Embarking on a journey in the real estate business may feel daunting when unsure of where to plant the first step. However, multiple strategies can ensure success, and one traditional yet straightforward method is driving for dollars.
According to Redfin, as of May 2023, U.S. home prices have experienced a 3.1% decrease compared to the previous year, with the median price now standing at $419,103. The total number of homes sold dipped by 16.8%, resulting in 493,123 homes sold during May 2023. This figure marked a downturn from the 592,347 homes sold during the same period in the preceding year. The prevailing 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is now 6.4%, showing a rise of 1.2 points year over year.
These changes in home prices can signal the shifting levels of home affordability. Given these trends, driving for dollars presents a highly effective strategy to capitalize on these market shifts, potentially paving the way for profitable real estate investments.
So if you're looking to maximize the use of driving for dollars apps or considering the driving for dollars real estate strategy, you're in the right place. Learn what driving for dollars is, how to get started, and our picks for the 5 best driving for dollars apps to use in 2023!
Driving for dollars is a proactive marketing technique that real estate investors leverage to identify and capitalize on potential property deals. This strategy involves actively driving or touring neighborhoods to find off-market properties, distressed properties, vacant homes, and foreclosure or pre-foreclosure houses.
Embracing the driving for dollars approach is akin to initiating an active new-business marketing campaign. It involves gathering valuable data on specific properties and locations that you otherwise would not be able to amass simply by scrutinizing demographic data on your laptop. This hands-on approach not only helps to build a list of vacant or distressed properties, but it also grants you a direct channel to reach and market to potential sellers in targeted neighborhoods.
While the primary goal is to identify properties under distress or likely to be distressed, the type of properties to look out for may vary depending on whether you're an investor, agent, or local business. Therefore, a keen understanding of what to search for and where to look is critical for those keen to reap the benefits of this strategy, also known as 'D4D'.
Despite the potential time investment required in driving for dollars, it can prove highly rewarding for all types of real estate investors, especially those engaged in wholesaling real estate. And if you're serious about this strategy, utilizing a driving for dollars app can significantly streamline your efforts.
So, whether you prefer to drive, bike, or walk, embracing driving for dollars can be your gateway to uncovering lucrative real estate opportunities and maximizing your investment returns.
While driving for dollars can be an effective strategy, you can learn to find potential wholesaling or house-flipping properties directly from the MLS! Learn how to effectively utilize this strategy today with Real Estate Skills FREE Training with Alex Martinez!
Driving for dollars apps are specialized digital tools designed to streamline and enhance the traditional driving for dollars strategy in real estate investing. They are typically mobile applications that aid investors in identifying, researching, and contacting homeowners of potential investment properties, particularly distressed or off-market ones, while on the go.
These apps feature capabilities such as GPS tracking for efficient route planning, real-timeproperty owner data access, list-building for potential properties, direct mail campaign creation, and more. They essentially digitize and simplify the entire process, allowing investors to focus more on negotiation and deal-making rather than administrative tasks.
In essence, driving for dollars apps take the manual elements of the strategy and transform them into a seamless, automated process, making them an invaluable resource for modern real estate investors.
Read Also: 18 Best Apps For Real Estate Wholesalers (2023 Edition)
Utilizing the right technology is vital in the fast-paced world of real estate investing. In the context of driving for dollars, a strategy that requires significant data collection and analysis, leveraging the right app can significantly enhance your efficiency and results. That's why we've tapped into our expert knowledge to identify the best driving for dollars apps available in 2023, thoroughly evaluating them based on key parameters crucial for real estate investors.
Driving for dollars apps have revolutionized the traditional approach, swapping scribbled notes and highlighters for a digital, organized, and efficient system. The best apps in the market allow you to pre-plan optimal routes, track your exploration, access property and owner information instantly, and even launch direct mail campaigns, all in real-time.
However, not all apps are built equally, and the ideal choice for you depends on a host of factors including cost, features, and performance. To simplify your decision-making process, we've analyzed the top driving for dollars apps for 2023 and broken down their strengths and weaknesses, so you can pick the perfect tool to augment your property hunting.
Here are the 5 best driving for dollars apps in 2023:
DealMachine has positioned itself as a highly valuable tool in the realm of real estate investment, aiding investors to discover potential property deals in their desired location. This driving for dollars app streamlines the process of identifying distressed or vacant properties, gathering comprehensive data about the property and its owner, and establishing a first point of contact via postcard or email.
