Pursuing Bird Dogging Legally
Hi everyone, my name is Michael and I'm a 15 year old from New York. Over the past year or so I've been trying to get into real estate but there's always a problem with either the strategy or my age. I looked into BirdDogging in the past but there were two main problems that I came across:
1) The legalities of it
2) Ensuring that I get compensated for my work
So I've been thinking day and night on ways to get around these roadblocks and I think I came up with a good method and I will share it with you guys with hopes that you guys will be able to tell me wether or not this will work and if it's legal.
According to the RESPA law people bird dogging can't get payed a commission or fee after a deal closes because you have to technically be a licensed agent or realtor in order to get payed like that. So this would make getting payed as a bird dog once a deal is closed illegal.
So I was thinking and searching around for ways to get around this as a bird dog and this is what I came up with (and this may be wrong that's why i'm asking you guys). So what I would pretty much do is get payed on a per lead basis regardless if they close on the deal or not. I would get skip traced leads and I would either call them myself or get a VA to do it for me. Then if we find a person who is interested in selling I would get some general info about the property and leave the negotiation, due diligence, etc all up to the investor, I would provide the investor with general information like bed/bath, repairs needed, condition, but not information like the address or phone number yet. So from there if there's an investor that is interested in learning some more about the property I will get an NDA to make sure that I get payed and everything goes smoothly. I saw online that even though i'm still under 18, I can still sign an NDA. So in the NDA we would agree that I would get payed X amount when I provide the information on the lead to the investor (Keep in mind that these are leads that would be willing to sell, not just any random lead). This method would keep me from breaking any laws and it would ensure that i get payed when I'm bird dogging.
From what I know (which isn't much) this would work and be legal in New York and New Jersey, I will also make sure that I get payed with the NDA, and this will all still work given that I'm a minor. Let me know what your thoughts are on this method and wether or not this would actually work and if it doesn't what I can do to get around this considering the conditions I'm under. Thank you in advance for all of the help, I really appreciate it!