Quickly skimming through the top few searches of “Real Estate Bird Dog” on Google we find a couple of mixed opinions.  Some Gurus claim it is the best thing since toilet paper others will tell you that you will be thrown in prison for even considering such an act.

The term is very loosely defined and they are all right.

You probably wont go to prison, but you will not be able to enforce your claim on payment in court.

The easy way around this problem is to work with trust worth people.

What I Consider a Real Estate Bird Dog.

I consider a Real Estate Bird Dog is someone starting real estate investing at the ground floor, in the mail room or cleaning the bathrooms.  Your job will be leg work which is not worth the time of the seasoned real estate investor.  Depending on the deals the investor is looking for you will be doing various activities from putting out bandit signs and door knocking to managing other people who knock on doors and put out bandit signs.

Most of the time when you are broke and are paying a mentor to teach you real estate investing this is the work they will have you do.

The reason why is because this is how you will learn the most.  Doing this will earn you the lumps and scars necessary to make a great real estate investor.  To be great at anything you will need to get your lumps and get over the hump.  A good mentor knows this and will put you through a trial by fire to make you stronger.

How to Become a Real Estate Bird Dog.

You have a few options when looking for a mentor.

The first and best option when looking for a mentor will be to find a local practicing real estate investor and make yourself useful to him.  Make the investor like you by being humble and true to your word.  The two most irritating qualities which young people have are arrogance and not standing by their word.  Focusing your efforts on these two qualities will make others want to work with you.
To find local real estate investors, go to your local REIA meeting.  Before you go, you either need to have a good story worked out or you need to already be immersed in an aspect of the real estate game.  You need to be able to speak the lingo.  The fastest and cheapest way would be to click here.

The whole process above is going to be hard and time consuming but could pay off many fold.  If you are one of those people who want everything now.  Want to make a lot of money really fast.  You should pay a mentor to help you.  The benefit of this is that you know you are getting a professional.  You know they have a system to teach you which works.  The best mentoring system I know of can be found here.

Best practices for a Real Estate Bird Dog.

• Gorilla Marketing – Best for when you are just starting out, have no money but plenty of time.  Examples are as follows

• Bandit Signs – You know those hand written signs on the side of the road asking to buy your car or clean your carpet.  Do the same thing but ask to buy their house cash.  These work, they are cheap so do this for your mentor and they will thank you.
• Fliers –  When people lose their dogs they put out fliers with their phone number on it and a picture of a puppy.  They put them on public bulletin boards in supermarkets and so forth.  Make some, with an extremely cute puppy.  The most adorable puppy you can find.  Under it say that you will buy their house for cash.  Surprisingly, this works quite well and your mentor will want to buy you dinner and he/she will realize that it is in their best interest to make you happy and give you money.

• Direct Marketing – You identify a target audience and directly market to them.  This cost a little more money and is best if you have built up some rapport with the real estate investor you are working with and get them to pay for the marketing costs

• Door Hangers – Identify a specific audience who needs to sell their house and live in the house, such as pre-foreclosures.  Go knock on the door and be pleasant, get a script and offer some help.  Leave the door hanger if they don’t open the door.
• Cold Calling –  Once you have some experience and know what you are looking for in an ideal seller.  Start to cold call prospects.  Screen out the bad ones and send the investor you are working with the numbers of the qualified buyers.
• Letters – Direct mail.  We all love to get a bunch of spam mail.  So help out the world and post office and send some out.  This requires a higher budget and more experience to make worth while.

• Mass Marketing – Once you have mastered the other forms of marketing consider these options.  It is best to test them out with someone else’s money.

• Penny Saver Coupons – This is shot gun mail.  It goes out to a segmented audience, luckily for you the people who own a house and are looking for coupons are probably one of your ideal sellers.
• Radio – It is now cheaper than ever.  I have never done it though.  So find some one who has and ask questions.
• TV – Similar to radio, find someone who knows more on the subject.

Real Estate Bird Dog Conclusion

Being a bird dog is the best way to start if you have no money but want to get into real estate investing.  It has little to no risk, however your pay reflects this.  Consider it a grad school education which you get paid for.