Looking for advice on Bird Dogging
New to Real Estate · NV · Member since 2025 · 13 posts · 14 votes
Looking for advice on Bird Dogging
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Contractor · Romeoville, IL · Member since 2015 · 198 posts · 137 votes
2moI would look into local REIA groups in your area and maybe attend some of their events. It's a great place to start networking.
8 Replies
- Contractor · Romeoville, IL · Member since 2015 · 198 posts · 137 votes2mo
I would look into local REIA groups in your area and maybe attend some of their events. It's a great place to start networking.
- Wholesaler · Charleston WV · Member since 2026 · 219 posts · 120 votes2mo
My opinion might be a little different than most, but if you can bird dog, you can wholesale.
Think about it. If you can find a motivated seller and connect with an investor, you're already doing the hardest part of the business.
Instead of giving the deal away for a referral fee, spend some time learning how to put a property under contract and work with a good title company or attorney. You'll build a much more valuable skill set and have far more earning potential.
Wholesaling isn't as complicated as a lot of people make it. Learn the basics, stay compliant with your state's laws, and start having conversations with sellers. That's where the real learning happens.
- New to Real Estate · NV · Member since 2025 · 13 posts · 14 votes2mo
Ok, so let's say I start doing Wholesaling as a New Beginner.
1. I need an investor to connect to, so that I can get the motivated seller to connect with the investor. Where do I go to find motivated sellers? Where do I go to find an investor to work with?
2. Do I need a title company AND an attorney? What kind of Attorney do I need to find? Just anyone in the Real Estate arena?
3. Since I want to make sure that I'm legally protected, along with making sure I'm doing things properly with the motivated seller, wouldn't I need a specific contract for that?
4. Where do I go to learn how to put a property under contract for something like this?
Thank you for all of your information! I truly appreciate it! Also, I may need a mentor to help me along the way so I know I'm doing it right. Is there a place I can go to find one for this?
One thing I am worried about is talking to people. I'm not familiar with the real estate language, so trying to make sure I am able to understand what I'm doing and what a motivated seller wants is another thing. Advice?
~Tara
- Real Estate Broker · Chicago, IL · Member since 2014 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes2mo
Quote from @Tara Witherbee:
Ok, so let's say I start doing Wholesaling as a New Beginner.
1. I need an investor to connect to, so that I can get the motivated seller to connect with the investor. Where do I go to find motivated sellers? Where do I go to find an investor to work with?
2. Do I need a title company AND an attorney? What kind of Attorney do I need to find? Just anyone in the Real Estate arena?
3. Since I want to make sure that I'm legally protected, along with making sure I'm doing things properly with the motivated seller, wouldn't I need a specific contract for that?
4. Where do I go to learn how to put a property under contract for something like this?
Thank you for all of your information! I truly appreciate it! Also, I may need a mentor to help me along the way so I know I'm doing it right. Is there a place I can go to find one for this?
One thing I am worried about is talking to people. I'm not familiar with the real estate language, so trying to make sure I am able to understand what I'm doing and what a motivated seller wants is another thing. Advice?
~Tara
We work with Bird dogs except I don't use that term but here's my reply to your questions:
1. Visit your local REIA to find investors that may want to work with Bird Dogs. Regarding finding motivated sellers, there's som much information out there on how to find them that I won't repeat it here. I'll just say do your research on all the potential methods. One method that you may try is to partner with a realtor and become an unlicensed assistant. Depending on the rules in your state you will then have access to some of the same tools that realtors use to fund sellers. For example: I have access to every property in the state of Illinois, Indiana,.... & thus know who has just received a preforeclosure notice. This is just one source of motivated sellers
2. Do you need access to a title company or attorney? That depends on your role as a bird dog. If your objective is to get the property under contract yourself, then yes you need access to a title company or attorney. The bird dogs I work with do not necessarily have to do that because the properties are put under contract in my company name & we close with my attorney.
3. Regarding your 3rd question on protection- If you plan on controlling a property under contract yourself then yes you'll need to get an education on how to do this. Here's how we do it: We sign Joint Venture Agreements with our birddogs (I hate that name). Because of the JV agreements the birddogs use our contracts and we negotiate with the property owners. The property finder (I'm switching up the name for the rest of this post) participates in the discussion & the process so they can learn.
Bottom line: In my opinion the best ways to learn how to be a "property finder" is to get a real estate license, or partner with either a local or national investor that would not mind working with you.
