Strengthening Our Team With Driving For Dollars | EP. 47

Hi, guys. Welcome back to another episode on Real Talk. Today we are on episode number 47. We are nearing the end of this season, and today I am here with our director of operations for acquisitions, Matthew Packer, and our scheduling supervisor and team lead of acquisitions, Cheese, who is actually located in the Philippines, which is why we are doing this recording via Zoom versus our normal recording in our video room. But today we are going to be talking about our bird dog program. What is it, how we get our team involved, what we've learned from it, and just kind of really deep diving into this subject matter. So just to kind of give you a brief overview of what it is, we did talk about it a little bit in our vlog episode last week, so you can also check it out there. But just to kind of recap a little bit, Packard or Cheese, do either of you guys want to kind of go into a little bit on what is the bird dog program?

Cheese, why don't you go ahead and start that off with your great analogy on how that.

Bird dog.

Yeah, so for bird dog, it's actually from the root word which was used way, way before. It's like hunting. When you go on hunting, you bring a dog with you, so that dog will get a bird for you, especially when you're hunting docks. So it is applicable when it comes to real estate because you have a bunch of people who would work with you, not, not for you, necessarily, so work with you, sending you a lot of properties that might be possibly for sale. And, and then from there on, it's going to be a raw lead for us. So that's how it's applicable to the real estate word.

Perfect, great. And then just kind of a little side note, I know we talked about it in the vlog a little bit, but for those that are listening, not really sure how to get started in it, or if you want to get started in real estate, this is a way to do it. And you don't need a real estate license in order to do this. And like she said, you aren't hired to. You aren't hired with us. We're just working together, if that makes sense. So now can one of you guys tell me, you know, what are the pros and cons to this program?

Sure, sure, I'll get into that. Well, first off, the pros, I believe, is anybody that's interested in real estate or getting involved. This is a great way to effectively get started in that, you know, the barrier to entry is very, very low. You know, it's, it's Basically just your time, you know, and what time you want to dedicate to that. You know, it's a great way to get started. It's really easy. You know, if you have a smartphone or, you know, any type of phone these days, that's pretty much all you need. You know, as you're driving around through the city or whatever you're doing, it's easy. If you see a distressed property or something that looks vacant, you get the address, snap a picture, simple upload. So, I mean, the benefits of it are very, very high. So very easy.

Yeah. And then two is, whenever we close on it, that bird dog or person who submits the property, then they get paid out for that lead. And like you said, it's a very easy process to do. It's very low. What's the word I'm looking for? Participation, I guess, in order to do it. So that's really all it is. You just submit the photo and the address, and our team will do the rest. And then, like I said, whenever it closes, we'll pay you guys out for that. Can you guys think of any cons? I was trying to think of some cons prior to this, and honestly, I couldn't think of any, but maybe you guys have one or two maybe.

I don't think there's really any cons, truthfully. The only thing, if you want to call it a con, I mean, if you're kind of reaching here, kind of stretching for one, just a time it might take, you know, if you're expecting, you know, that quick return or that quick, you know, turnaround on getting some funds out of it, you know, a typical bird dog might take 30 to 60 days. You know, once you find the property, you know, get it in there, we process it and do all that. But if you want to call that a con, yeah, that would be the only thing that would come to my mind. But like I said, that's. That's just. That's if you're reaching, you know. But like I said, it's a very, very easy program. It's great. And it doesn't. Doesn't hurt you anything, you know?

Yeah, that's. That's a good one. I wouldn't have thought about that. And I think that's even more of like, maybe like a disclaimer more than a con, like what you're saying.

Exactly.

Like, you know, it's not like you aren't gonna get it like that. It will take a little bit of time, but it's definitely worth it.

But it is Definitely a program. Once you build up that pipeline, build up that queue, you know, if you're, you know, submitting 10, 20 bird dogs a week and once those start rolling in, you know, it, it'll add up for you real quick.

Yeah, absolutely. Cheese, can you think of any cons, maybe?

Actually, no, because like the waiting, it's just normal. Actually, it's even quicker comparison with other lead sources. And the only thing, maybe if you can call it a con, is if you're not organized, if you're not organized, then it's going to be con for you because you might get a lot of duplicates.

