Flat fee per lead or a cut at closing, which would you rather be offered

Flat fee, and the reason is the definition problem you named. Net profit is whatever the investor's spreadsheet says on closing day, and a new scout has no standing to argue about holding costs or the labor he paid himself. $500 you can count. I'd take the smaller number that arrives on a date I can predict, at least until I know which of my contacts actually gets to the closing table.

Question I would have been too embarrassed to ask before: does the flat fee pay on contract or on closing? You wrote contract, which changes the whole thing. If he pays $500 when he signs a purchase agreement, that is a real advantage over percentage, because the 40 percent of his deals that die in inspection still pay me. If it's actually on closing then the flat fee loses most of its edge and I'd think harder about the 5 percent.

The eight-to-one ratio is the part I keep rereading. Eight leads for one close means the percentage option pays me nothing for weeks at a time while I'm still burning gas. Voted flat.