Posted by Tom(MI) on April 25, 2004 at 11:42:33:
Please give people time to answer your posts.
Seems to me that you are bringing sellers and buyers together for a fee without having any type of interest in the property. Most states require you to be licensed to do that. You can try to dress it up any way you want you are still bringing sellers and buyers together for a fee which may be illegal to do without a license.
Is bird dogging “ILLEGAL” - Posted by tom
Posted by tom on April 25, 2004 at 11:12:30:
I am a bird dog,
Recently I encountered a real estate agent who said that it may be ILLEGAL to pay “finder” fees to professionls like mortgage brokers who supply info to me --the bird dog- on homes that my buyers close on… My remark was that I am paying for info, not commission… MY other argument was this …I am not advertising the motivated sellers home as “for sale” in a publication to the general public.
I am interested in some feed back
Thanks Tom
Re: Is bird dogging “ILLEGAL” - Posted by JohnBoy
Posted by JohnBoy on April 25, 2004 at 15:12:31:
Advertising a home for sale in a publication to the general public is not what constitiutes acting as a broker that requires a license.
It’s what YOU are doing and HOW you are doing it that would constitute whether you are acting as a broker or not.
The key wording in most laws in most states, is: “FOR ANOTHER”.
You must be acting as a “principle” and not “for another”.
If you pay “A” a fee for finding you a buyer that you bring to “B” who is a seller, who pays you a fee for referring them the buyer, then you are acting “for another” which requires a license.
Now if you are “C” where “A” brings you a buyer, where YOU being “C” buys a property from “B” where you then sell the property yourself, that you contracted to buy from “B”, then you are acting as principle and not “for another”. This does not require a license.
Anything that involves you paying any kind of a fee to someone that finds you a buyer and/or a seller that you hook up with another party where those two partys end up buying and selling to each other is acting “for another” and requires a license. It has nothing to do with the fact you never advertised it in a publication to the public. It has to do with the fact you brought “a” and “b” together in someway where you were paid a fee of some kind.
To avoid this you have to be involved in the middle acting as a principle where you are buying the property for yourself and then you are selling it yourself where you paid a fee to someone for referring you to the property for sale or referring a buyer to you that you are selling to.
You have it backwards… - Posted by William Bronchick
Posted by William Bronchick on April 25, 2004 at 12:40:21:
There is nothing wrong with paying ANYONE a fee to find YOU a deal (unless you are a licensed real estate agent yourself). In some states, it does require a license to ACCEPT a finder’s fee.