Paying for Leads?? Need Help!!

[Brock Lile]

Hello!

I'm finally serious about getting my feet wet wholesaling in my state of Washington after reading tons of books and listening to many BP podcasts on the subject.

I've been working on a website to help with lead generations and I was going to create a page stating "We Pay Cash for Leads That Close!" The idea was, I create a lead generation funnel by becoming known in my community for closing on deals, then pay the person who sent the lead out of my profit.

This got me thinking, is this legal? It seems to me from everything I've read that it is, but before I seek out a real estate attorney, I figured I'd post here as there is so much knowledge on this site. 

The reason I wonder if it's legal is if a finder's fee would be considered compensation to facilitate a real estate transaction, which would require a real estate license. Is this correct?

Does anyone do this?

It seems like it'd be an effective strategy if I built a brand in my small town and surrounding areas where people knew they could send me a lead of someone they knew, to make some quick cash if I closed on that deal.

Assuming this IS completely legal to do, it leads me to a couple different questions:

1. How could I keep from having random people out knocking on doors and pestering the neighborhood? What if this creates an environment where people I don't know are soliciting property owners in my name? Maybe I'm overthinking this. My goal would be to plant a seed in peoples' minds that "Hey, my neighbor needs to get rid of his property...I'll give him Brock's info!" 

I would NOT want to create an environment where people looking for a quick buck become a headache around the neighborhood and consequently relating back to me.

2. Should I encourage people to have the owner of the property contact me or would it be better for me to cold call the property owner based solely on the information the lead gave me?

Thank you so much for the help.

Have a great night!

Brock

[Aaron K.]

So you want to wholesale by sourcing leads from other wholesalers.  This is known as daisy chaining, I am never a fan of cold calls so I'd go with just getting your name out there.