With DealMachine, you can make informed decisions and promptly act on promising investment opportunities.
DealMachine comes packed with numerous innovative features, including:
DealMachine's pricing is structured across three tiers:
Ready to take a test drive with DealMachine? Sign up now for a free trial and jumpstart your real estate investment journey today! And don't forget to check out our comprehensive class to further sharpen your investment skills.
Read Also: DealMachine Review: Is It Worth It?
REsimpli stands out as a comprehensive tool specifically designed to streamline your real estate investment journey. This all-in-one Driving for Dollars app is integrated with REsimpli's own CRM and List Stacking system to provide seamless functionality. It enables you to glean real-time data about properties, determine if they're vacant or already on your lead list, and instantly access complete owner information, saving you precious time and resources.
REsimpli's Driving for Dollars tool is included in all three of its pricing tiers:
Sign up today to get 50% OFF your first month and boost your property scouting abilities today!
Read Also: REsimpli Review (2023 Edition) | Real Estate Skills
PropStream provides a comprehensive property analysis tool designed for realtors, investors, and real estate brokerages, giving access to information on over 153 million properties across the United States. With functionalities for lead acquisition and management, the tool can also be used as a wholesale real estate CRM. PropStream's Mobile Scout app lets you scan nearby properties in real-time, making it a favored tool for house-flipping investors.
PropStream offers a variety of notable features:
For $99 per month, PropStream provides access to its comprehensive property database, including county records and MLS comps, over 120 lead filters, and an integrated marketing platform.
The Driving for Dollars feature is included in this plan, and you can add up to 10 Scouts for free. Additional services like Skip Tracing are available at $0.12 per trace, and a list automator addon is available for $27 per month.
If you're a high-volume investor or flipper looking to build extensive, targeted lists, PropStream could be your go-to resource. With a wealth of data and a multitude of filters, PropStream offers a comprehensive package for your real estate needs. Sign up today for a free trial and get ready to streamline your property search with PropStream.
Read Also: PropStream Review (2023): Pricing, Features, & Is It Worth It?
PropertyRadar provides a comprehensive real estate discovery and prospecting platform, designed for investors, brokers, and real estate professionals. It offers access to comprehensive data on residential and commercial properties across the United States. It offers a variety of tools for identifying, organizing, and managing property leads, making it an ideal solution for real estate professionals seeking both on-market and off-market properties.
PropertyRadar offers a variety of notable features:
PropertyRadar offers three main subscription plans:
Additionally, services like phone marketing and parcel maps are available at extra costs.
PropertyRadar is a potent tool for real estate professionals, providing a wealth of data and an array of powerful features to enhance their prospecting efforts. Discover both on-market and off-market opportunities with PropertyRadar. Get started with a free trial today and elevate your real estate venture with PropertyRadar.
Read Also: PropertyRadar Review: Is It Worth It?
BatchLeads is a comprehensive real estate technology platform designed to aid investors and agents in identifying potential buyers and sellers, marketing to them, and closing deals. As part of BatchService’s four REI solutions, BatchLeads provides a full suite of lead generation, lead management, marketing, and analytics services.
BatchLeads offers four subscription plans:
BatchLeads is a powerful tool for real estate professionals looking for a comprehensive solution to lead generation, management, and marketing. With a wealth of data and diverse functionalities, BatchLeads can be an excellent resource for your real estate career.
Read Also: Batch Leads Review | Real Estate Skills
Driving for dollars is a time-tested, hands-on approach to sourcing potential real estate investment opportunities. It's a strategy that can complement your MLS-focused searches, allowing you to identify distressed or under-valued properties that might be hidden gems.
In the competitive real estate market, diversifying your property sourcing strategies can give you an edge. Driving for dollars, when done in conjunction with diligent MLS searches, can provide you with additional opportunities to identify distressed properties that others may overlook.
Used effectively by investors, house-flippers, and real estate wholesalers, driving for dollars allows you to bypass conventional property search methods and find deals ahead of the curve.
If you're ready to enhance your real estate investing strategies and add another target for your property hunting bow, read our 9-step guide to learn how you can drive your way to success in real estate investing.
