Driving for dollars - Learn from a fireman

[Tyler Ansell]

Driving for dollars – Learn from a fireman

One of my best friends is a fireman and the most fascinating thing I learned from him is their version of “driving for dollars” study method. During your first year at the station you have to pass some pretty strenuous tests, one of which has heavy focus on the directional and geographical capabilities of the firefighter and how well they know their area. I’m sure you could do this 100 different ways but my friend is very hands on so this worked awesome (and it was a bit of fun too!).

He would grab a stack of blank paper, some colored pens and we would head out after I got off work. The plan is simple, draw your own map. Page by page we built maps of the entire area he was responsible for knowing.

When your oral test questions were: “There’s a heartattack at 142 Heartbreak Lane. You’re at the Sunset Apartments on another call…get me there before he dies.” You really, really have to know your area. We hear it all the time on the podcasts that you need to know your market. If you knew it so good that an address came up on MLS and you knew where it was without googling, how much of an advantage would you have over the next guy? What if you knew neighborhood details too…

We would pull to the entrance of the neighborhood and jot down some notes in the corner of the page ie “Eagle Point, 2 lights south of the Walmart on Kennedy. Small sign, no turn lane. Pool and clubhouse at the front. Old houses, all 1 story. Lots of big flammable trees.” What notes would you write if you were looking for houses in that neighborhood?

We would drive everything street by street, pulling over anywhere we could to make more notes and draw our streets. I took this method to finding houses driving for dollars but instead of locating hydrants I found addresses to send letters too and research their status. This led me to my first investment purchase and hopefully you can use these tips to improve your driving for dollars game too.

Tyler (not a fireman)