Yeah.

But if the system is really good and it can check the duplicate prior. Yeah, it's really good. I can't think of any cons which.

Our system is pretty good about catching duplicates.

Yeah. But not to dwell on it, it's a great program, you know, more pros than cons, if any.

Yeah, absolutely perfect. So now we've done this thing recently that we've started to get our whole team involved on going out and we basically had like a quick little like bird dog boot camp on explaining it to our whole team, telling it what it all is, and then we went out in the field for a couple hours as a team and all went bird dogging. Packer, that was all your idea. Do you want to elaborate on that at all?

Absolutely, absolutely. So once again, these bird dog leads or this whole process is a great way to generate leads and to generate sources for possibly closing deals. And the team event that we did, if you want to call it that, you know, we all got together, said, hey, let's hit these streets. Let's do some driving for dollars. And we all basically paired up, teamed up and hit the streets there. I mean, I think the first time we all went out, we generated what, cheese 100 and almost 200 leads.

Yeah, well, the last, the most recent one, yeah, it's almost 200, almost 200 leads.

So. But it. Not only is it a great way to generate some leads, but it's a great team building exercise, if you will. You know, it lets everybody kind of see what other parts of the business may do. You know, it's big for even the bulldog side, the bulldog renovation side, you know what they're looking for, what makes a good bird dog lead. You know, what you don't want to look for. So you're just not submitting, just to submit for submit's case, you know. But it was a great exercise. You know, I had fun doing it. I think Everybody on the team had fun doing it, but like I said, it helped out in many ways. Team building and kind of led to let everybody see what goes on in different positions. You know, we're all stuck behind desks at times. You know, we can kind of get lost in our own world. Not really see people, the other facets or other aspects of what gets done, actually see a deal close. So this bird dog exercise definitely helped out with that.

Yeah, those are all very good points, actually, that. So we've done it two times now as company wide. And the first time, I believe, I think it was the first time we all came together as a group and talked about it. I think we also did it the second time on a smaller scale, but we came together as a group and we were like, okay, what was everyone's experience with this? You know, what did you guys learn? What kind of feedback did you get? Do you have anything that like you think we should change or whatnot? And we actually went live marketing. Excuse me, Lauren and I, she's a marketing in the marketing team. We went live while we were out bird dogging and just kind of like showed some, like examples of what we look for that way to kind of help people or others understand, you know, our criteria that we are looking for. And like you said with Bulldog, the bulldog team going out, they were also able to help some other people further explain, you know, this is what we look for. This is going to be like too much, what have you. So it was a great, like you said, learning experience for everyone, especially those who aren't actively involved with acquisitions or even the Bulldog team. So I thought it was a great experience. It got everyone involved. It was a huge learning experience as well. I already said that. You said that too. Do you have anything that you want to add on that humpback on, like getting together and what kind of insights we got on it?

Yeah, like I said, the biggest thing I believe we kind of got out of is just everybody seeing what we actually look for and what makes a good bird dog lead.

Yeah, absolutely.

I think that was the biggest takeaway that I think a lot of people got that, you know, typically aren't on the acquisition side. So it's definitely something we're going to keep doing, you know, get the frequency of it and getting everybody together and getting out there and doing it. So it generates quite a bit of leads and it helps out quite a bit.

So yeah, cheese do. You were kind of on the internal side of things, collecting the leads as they were coming in and Seeing those firsthand, how was that experience for you? Did you learn anything differently at all?

Oh, actually it's a really good learning curve for every one of us, especially for me, because with the specific bird dogging within the company that we did, it was more targeted because we know the properties or the areas that we're buying the properties from as compared to regular bird dog or an outsiders, they might submit anything like anywhere but this one, it's targeted. And also I really love the fact that Matthew said learning from one another. So that's really a great thing as well because you're looking at not only from your perspective, but someone else's perspective. So for bird dogging, you have one coming from renovations department, from other department and you get together and. And your knowledge really increases.

