Pursuing Bird Dogging Legally

[Account Closed]

  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!

[Doug Pretorius]

@Account Closed You certainly can run a lead generation business without running afoul licensing laws. You will however need a parent or guardian to enter into any contracts on your behalf until your 18. You also need to be careful of violating the Do Not Call rules since you plan on calling them.

I have heard of a telemarketing business in New York that runs surveys and sells the leads to realtors. Their survey goes something like this

"Hello, this is Michael with New Yorker Surveys. We're conducting a survey of home owners in your neighborhood today, do you have a moment to answer 3 quick questions for me?"

"Sure."

"Great! Do you currently own or rent your home?"

"I own it."

"How long have you lived at your current residence?"

"About 10 years."

"Do you have any plans to sell or move within the next year?"

"Possibly."

"Thank you for your time!"

They then send 3 of the 'possible' or 'yes' leads to local realtors as a sample of the type of leads they generate and offer to sell them a neighborhood of 2,000 houses which they will call through every 3 months for $500/month.

Hope that helps or at least gives you some additional ideas about the direction your business venture could go. And good luck!