When driving for dollars in real estate, it's imperative to select a neighborhood with high potential. Evaluate factors such as:
To optimize your driving for dollars venture, plan a route that allows you to cover every property in your targeted neighborhood. This helps you stay methodical, preventing any oversights or repeated visits to the same locations.
Driving for dollars isn't just about cars - you can bike, walk, skate, or even rollerblade! The concept extends to virtually driving for dollars too, which we'll delve into later.
Seasoned real estate investors can spot distressed properties effortlessly. They are key targets when driving for dollars. We'll provide a detailed guide on spotting such potential deals.
Keep a comprehensive list of potential distressed properties. It will be a crucial asset when you start skip tracing and marketing to motivated sellers - property owners ready to sell their property.
Take clear photographs highlighting the distressed state of the property, ensuring the house number is visible. These images may be used when contacting property owners. Utilizing a driving for dollars app can simplify this process, and we'll recommend the best ones later.
Having amassed a list of distressed properties, the subsequent step is to skip trace the addresses to acquire the owner's contact information.
Employ a free service like PeopleFinders for skip tracing. Once you obtain the contact information, engage in direct marketing using methods like direct mail, yellow letters, emails, phone calls, or ringless voicemails.
Remember to follow up with property owners periodically. Persistence is key here, don't lose heart if they don't respond initially. Stay consistent with your messages, they might eventually consider selling, and you don't want to miss out on a promising real estate deal!
Once you establish communication with a motivated seller, come prepared with a price range based on your research of the property's current value, its After Repair Value (ARV), and estimated repair costs. The goal is to negotiate a mutually beneficial deal with the seller.
You're at the final stage of the driving for dollars journey!
After reaching an agreement with the seller, proceed to open escrow. Make sure to obtain a preliminary title report and check for any liens. Once you've meticulously reviewed the title report and everything looks good, you're set to purchase the property!
Whether your strategy is to fix and flip, apply the BRRRR method, wholesale the deal to a cash buyer, or even move in yourself, it's time to celebrate your successful driving for dollars endeavor!
Ready to begin your real estate career? Join Alex Martinez at his FREE training to learn how to get started with house flipping and wholesaling!
Virtual driving for dollars is a virtual wholesaling method that uses online platforms such as Google Maps to look for distressed properties. This is easier and as effective as the traditional driving for dollars method.
DealMachine has a Virtual Driving For Dollars Chrome Extension that works with your account and is easy to use. The following is a virtual driving for dollars step-by-step process:
Here's a quick tutorial from David Lecko, Founder of DealMachine, on how to virtually drive for dollars using the DealMachine Chrome Extension:
You may be asking, “Does driving for dollars work?”
Driving for dollars has been proven to be a successful method by countless real estate agents and investors. It is one of the best ways to create a highly targeted list of distressed properties in a specific neighborhood.
Your driving for dollars success rate depends on the effectiveness of your marketing strategies. The key to a high success rate is all about the marketing and sales process after the list is built.
If your direct outreach response rate is above 5%, then you'll be in good shape. Getting a motivated seller on the phone is half of the battle, the other half is agreeing on a deal that makes sense for both sides.
Ask yourself, how much effort are you willing to put in? The saying “what you put in is what you get out” is extremely relevant when driving for dollars because reaching the final step, closing the real estate deal, takes perseverance.
All in all, driving for dollars can be time-consuming, money, and effort to be successful at it. There are other strategies you can use to find more real estate deals in less time.
If you want to learn how to start investing in real estate without using your own capital, Watch our video on “How To Get Into Real Estate With NO MONEY!” Expert real estate investor, Alex Martinez, will help you jumpstart your real estate investing career!
Venturing into real estate and curious about the practice of driving for dollars? Or perhaps you're a seasoned investor looking for tips to refine your strategy? Whatever your query, Real Estate Skills aims to clarify all your doubts. Here are the answers to the most common questions around the driving for dollars strategy.
The plain simple truth is yes! Driving for dollars works very well for wholesaling real estate. Wholesaling real estate is just another exit strategy when you find a great real estate deal.
Instead of purchasing the property yourself during the final step, you'll either:
The trick is to stay persistent and to avoid getting discouraged during the driving for dollarswholesaling process. It might take a while to find distressed properties and close deals, but the tradeoff is well worth the time and effort you put in.