Yeah. Another, I think another thing too that was super helpful with that was a lot of people like, they knew about the bird dog program or like what it was, but they didn't realize how easy it was. And so many of them, when we met afterwards to talk about it as a team, they're like, it was so easy and such a quick, simple process. And so that was I think, really helpful too in an eye opener for them as well. Something else too, while we're kind of on this like feedback kind of cycle, is whenever you submit the lead, you'll actually get email notifications on updates for that property. So you, the team, whoever is submitting the leads, you'll get email updates on what stage that property is in for closing. That way you can kind of have a better idea on when you can maybe expect it. Or if something falls through, you'll get an update saying like, hey, like something happened with this deal and it'll let you know a little more in depth on what exactly was going on there. But that's great too because then you're also in the know of what is going on. So I think that's really great. We kind of touched on this a little bit about quality. So every company or person, if you will, they all have different buying criteria. So what we do is we have our list of buying criteria and kind of what we were just talking about with the Bulldog team being able to go out, they were able to tell whoever they were with at the time, kind of like tell them like, you know, like that's within our criteria or that's not. And then Cheese and Packer, you guys are able to go into that a little more. Do you guys want to touch on that at all?

Sure. So basically, as far as our buying Criteria, I mean, we'll evaluate any property. At the end of the day, we'll evaluate any property, but what we'd like to see are properties that are, I mean, if they are vacant or distressed, not distressed to the point where, you know, a strong gust of wind will knock them over. You know, I mean, we always try to stay away from, you know, heavy structural issues. You know, if it looks like it's about to fall into a sinkhole, you know, try to stay away from something like that or, you know, heavy, heavy roof damage or fire damage. You know, I mean, that can just kind of eat into the profits, if you will, if the rehab is too severe. So. But yeah, as far as the buying criteria, at the end of the day, I tell everybody to send every lead our way evaluated one way or another. So you can't go wrong there. But, you know, we're not afraid of any work. You know, our bulldog team definitely do. You know, they do an excellent job. But like I said, there is a little bit of a standard there.

Right. And you don't. We don't like, obviously want to buy, you know, properties that are clearly occupied or like, you know what I mean? I can't think of a word that I'm looking for, but you get what I'm talking about. So now if our listeners, if they want to get involved, what is the best way to do that?

It's very easy. I believe you're going to put the link up there on the screen there, but it's very easy. You go to the website, like I said, as you're out driving, you're out hitting the streets. If you're trying to make this a side hustle, all we need is the picture of the home, the address, simple web form. We'll take care of the rest. It's a very simple process. Like you mentioned, you'll get the email updates on exactly the process, where it's at. You know, if you want to hit us up, we can definitely tell you how the pay structure works and everything like that. But like I said, it's an easy way to generate some income and to go ahead and get involved.

Yeah, absolutely. And that's one thing too is, you know, whenever you, if you're not a team member in the office or what have you, you know, if, and you do submit a property and we end up closing on it, we actually like to invite you into the office, meet the team and get to know us a little better one on one and of course encourage you to do more. But the biggest thing is building that relationship as well. So it is fast feedback cycle. Like I said, you'll get email notifications instantly as soon as you submit a property and then you'll get updates along the way and you'll learn as you go to just like we are in the team and you'll learn what works best for you, what doesn't, what strategies you like, what neighborhoods you like, what have you. It's a learning experience, but it's also a quick and easy learning experience. I will also there's going to be a video at the corner here also about how on showing you how to submit it. It's just one form, two things that you have to fill out. Fairly simple. That is all that I have. Do you guys want to add anything else on the program or about the team experience or anything?

I just encourage folks, anybody that has that real estate itch or want to get into the real estate field or area, you know, this is a great way to do it. Like I said, the barrier of entry is very low. So if you ever have any questions, you know, feel free to reach out to us. We'll answer anything that you may do and so we can get that. Get your goals going.

Perfect. Cheese. Do you have anything?

Oh, yeah, just a quick one. Just to remind everyone that it's. It's actually a good system wherein there's no age limit. I remember someone who emailed me asking if he can do the bird dogging and he's only 13 years old. And then the last person that we paid outside of our organization she was an elderly and we were able to pay her. So definitely, truly as easy as one step, just fill out the form. That's it.

That's it.

Absolutely. All right. Well, that's all that I have for you guys. We always like to end these episodes with Invest smart, Live happy. Thanks, guys.

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