The Care and Feeding of Bird Dogs
In 1954 I came home from lovely downtown Hanoi, located in the heart of Indo China. Having spent the last 14 years trying very hard to stay alive in the air and on the ground. I was really tired from all this constant shooting and stuff, so I resigned my commission and came home to lovely Los Angeles. No pension because I had resigned but I had a deep knowledge of Real Estate and Transaction, so I started to buy little houses in West Hollywood. I would select a house put it in escrow, best deal possible. Then I would go into the Bank of America and borrow $1,000 on a second mortgage (trust deed) on the house, telling the lovely bank that I owned the property.
I would take the $1,000 and stick it in the escrow. That was my downpayment. You see back in 54 and 55, with no computers it took the bank about two weeks to record the deed and by that time I owned the property. Fun, god I loved that bank. I also because of my knowledge of title work, bought a few properties in which I just recorded the deed,in essence running my own escrow for me the friendly buyer, then checked out the property, did whatever corrections that were necessary and stuffed the escrow costs into my pocket. I also did the appraisals as this required no special skills other then owning an Abacus and a tape measure. Of course I did a lot of PMTD's (purchase money trust deeds) this is where the owner would take back the mortgage himself as most of the owners in that area at that time were selling to create an income with the monies received on sale.
So I bought, moved in and rehabed the structures room by room. My day job was at a Mortgage Company on Wilshire Blvd. I was the blond blue eyed christian in the Brooks Brothers Suit who sat at the front desk and set up the deals. The heavy closers had offices in the back an area known far and wide as Goniff's Alley. It took me one year to become the General Manager with an office half way between the front and back offices. A year passed and I realized that serfdom was not over. I might run the place but I would never be an owner. So I left moved into another location and began to run defaults, foreclosures, divorce actions, bail bonds secured by trust deeds etc. etc.
I set up my office like an intelligence organization in the military. I had a slot desk and from this position I assigned out the leads to Bird Dogs each of which had an assigned area of the Greater Los Angeles Area. I advanced to them their running costs and a small salery. Against this they made 10% of the profit gained on any deal they brought into the office. Buy Sell a property, make a mortgage commission, sell a piece of Real Estate, attend a foreclosure sale. Buy prior to foreclosure sale, whatever, they got 10% of the companies profit on that deal. All the files in the office were open to the Bird Dogs. Soon no more Beetles, they all had Porches and bad habits. Of course as the years went by they moved on and took the licenses and started their own business. From that time on I aways worked on the giving of 10% to the person who brought in the deal. It has worked well. Lucius
Okay, so you say what you say. And that is, indeed, a perspective that I agree exists.
But I also say that it is a cop-out. Technology is here. A faster paced world is here. But technology or progress is no excuse for lousy business decisions. Technology, progress, modernization is a fact of life. It is why our world is what it is today. It is fabulous and exciting and quite cutting edge. But I do not believe that it needs to impact the integrity of business decisions entirely. That's a cop out.
If I had a bird-dog that could perform, I would pay and pay and pay. I remember recently reading on this site: "Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered".
There is no reason to be a hog.
Kudos, Lufos, and I would easily pay the 10% for a worthy bird-dog.
Noel
A terrific article, and very impressive for the simple but effective business plan it lays out.
Glad you made it back from what-sounds-like "Hanoi Hilton", with such a great attitude and work ethic. I'm sure you've got some stories to tell!
I'm always amazed at how few people really understand the effectiveness of taking care of their bird-dogs. I know several otherwise sucsessful REIs who have openly "stiffed" the folk who've referred them deals, just basically slamming the door on any further deals from those BDs.
Why would any smart business person do this? No logical answer comes to mind.
Very interesting. Would love to chat with you. See profile and leave email.