My first bird dog sent me 14 leads I can't use

Four deals in and my problem is deal flow, so I told a guy at a local meetup I'd pay $2,000 per closing for addresses in my two zip codes. He's enthusiastic. In three weeks he's sent 14 leads and I can use zero of them.

What came in: six houses that are just old, not distressed. Three already listed on the MLS with a sign in the yard. Two outside my zips. Two owner-occupied and clearly fine. One was a genuinely good find, a boarded up ranch with a dead lawn, and it had a wholesaler's bandit sign in the window when I drove it.

My fault, mostly. What I gave him was "find me distressed houses in 4xxxx and 4xxxx." That's it. No definition of distressed, no buy box, no format.

What I have: the $2,000 per closing number, which I think is fair, and a guy willing to drive. What I don't have is any way to tell him what a lead actually is without writing him a training manual I don't have time to write.

The specific thing on my desk: do I write him a one page buy box and a lead form and keep going, or do I stop paying per closing and pay something small per qualified lead so he gets feedback faster? $25 a lead on 14 leads is $350 and I'd have learned nothing for it, but he'd have learned a lot.

6 replies

3luis_carrera Get yours

Write the one page. It'll take you 40 minutes and you're currently spending more than that per week driving his misses. Mine would be: price range you'll buy in, the two zips as a map screenshot rather than numbers, three photos of houses you'd want and three of houses you wouldn't, and a hard rule that anything with an active listing or another investor's sign on it is out.

1bmoreno23AB1B

From the other seat, the pay per closing thing is brutal when you're brand new. I've sent leads and heard nothing back for weeks and I couldn't tell whether I was bad at it or just early. If you paid me $25 for the ones that met the box, I'd learn what met the box in about a week. $350 to train someone who might bring you a $30k deal seems like a cheap course fee for you and me both.

2joe_delgado5AP4CPRO6

Careful with per-lead pay, it changes what he brings you. I know two people who tried it and both ended up with volume, addresses scraped off a list and driven past once. Pay per qualified lead where you're the judge of qualified, and put a number on it, 10 a week max. Otherwise you're funding a photo delivery service.

The bandit sign one is the useful data point in your post, by the way. Somebody else is working your zips harder than you are.

4nicole_adeyemiPassivePRO5

Ask him where the 14 came from. If he drove them himself he's got a route and you can shape it. If he pulled them off a list app he's competing with everyone else who bought the same list and he'll never be ahead of you.

1carlos_nunezActive

I'd do both, and the split matters more than the amounts. $50 when a lead clears your box and $1,500 at closing rather than $2,000. Total to him on a closed deal is basically the same, he gets fed while he learns, and you're not paying for garbage.

One thing you skipped: what does he do after he sends you the address? If the answer is nothing, keep it that way and put it in writing that he isn't contacting owners on your behalf, because who can talk terms with a seller for a fee turns on state licensing rules and you don't want to find out the hard way. Whether he's an employee, a contractor, or something else for pay purposes is worth an actual accountant's opinion too, since you're the one cutting the checks.

My first bird dog sent me 14 leads I can't use

6 replies