- 2moGeorge SkidisPro MemberRental Property Investor · Belleville, IL · Member since 2017 · 874 posts · 529 votes
In Illinois, bird-dogging — finding buyers or sellers and receiving a finder’s fee — is generally not legal without a real estate license. The state’s real estate laws require that anyone providing assistance intended to result in the sale or lease of real estate must be licensed as a real estate salesperson or broker
- 2moDrew SygitBusiness MemberProperty Manager · Royal Oak, MI · Member since 2012 · 12k+ posts · 9k+ votes
Quote from @Tara Witherbee:
Hello Everyone!
I am very interested in doing Bird dogging and starting as a beginner in the field. I am looking for any recommendations available. I'm really excited about it. My question is, is there a place I can go to take a course or some type of development or class to get a better handle on learning it before actually going into it? Also, do you have any ideas on where I could go to get aquainted with investors to do bird dogging? What about partnering up with someone to do it? Would that be fruitful? Anything you have would be helpful! Thank you so much and have a Beautiful Day!
What is your SPECIFIC definition of "bird-dogging"?
How does it differ from Wholesaling?
How do you envision yourself getting paid and how much?
Logical Property Management4.9450 Reviews - Real Estate Broker · New York, NY · Member since 2020 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes1mo
Hi Tara,
I think bird dogging can be a good way to learn the business and get exposure to real estate, especially if you're new and trying to understand how investors think.
That being said, I'd be careful about spending a lot of money on courses. A lot of the knowledge you need can be learned by studying your local market, learning how to analyze deals, and building relationships with active investors.
The biggest value you can bring as a bird dog is being able to find potential opportunities and understand what makes a deal attractive. Learn how investors evaluate properties, what their buy box is, and what information they need before they'll spend time looking at a deal.
For finding investors, I'd start locally. Go to real estate meetups, BiggerPockets events, investor groups, and connect with agents, lenders, contractors, and property managers. The goal isn't just to meet as many people as possible, but to build genuine relationships with people who are active in the space.
Partnering with someone can definitely help, especially early on, but make sure expectations are clear. Know what you're responsible for, how compensation works, and what value you're bringing to the relationship.
All the best!
- Englewood, NJ · Member since 2018 · 356 posts · 61 votes2w
Travis Goodwin gave you the best advice in this thread — if you can bird dog, you can wholesale. But I want to address something specific you mentioned: being worried about "not knowing the real estate language" and struggling with talking to people.
Here's the thing most people won't tell you: you don't have to cold call strangers to find motivated sellers. There's a way to find deals using public data that doesn't require any sales pitch at all.
Every county in the country has three departments that publish public records:
1. Tax Collector — publishes a list of properties where owners haven't paid property taxes for 1-2 years
2. Code Enforcement — publishes records of properties with maintenance violations (tall grass, structural issues, abandoned vehicles)
3. Clerk of Court — publishes probate filings (estate situations where heirs need to sell)
When all three data sources converge on the same property — tax delinquent + code violations + probate filing — that's a confirmed motivated seller. The owner can't pay their taxes, can't maintain their property, and may be dealing with an estate situation.
Why this matters for someone starting out:
You're not cold calling random homeowners asking if they want to sell. You're reaching out to someone whose property is already on three county lists showing they have problems they haven't been able to solve. The conversation isn't "do you want to sell your house?" — it's "I work with investors who buy properties in [neighborhood], and I noticed the property might be a fit for our buyers." That's a much easier conversation to have when you're not making assumptions about someone's situation.
The data is free. It's public record. And almost nobody in the bird dogging world is using it because they're all driving around neighborhoods looking for tall grass and boarded windows (which is one way to do it, but it's the hard way).
Crystal Smith mentioned partnering with a realtor to access MLS tools. That works. But county public records are available to anyone — no license required, no partnership needed. You can pull the data yourself from the county website or in person at the county offices.
For Nevada specifically — Clark County (Las Vegas) publishes tax delinquent lists, code enforcement records, and probate filings online. You can start pulling data this week. No courses needed. No mentor required. The data teaches you what a motivated seller looks like faster than any course will.
Travis is right that you should learn to put properties under contract. But your first step doesn't have to be contracts or cold calls. It can be learning to pull county data and cross-reference it. Once you have a list of properties where three county departments have already confirmed the owner has problems — then you're ready to have the conversation. And that conversation is a lot less intimidating when you know the property is already on three public lists showing distress.
That's how you skip the "I don't know real estate language" problem. You let the county data tell you which properties to look at. The data does the filtering for you.
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