You know what they say, " one bird in hand is worth two in the bush". 

My thought is that house hacking will kill two birds with one stone, give us some more space to expand and allow us to add at least 1 unit to the portfolio giving us 2 total (we plan on keeping the condo as a rental).

Other suggestions would be to bird dog some deals, or find someone who is successful and try and bring them value and work with them.

Side note- I'm kind of working with a creative bird dog agent for the first time. 

I was wanting to try and do the deal with some local realtor/flippers I know but they just want to pay me a Bird Dog fee for getting the deal and I don’t want to cut myself short of profits.

Self-PityI never saw a wild thingsorry for itself.A small bird will drop frozen dead from a boughwithout ever having felt sorry for itself.-- D.H.

friend of mine bought a new fiki  that's a nice bird..  1000 plus hours in mine.

Is this accurate, what makes it illegal if so, and what are other creative ways to drum up the bird dogs? 

I've read real estate investing books to build a good base, regularly read posts on BiggerPockets but need some real world experience.I can help you in any way that you seek, from Bird dogging to filing papers and making phone calls.

Possibly the investor is looking for Bird dogs to feed him or her deals.