When using a driving for dollars app, your costs can vary significantly depending on the software and the level of functionality you need. Here's a quick overview of popular apps and their price ranges:
Investing in a driving for dollars app can undeniably optimize your property hunting process. However, these apps come with a price tag, and it's crucial to realize that you can still be successful in real estate without making such an investment. A keen eye, a bit of determination, and the right knowledge can also bring you fruitful results.
At Real Estate Skills, we understand that getting started in real estate investing can seem daunting, especially when it comes to finances. That's why we offer a top-rated wholesaling and house-flipping training program designed to equip you with the essential skills and insights you need to thrive in real estate - without spending your own capital!
Our goal is to help you understand how to maximize opportunities, find the best deals, and build a profitable real estate business.
Why not take the first step towards your new career? Join our free training today and discover how to succeed in real estate, even without a driving for dollars app!
Yes, you can! Google Maps is a great interactive platform for virtual driving for dollars. By using the Street View feature in Google Maps, driving for dollars can be done and yield profits from the comfort of your own home.
The incredibly advanced Street View in Google Maps offers millions of high-quality panoramic images. You can “walk” the streets of your targeted neighborhood with clear views of houses and real estate images right on your screen. Simply ‘pin’ properties based on their physical observable condition.
Although the Street View does not offer real-time images of the property, the bottom right-hand corner of the screen shows when the image was captured. An image of the property that was taken closer to the present-day will have a higher chance of it being distressed than one that was captured a couple of months ago.
For more, watch this tutorial on how to use Google MapsStreet View:
Yes! Anyone can go driving for dollars. However, you need to know what to look for when driving neighborhoods and how to effectively use direct marketing strategies.
Driving for dollars doesn’t have to be a one-person job. You can quickly build a team of “drivers” to help you look for distressed properties and bring you a list of leads.
Even if you don't know how to invest in real estate, another option is to partner up with an experienced real estate investor who can handle the list of properties you find.
You can play the role of a "scout" or "bird dog" and earn a fee for finding deals that result in closed real estate transactions. For example, you can charge a fixed amount for each distressed property address you find or even earn a percentage of the investor's profit when the real estate deal closes!
When you drive for dollars, the target properties should stand out from other properties in the neighborhood. Below are the main qualities of a distressed property:
An expert tip is to go on the day trash gets collected in that specific neighborhood. If the property has some of the qualities mentioned above and there isn’t a bin outside on trash day, the property is likely distressed.
If driving for dollars is something you’d like to do on the side during the weekend, that is the perfect time to do so!
People like to normally sleep in on the weekends, so go out early in the morning and check if there’s a car parked in the driveway. If qualities of a distressed property are present and there is no car in the driveway, then odds are you have found yourself a distressed property.
There are other qualities that are not as common but still good to know when looking for distressed properties. Look out for potential zombie houses and hoarder houses when driving for dollars.
After you've gathered a list of distressed properties, the next step is to skip trace the property addresses you found. Skip tracing will provide you with property owners' phone numbers, mailing addresses, and contact information so that you can send them mail, or otherwise get in touch and turn them into motivated sellers.
A website that provides free skip tracing and contact information on specific properties is Fast People Search. By filling out the information needed in the "Reverse Address Lookup" tab, you’ll be able to find the owner’s current home address, phone numbers, and other relevant data to get yourself connected.
Once you have found the necessary information to contact property owners, you will do one or more of the following:
Remember to follow up and reach out to the property owners again if you do not receive a response within 30 days.
Driving for dollars, either traditionally or virtually, serves as a powerful technique for anyone involved in real estate. This approach, when carried out properly, can uncover undervalued, distressed properties that may be off the radar of other investors, providing you with unique opportunities.
The process, from identifying the right neighborhood to finalizing a deal, is a journey that, while made easier by certain apps, doesn't always necessitate a heavy financial investment in technology. Yes, these tools can streamline your efforts, but it's important to remember the key factor in successful real estate investing is knowledge and strategy, not just the latest app.
Would you rather invest hundreds of dollars each month on apps, or invest in learning skills that could make you thousands or even tens of thousands? At Real Estate Skills, we believe in the latter. That's why we invite you to take advantage of our free training course. This program is designed to equip you with the skills you need to confidently and effectively navigate the real estate market, even without pouring your hard-earned money into expensive tools.
Start investing in yourself today. Harness your potential and transform your interest in real estate into a thriving career or profitable side hustle. Sign up for our free training course today and get a step ahead in the exciting world of real estate!
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