Bird dogging and beginning wholesaling are not the same, although there are a lot of similarities between them. The control over who has the buyers is the largest difference.
Let me explain. Bird dogging basically is finding houses (or buyers) for another investor who buys and then sells or keeps. It is the same as finding a deal and assigning to another buyer (i.e. wholesaling). Beginning wholesalers do a lot of this, but usually the bird dog does not make nearly the kind of money that the wholesaler earns.
When I started I was bird dogging houses for some investors. It allowed me to become really good at one part of the business. I became super good at finding deals but had no idea how to sell properties, i.e. to find buyers. That is where wholesaling becomes different. A wholesaler must become good at all aspects of the business: finding deals and finding buyers.
I thought I was making great money when I was bird dogging: $500 to $1000 per house, and I was finding 5-10 deals a month. I decided to go at it alone and find my own buyers and my income increased dramatically. I started getting 3-5k on every deal doing as many deals a month as before.
Now that I really got to wholesale houses strong, I am using hard money and I close on all my contracts. Only occasionally would I do an assignment. You really begin to see the difference in bird dogging and true wholesaling as your business grows.
Once you dig deeper you see that the bottom line difference between bird dogging and wholesaling is control. I work for myself, don’t depend on the big dog wholesalers, and have a group of buyers that I sell to on a monthly basis. I now have people that want to bird dog for me – I may pay them 500 or 1000 for their work. At the same time I make up to 5k just sending the deal to my buyers list and seeing it through. Big difference, isn’t it?
Bird dogging is an excellent way to start. You may want to do it to complement your other income and never go further than that. But if you are planning on get in the real estate business full time (and being able to do it when the market is up or when the market is down), you need to push to become a wholesaler as soon as possible.
|
|