Bird-dogging
From CaseyPedia
Bird-dogging is the action of acting as an introducer between buyer and seller in a real estate transaction.
Casey sees bird-dogging as a great alternative to a "stupid" job:
- Getting a $8/hour job is stupid. [...] Instead I could be helping other investors find real estate deals (aka bird dogging, or wholesaling) and get referrals fees of $5k - $10k. That is much better use of my time. I think I need to focus on doing that. The problem is that its not guaranteed. Not sure how many hours and offers I have to go through before I get a descent deal. But I might as well try. I should have started with bird dogging / wholesaling to begin with. That would have taught me the skills to find quality deals without investing into them myself.[1]
and went on to propose bird-dogging as the solution to all his financial woes:
- Not a job but a Creative Money Making Plan!
- Here is the thing… a job, even a very GOOD job is not going to get me out of this mess. I used tremendous leverage to get into this mess. I will have to use even bigger/better leverage to get out. [...] Here is one idea…
- Wholesale A few Sacramento Deals Really Quick. Wholesaling is like “bird dogging” for other investors. The steps:
- 1. I find a great undervalued deal (fixer upper or motivated seller who want out, etc)
- 2. Make an offer on the property and tie it up with a contract
- 3. Assign the contract to the investor / rehabber who will actually close on it
- 4. In exchange I collect an assignment fee of $5-20K or more depending on the deal
- 5. I never actually buy the property, just put it under contract and sell the contract.[2]
Casey also planned to develop a extensive network of mail-carrying bird-doggers, turning the problem of accumulating mail at his vacant properties into sweet nuggets of opportunity:
- I did catch the mailman and told him to hold the mail. I also gave him my card so that he can tell me about any vacant or boarded up properties in the area for investing. I pay bird dogs like these 500 or more after I close on a deal. Hasn’t happened yet but if I keep putting the word out it will.[3]
This ambitious and subversive plan to co-opt the Sacramento USPS workforce as minions to Casey's real-estate empire led to "bird-dogging with the mailman" becoming a popular catchprase amongst IAFF commenters, and ultimately to IAFF's triumphant second-to-top position in the Google results for bird-dogging mailman.
