Real Estate Bird Dog / Deal Finder

Real estate bird dogs (or deal finders) locate off-market properties and motivated sellers for real estate investors, earning finder's fees for bringing deals.

You drive neighborhoods looking for distressed properties, research owner information, make initial contact or provide contact info to investors, potentially pre-qualify deals, and connect investors with sellers for a fee.

Lower barrier to entry than wholesaling since you're not contracting properties.

Success requires understanding what investors want, deal sourcing and research abilities, hustle and persistence, networking with investor buyers, and knowledge of your market.

Finder's fees typically range from $500-3,000 per accepted deal, sometimes negotiated as percentage.

Finding 4-6 deals monthly at $1,500 average = $6,000-9,000 monthly revenue.

Startup costs are minimal—vehicle and gas for driving areas, skip tracing and research tools ($50-200 monthly), phone and CRM for managing leads, marketing materials, real estate investor networking, business formation, and education on what makes good deals totaling $1,000-4,000.

Finding deals involves driving for dollars looking for distressed properties (vacant, overgrown, damaged), researching property ownership through county records, potentially skip tracing to find owner contact info, pre-screening properties for investor criteria, building lists of likely motivated sellers (probate, tax liens, foreclosures, code violations), door knocking or direct mail in some cases, and networking with contractors who see distressed homes.

Revenue comes from finder's fees when investors buy properties you found, potentially recurring fees from investors for ongoing deal flow, consulting on deal analysis, or transitioning to wholesaling if licensed.

Operating costs include driving time and mileage (significant), research and skip tracing tools, phone and CRM, networking and marketing, continuing education on real estate investing, and time researching and qualifying leads.

Challenges include no guaranteed income (only paid when deals close), legality varies by location (some states restrict without license), investors may go around you to avoid fee, need multiple investor relationships (diversification), competitive with wholesalers and agents, and lots of leads needed for one deal.

Success requires understanding investor criteria deeply, efficient driving and research systems, building strong investor relationships who trust your deal quality, pre-qualifying properties saving investors time, honest assessment of deals (credibility matters), potentially specializing in property types or seller situations, providing value beyond just addresses (analysis, contacts, etc.), and high activity level (bird dogging is numbers game).

Bird dogging is entry point to real estate investing with low capital requirements.