Should I try to hire a "Bird Dog"?

Question

We do spec home construction, NO rehabs or flips, so all we are looking for are vacant lots. We are aiming to do 8 properties this year, currently working on our first one of the year. By far the BIGGEST issue we are running into is simply finding the lots!!! I have sunk SO MANY HOURS into searching. I look on the MLS, I engage with wholesalers, I'm doing cold calls, direct mailers, literally everything! I know the deals are out there, t's just a matter of not having the time to devote to finding them. I have recently started considering trying to find a "bird dog".

Has anyone had experience working with a bird dog? I feel like what I am actually looking for is not exactly that. My understanding of a bird dog is typically someone who does the "driving for dollars" thing, they go out and find properties in person and then gather all the basic info on that property and simply pass the lead on to the investor ... right?

I'm really thinking about hiring someone with skills in negotiating. I want someone who will take all the basic data that i've already collected, do the cold-calling, emailing, door knocking, etc and then actually build relationships with the potential leads and only bring the deals to be when they are hot and ready to accept an offer. I would even be open to having the "bird dog" (or trainee, or apprentice, or whatever you want to call it) doing the actual negotiating and getting to a price verbally that everyone can agree on, so long as this person understands the market and our needs enough to do so.

Thoughts? Concerns? Am I Crazy??? Is there anything I'm not considering here??

If you have done something like this, what was the compensation structure?

John Underwood · Answer

Why don't you just pay a finder fee to as many bird dogs as possible?You only pay when you close on a lot.

Leilah Davis · Answer

@Dennis Wayne we don't do buy & hold. We do spec homes. We crank out the projects as quickly as possible to cash out and move on to the next. 2-3 months for construction on each project. Currently working on one project, but I am still VERY new to the world of construction so mostly I am learning a lot. If you want to know which "roles" I currently operate in ... it's all of them (accountant, superintendant, acquisitions, real estate sales, etc) but the construction management is what takes up most of my time. And no, we are not interested in delegating that, as that's where the largest percentage of our profit comes from - being our own GC.

Leilah Davis · Answer

@Jorge Vazquez - Fortunately for us, a bird-dog wouldn't be able to sell to our clients directly .... unless they also knew how to build a house from the ground up LOL - but yes, training someone to be the bird dog using my methods and criteria is exactly what i'm looking for, I think.

Leilah Davis · Answer

@Josh C. haha thanks! Yeah, I don't have any videos on it or anything. I haven't been doing it very long, but my husband has been in commercial construction for 10 years. And before this I did project management, so I'm very OCD with schedules and I know how to keep things on track. It also helps that I am doing this full-time and since we move so quickly we are only doing one job at a time (soon to be 2).

Leilah Davis · Answer

Thanks for the advice! The biggest issue I've found with wholesalers so far is that they just pick up property and then try to find the buyer afterwards, which means that 99% of the wholesalers' inventory is irrelevant to us. I think what I was looking for someone who would be looking for properties for us specifically, with our specific needs in mind. But I've already sort of decided against it ... at least for now. If a wholesaler comes along who has what we need that's great. But in the meantime I'm just going to focus on making the process more efficient and delegating some of the specific tasks, not the entire acquisitions job.

Sh'ron Henderson · Answer

@Leilah DavisYou aren’t crazy at all. What you have described is everything that a wholesaler does . Bird dog is just a fast referral without all the work, but wholesalers do all the work to find and negotiate deals to give investors.

Josh C. · Answer

@Leilah DavisYou are building spec homes in 2-3 months? In my area even the biggest of boys in my area don’t do that. Got some videos or more info on that? That’s pretty incredible. But networking with wholesalers would maybe help you.

Jorge Vazquez · Answer

The problem with some "bird dogs," especially when you are trying to scale up, is that the minute they learn your criteria, clients criteria, etc..., they start becoming more demanding on fees, and they sometimes turn around and try to sell to your clients directly. I usually train agents to be my bird dog since they uphold higher standards in most cases. In exchange, I let them take the listing business once the property is ready and make them sign a non-compete.

Dennis Wayne · Answer

You must have a large portfolio How many units are you managing that you have no time ?

Leilah Davis · Answer

As with door knocking, bandit signs is something I haven't tried yet. Have you had good experience with bandit signs? I'm currently sending about 5 handwritten letters per week. I'd LOVE for that number to be more ... hence why I'm considering hiring someone or working with someone who has more time on their hands. That's exactly the point - I don't have the TIME to be doing as much as I need to be doing. Hoping to get some advice from people who have worked with a bird-dog or hired an employee to help with acquisitions. Again, it's a matter of delegating certain tasks to others in an effort to be more productive with my time ... not a question of means and methods for finding deals.