What is driving for dollars you ask? (Or should I say “you google?”) Why do you hear people throwing around the phrase driving for dollars All. The. Time?
Driving for dollars is where you drive around looking for distressed homes in desirable neighborhoods and attempt to get the house under contract!
I’m not gonna lie… driving for dollars is my new favorite hobby. I’ve also recently started “walking the dogs for dollars” if that’s a thing.
And this is because I FINALLY found a real estate mentor… by accident. (I wasn’t going up to every real estate investor I know asking “will you be my mentor?” I simply had a legit question to ask this guy and he took me under his wing.)
Who drives for dollars?
House flippers, wholesalers, buy and hold investors, bird dogs and even real estate agents are all driving for dollars.
Basically anyone who wants to find houses with motivated sellers can benefit from driving for dollars, especially in the beginning of their career.
And before I continue, I’m gonna be honest and say I kinda suck at driving for dollars when I am the one actually doing the driving. I find it difficult to navigate the road, look at every house, follow traffic laws and make sure I’m not holding people up behind me while I’m doing 5mph or completely stopping to get an address.
So my preference is to drive for dollars when Todd is the one driving!
What do we look for when driving for dollars?
We typically look for houses that have long grass, lots of weeds or general appearance of disrepair. This signifies an owner who can’t (or won’t) take care of their property.
Look for old roofs (ones with tarps are great indicator of a leaky roof,) gutters filled with leaves or falling off and houses with flaking paint or broken siding. Take notice of buildings with cardboard in the windows or ones with windows that have been completely boarded up!
You could also look out for tags on utility meters which usually means their service has been cut off – a sign they can’t afford to live there much longer or no one even lives in the home! Cars and trucks on up jacks in the driveway could also be a sign of money trouble.
When driving for dollars also look for piled up newspapers, phone books, mail overflowing from the box and uncollected door tags from solicitors! I also look for notices posted on the front door, these can signify they’ve been served some kind of legal notice. These are all signs of absentee owners and/or vacant properties.
During the winter months, I like to drive around a few days after a snowstorm to look for houses where the driveway and sidewalk haven’t been cleared. Again, this is yet another sign of absentee owners and/or vacant property!
Lastly, If you travel the same roads often enough you might begin to notice when trash cans aren’t placed by the curb for trash pick up or when a home never has lights on at night, or never has a car in the driveway.
What do you with the info after driving for dollars?
So now that you have a list of properties from all that driving for dollars what do you do with it? That’s up to you! If it’s legal and you have really big balls, you could knock on the doors of the distressed homes. I’ve never done that so you’re on own with that and what to say once you get them to open the door.
My preferred method is to send a letter to the owner. This isn’t always as easy as it seems because the actual owner of the home may never get the letter if you simply it mail it to the distressed house. The owner may live out of state, be an institution like a bank or they may live just around the corner. So you’ll need to figure out the owner’s mailing address and mail your letter there. Most areas have this information listed in the public records online so it’s usually free and easy to find but time consuming.
It’s also possible to find the owner’s phone number online (more likely if you pay for a service to find it for you) which could be even better than a letter! Another, less likely way to contact the owner is through email. Again, you may have to pay for a service to find this for you and it’s way easier to ignore an email than it is a phone call or hand written letter.
Lastly, with all the social media platforms now a days, it’s quite possible to find the owner on social media and send them a message! Just be careful, there can be lots of people with the same name on there.
So let’s recap this whole driving for dollars thing.
The people who drive for dollars are:
- Investors
- Wholesalers
- Real estate agents
- Bird dogs, etc.
- Anyone who wants to find a motivated seller
What to look for when driving for dollars:
- Long unkempt grass
- Weeds or vines
- General appearance of disrepair
- Boarded up windows
- Chock full or broken gutters
- Cars/trucks on jack stands in driveway
- Tons of crap in the yard
- Tags on utility meters
- Piles of mail, newspapers or phone books (if those are even still a thing)
- Notices posted on the front door
- Snow not removed within a few days of snowfall
What to do with the information after driving for dollars:
- Mail the owner
- Call the owner
- Knock on the door
- Find them on social media
- Email them
- …And get their house under contract!
I’m always driving for dollars in my local area (within 30 miles of 18073.) If you come across a property that looks to be in disrepair, send it my way and if we close on it I’ll be sure to give you a nice finder’s fee.
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