Bird dogging and beginning wholesaling are not the same, although there are a lot of similarities between them. The control over who has the buyers is the largest difference.

Let me explain. Bird dogging basically is finding houses (or buyers) for another investor who buys and then sells or keeps. It is the same as finding a deal and assigning to another buyer (i.e. wholesaling). Beginning wholesalers do a lot of this, but usually the bird dog does not make nearly the kind of money that the wholesaler earns.

I also started with bird dogging houses for investors. It allowed me to become really good at one part of the business – finding deals – but I had no idea how to sell properties. Knowing how to find buyers is where the wholesaling begins. A wholesaler is good at all aspects of the business: finding deals and finding buyers.

When I was bird dogging I thought I was making good money – 500 to 1000 bucks a house, and I was finding 5 to 10 deals a month for other investors. When I decided to go all the way and find my own buyers, my income increased significantly – I could get 3 to 5k on every deal doing as many deals a month as before.

Now that I really got to wholesale houses strong, I am using hard money and I close on all my contracts. Only occasionally would I do an assignment. You really begin to see the difference in bird dogging and true wholesaling as your business grows.

Once you dig deeper you see that the bottom line difference between bird dogging and wholesaling is control. I work for myself, don’t depend on the big dog wholesalers, and have a group of buyers that I sell to on a monthly basis. I now have people that want to bird dog for me – I may pay them 500 or 1000 for their work. At the same time I make up to 5k just sending the deal to my buyers list and seeing it through. Big difference, isn’t it?

Bird dogging is a great way to start. You may never want to go any further, but if you are planning get in this business full time (and being able to do it in any market), you need to try to get into wholesaling as fast as you possibly can.