First driving for dollars

[Dallas Martin]

I conducted my first driving for dollars the other day.  I picked a small section in my target market and just drove around looking for houses that appeared abandoned or neglected.  I came away with about 30 or so houses over a 3 hour period (so about 10 per hour).  Anyone else ever try this?  Did I do OK with that return rate?  The plan is to direct mail to the property owners in hopes of finding a motivated seller in the bunch.  Anybody ever have success using this strategy?

[Natalie Kolodij]

I'm now spending my lunch breaks at work using google street view to virtually D4D. 

I know some of the imaging is out dated - but it gives me a good idea of areas to focus my physical driving in. I'm finding streets I didn't know where there, areas with the size/style of house I'd focus on, ect. 

Or for example, I'm looking for duplexes. It's an easy way to make a list of all of them in my target market.