Take the view that any non-compete will not stand up in a legal test. Hence if you are training people in what you do they will be competators or they will realize why they are better off investing through you (work it too hard, they do not like the type of work, they lack the detail focus that you might have, etc).
An agreement can be useful as a warning but it will never be considered binding for very long if at all. It will be hard for you to argue that you have provided properitary knowledge, that the information is confidential, etc. I have seen such agreements blown out of the water when a good lawyer gets involved.
Yes, the agreements sometimes work in a corporate setting where the time value of the informaiton is high so that a 120 non-compete can really have an impact. This is sometimes referred to as gardening leave. It works if you are willing to pay the person to sit at home and they were an employee so you really owned the information prior.
Does anyone have a good Bird Dog Agreement? I am fortunate enough to have a couple of new investors that are interested in helping me process foreclosure notices, etc. I want to train them enough to be helpful, but also not interested in creating a fierce competitor!
Bird dogs that have desire and ambition will be a competitor sooner or later. I work with a couple. We have an verbl agreement, I pay them xxx for a deal that meets my specs. I also give a bonas to the ones that bring a very profitable deal to me. They bring me names and contact info and any other info they can get and set a time for me to negociate and sign the deal. They are not present when I set up the deal, I don’t explain to them detail.
I pay on every deal I close on. I try to be fair and honest and the birddogs can’t wait to bring me another one.
If you are honest and above board on your dealings, you don’t need a long formal contract. Screw a birdog over and everyone in 5 counties will know it. Most birdogs a just newbie investors waiting to make the jump anyway. Sharing info with them is no different than sharing here except it is face to face.