GUIDE · UPDATED
Driving for dollars: how to find off-market deals from your car
Driving for dollars means driving through a neighbourhood, noting the houses that look neglected or empty, and contacting their owners about selling. It costs time and fuel, not a marketing budget.
Its strength is that the houses you find are on nobody’s list. This guide covers what to look for, how to plan a drive, how to find the owner, and what to do after the drive.
THE SHORT VERSION
- You are looking for signs that nobody is caring for the house.
- Drive where investors already buy: older homes, mixed condition, recent renovations nearby.
- Record the address and photos on the spot, then find the owner through county records.
- The drive only produces a list. The deals come from reaching the owners and following up.
What to look for.
One sign means little. Two or three together usually mean the owner has stopped maintaining the property, which is often the sign of a reason to sell.
- An overgrown lawn, or shrubs covering the windows.
- Mail, flyers or newspapers piled at the door.
- Boarded or broken windows.
- A tarp on the roof, or missing shingles.
- Peeling paint, sagging gutters or a leaning fence.
- Notices posted on the door or a window.
- No curtains, no cars and no lights on a street where every other house has them.
Plan the drive.
- Choose neighbourhoods where investors already buy. Recent renovations and rental signs are good evidence.
- Favour older homes in mixed condition over new subdivisions, where little is neglected.
- Pick a small area and cover every street, instead of sampling a large one.
- Keep a record of the streets you have driven, so you do not repeat them.
- Drive in daylight, and go back at a different time of year. A lawn tells you more in summer.
Record each house.
For every house, capture the address, a photo from the street and a short note on what you saw. Do it on the spot. A list of addresses without notes is hard to prioritize a week later.
Stay safe and stay on the street
Have a passenger take the notes, or pull over. Photograph the house from the public road only, do not walk onto the property or look through windows, and leave people out of your photos.
Find the owner.
Look up the property in county records
The county assessor or tax collector lists the owner of record and the address where the tax bill is sent. That mailing address is often different from the property’s, and it is where your letter should go.
Check who the owner is
An owner may be a person, a company or an estate. A company or a trust means one more step to find the person who decides.
Find a phone number if you plan to call
Skip tracing services match an owner’s name and address to phone numbers and emails. The results are not always right, and calling rules still apply.
Reach out and follow up.
Most wholesalers start with a letter or postcard to the owner’s mailing address, because it reaches people without a phone number and lets the owner contact you. Mail the same owner several times over the following months. Calls and texts are faster and more regulated: the rules on who you may contact, and how, apply to owners you found on a drive just as they do to any list.
- Say who you are and that you buy houses in the area.
- Mention the property by address, so it does not read as bulk mail.
- Give one clear way to reach you.
- When an owner responds, answer quickly and ask about their situation before price.
Tools that include driving for dollars.
You can do all of this with a notebook and the county website. Apps make it faster by recording your route, pinning houses on a map and looking up owners as you go. Among the tools in our comparisons, these include it, according to each vendor’s own pages.
| PRODUCT | WHAT ITS PAGES SAY |
|---|---|
| DealMachine | Built around it: route tracking, tagging and team drives from a mobile app on every plan. |
| PropStream | Driving for dollars in its mobile app. |
| BatchLeads | Driving for dollars in the same subscription as its lists. |
| REsimpli | Driving for dollars inside its investor CRM. |
FROM THE PUBLISHER
Where ARIA fits.
ARIA does not have driving for dollars today. It is planned for ARIA’s companion mobile app. Today ARIA picks up after the drive. Add the addresses as leads, look up owners with skip tracing on the Max plan, and when an owner responds and asks to hear from you, Aria calls them back, qualifies them and books the walkthrough.
FAQ
Questions, answered.
What is driving for dollars?
A way of finding off-market properties by driving through neighbourhoods, noting houses that look vacant or neglected, and contacting their owners about selling. It costs time and fuel, and it finds properties that appear on no purchased list.
Is driving for dollars worth it?
It suits a wholesaler with more time than money. The leads cost little to find and few other investors have them, but the method is slow and only works if you follow through with mail or calls to every owner you record.
How do I find the owner of a vacant house?
Look the address up on the county assessor’s or tax collector’s website. It shows the owner of record and the mailing address for the tax bill. If the owner is a company or you want a phone number, a skip tracing service is the next step.
Which apps are used for driving for dollars?
DealMachine is built around it, with route tracking and team drives from a mobile app. PropStream, BatchLeads and REsimpli each include driving for dollars in their products. A notebook and your county’s website also work.
Is driving for dollars legal?
Looking at houses from a public street and writing down addresses is generally lawful. Do not go onto the property, look through windows or open a mailbox. The rules on marketing calls and texts apply when you contact the owners. This is general information, not legal advice.
What do I do with the list after a drive?
Look up each owner, send mail to the owner’s mailing address, and keep sending it over several months. Record every response and follow up quickly. The drive is the low-cost part; the consistent follow-up is what produces contracts.
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