About a year ago I ran into a guy that would go into his county’s Tax Assessors site and search Parcel by Parcel looking for Non-Owner Occupants.  Then he would setup a route and drive directly to these properties.  This may have saved him a little gas but was very time consuming.  So I got to thinking, what if we could automate this search.  I went home and did some experimenting with “Auto-it” (a program I just happened to be using at my J-O-B).  In no time I had figured out a script that would go parcel by parcel and compare the Owner’s name/address to the parcel address.  If they did not match it was marked as Non-Owner Occupant and stored in a database.  I ended up optimizing this script enough that it would run the whole county overnight and have loaded my database with all of the pertinent information for the Non-Owner Occupants.  This list will be much larger than you can imagine.

First thing to do with this list is to contact the Owners of multiple properties and find out if they are interested in your services.  Next find those with just a property or two and setup a route to view these properties.  So its time to start driving for dollars while being a little more targeted.  Don’t forget to continue to watch for additional vacant houses (tax records are not always up to date).  Now you should have a nice long list to start calling on or to take to your investors.  If you are a bit more patient you can also send them a postcard.  They may keep it for when they are ready to sell or pass it along to a friend that is ready to sell.

In this instance I used Autoit, which runs on the screen and does not allow you to do other things while it is working.  This is why I set it up to run overnight.  I have seen programs written it Perl that retrieve email addresses from web sites while working in the background, and they seem to be faster.  Unfortunately I have not worked with Perl, but now have a reason to start learning it.  If you have questions on getting either method to work feel free to email me and I will do my best to help or point you in the right direction.  There are also several Rent-A-Coder sites out there where you can get an experienced programmer to write it for you.  If you are experienced enough with scripts to write this on your own let me know and I will send you one of my current scripts.  Since every county has its own website you will probably need to tweak your script to work in another county.

Driving for Dollars – This is probably the most popular method.  This simply means that you find a target neighborhood and drive street by street looking for vacant houses.  While driving look for missing utility meters, tall grass, no curtains, excess newspapers in the yard, undisturbed leaves/snow, anything that shouts no one has been here.  While time consuming you will most likely find sellers that can easily be motivated.

Networking – Simply talk to everyone you run into whether it be a cashier, waitress or the guy next to you at the pump and make sure you leave them with a business card.  Business cards are very inexpensive, so give them out like candy.  You should never stop networking.  You may not see immediate results here, but you never know when a simple conversation will lead to a potential deal.

Ads and Signs – Whether you place an ad in the local paper, a free listing site on the Internet or on a bandit sign keep it simple.  A simple “We Buy Houses” works that’s why so many people use it.

After you have your list of vacant properties it is time to start locating the owners.  The easiest place to start is the county tax assessor’s web site.  This site usually contains lots of useful information about the property (i.e. # of bedrooms and bathrooms, lot size, zoning, current tax information).  Since a lot of counties are not completely up to date this is just a starting place.  We have a county near where I live that until recently their site said upfront that the data was 2 years old.  Another place to check is with neighbors.  Some locators will even offer cash if the neighbor has the owners contact information and it leads to a deal.

 Remember, this is a numbers game.  The more time you spend and the more houses you look at will result in more deals.  Don’t be discouraged if you don’t find a great deal the first week or even month.  The more you get your name and number out there, the more deals will start finding you.

There are many ways to find Investors and Bird Dogs but they all boil down to Networking.  A good place to start is letting those around you know you are interested in real estate.  You would be surprised with who just happens to have a friend or relative that is already involved in one way or another.  A lot of times WHO you know is just as important as what you know.  Here is a list of some more great ways to make contacts.

• REI Groups     -     These monthly meetings usually include everyone from first time investors to seasoned investors.
• We Buy Houses Ads     -    These signs are all over the place and the ads are in most papers.  Both property locators and Investors use this method to find houses as well as contacts.
• People working on vacant houses     -     Whether these people are investors or not they usually know one or more investors.  Leave them a way to contact you and ask them to pass it along.
• Craigslist or other listing sites     -     You can use these sites to contact people who have listed or you can create a listing telling about yourself and what you are looking for.

Once you find your investor(s) or bird dog(s) you should have a casual meeting and talk expectations.  Remember the bird dog is taking minimal risk but finding potentially great deals for the investor.  So compensation should be fair, if the fee is to high the investor can find properties another way but if it’s to low the bird dog won’t be as motivated.  Some people will recommend you put together a contract (or find one on the internet) to keep things fair and this may not be a bad idea.  Remember though there is no substitution for trust. An investor with a heart of a teacher and a bird dog with an ambition to learn can make a great team. This investor will make good money off this bird dog and probably gain a new perspective. The bird dog will more than likely become a smart investor while learning the ins and outs with minimal risk.

Quite simply a Real Estate Bird Dog is a property locator for one or more investors.  The information this “Bird Dog” provides determines how much he is paid.  This information could be as little as an address of a distressed property or as much as the owners contact information, the reason for the sale and price.  I normally would not recommend a Bird Dog talking price with any homeowner.  The investor knows their intentions with the property and has more experience with negotiating and proper pricing.

Some Bird Dogs get their leads from networking and finding people that are motivated to sell for one reason or another.  Others look for the distressed property first and locate the owners by talking to neighbors or looking up tax records.  There are infinite ways to find these properties’s so be creative.

A Bird Dog should always talk expectations and fees with the investor before providing the properties.  This ensures that neither the Bird Dog nor the Investor is disappointed with the results.  Trust is a very important element between an investor and his Bird Dog.  A Bird Dog wants to trust that the investor will pay the fees after the deal is complete.  The investor wants to trust that the Bird Dog is not holding out the “good” deals or providing the same listing to another investor.  It takes some of the negotiating power away from the investor if there is another investor calling about the property.