I am new to the world of property investing, however after reading Steve`s books the thought of bird dogging has entered my mind. My thing is what do I do with the information after I find a deal? I understand that you give the info onto someone else in return for a small cash fee, but where do I find these investors or how do you receive the money?
This has been posted as a question many times on this forum.
It is not legal to accept or recieve money from any real estate transaction without a license! In SA not only do you have to pay back the commission recieved, you also get a $20,000 fine for any transaction performed!Some people like to call it a "marketing fee" to try and get around the law. Like one judge once said in SA "I don't care what you call it! You can call it kangaroo, it is still illegal"
Now, bird dogging or spotting is done alot in the investing world, and it is fine until you get caught doing it. You can try your luck and make some money if you want to but I personally would not take the risk.
Just send me the details. I will not be able to 'Pay You' for this service, although i can give you an expensive b. day, christmas or v. day present of your choice!!!
You'd call it a marketing fee in QLD
Gee wiz guys, it seems I go away for about a year and the first time I look at the website again you are bagging buyers agents, birddogs whatever you like to call us for offering time poor people a way to source investments without putting in the time and reinventing the wheel.
Xenia,
It is in my personal opinion, always those that are frustrated with an inflexible system they personally have to work under, that lash out on those like myself who offer an effective solution for a small sector of the market that prefer guidance in obtaining an investment property.
Take a deep breath. It is not illegal to offer a referral service to anything anywhere as long as you dont offer "financial advice" in the process. Information is a valuable resource and should be available to everyone. Some people are time poor and pay others to source the information they need.By presenting a property listing to a client I am in fact referring them to a possible property and agent they could otherwise have missed. To work on their instructions and negotiate the purchase price with the agent, is acting as their representative and go between, for clients not familiar with the processes in the states they wish to buy, this is saving them both time and inconvenience during this process.
Who amongst you would bag the reno kings for giving advice on buying an entry level property and doing it up for better cashflow return or a quick sale?? Gee I dont think Ive seen it stated that they are agents, but as they use agents and solicitors in the process and they personally derive a fee for their find/reno/sell strategy they market, why havent we seen that court case yet?Having contacts for building and pest reports that discount is value adding to the basic service, as is sourcing for them a solicitor in each case.
Having a working relationship with agents for the preparation of documents and arranging management after settlement means we are always covered by both licenced real estate agents and solicitors where the deals are taking place means we are effectively streamlining this process from start to finish and meeting all of the requirements for property sales in each case.
Rather than saying its wrong and illegal, each state should have a comprehensive set of rules regarding all services relating to property. When ASIC approached me a year ago regarding operating as a buyers agent, they said "you are not a licenced real estate agent how do you justify recieving a fee for your services?"
My reply was that as to operate in each state where laws are different, you would need to be a registered agent in every state of Australia and this is totally impractical, as each state is self regulating with different governing bodies concerning property and as yet there is not a national body that allows and regulates these activities totally, the only legal way to cover this situation is to become a qualified financial planner under the ASIC guidelines, who is then able to offer advice and recommendations regarding all asset classes including direct property.
I do not offer my services as a financial planner per say, and recommend that you see your own financial planner or accountant to review your personal circumstances and implement a full investment strategy, but due to having a Dip Financial Services(Financial Planning), it is NOT illegal for me to advise people on any one asset class alone, specifically direct property purchase, which is what I do. As I work in only one area of financial planning, all of my clients seek finance and mortgage advice seperately and independently of what I offer. I merely present unique property opportunities which they choose to action on as they see fit.
On explaining this to the gentleman from ASIC I spoke to, he was satisfied by my response and left it at that. No further action or notification has been recieved after this phone discussion regarding the legality of my services.
So you advising of one case in SA where a judge commented on may be accurate, but could you please explain why this case was in court in the first place? What went wrong? Who did the wrong thing in the purchase process and who felt a court resolution was warranted. Taking one comment out of context means that you are influencing others not to use a service that in most cases is valuable and convienient. I'm not saying that every buyers agent or birddog is honest, as I wouldnt expect you to believe that all politicians have our best interests at heart either.
I am concerned however that without qualifying and explaining the case your comment refers to specifically, is not fully informing people who can then only make decisions on these available services with less than half of the story.
In any case we are all adults and need to base our own investment decisions on our own best judgement, after reviewing ALL of the available information. The better informed, the better the decisions.
So Happy Hunting all, and good investing.
DD
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