are worth the money.

If I don’t buy the property, I still give

Ok them $50-$100 if it was legit.

-they’ll need gas money to continue finding houses.

Alethia Hines · Answer

So, is it optional to get the contract signed first or just talk to sellers and get the basic information about the target properties and have the investor follow-up? I have software tools to find the criteria, I guess I need to figure out a system or process to follow. Thanks for the replies.

How Much to Charge For Bird-Dog Fees

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