How to hit every street in a town efficiently? Drive for Dollars

[Kevin Moules]

Hello BP community, you guys/gals are awesome! I come here when I need guidance and answers. As of 2 weeks ago I quit my W-2 job after 7 years. I am now going to go full time with my handyman business and real estate investing. My wife and I are currently finishing our first flip and will be listed by weeks end. That being said my local area has opportunity for more flips and possibly BRRRR deals if I can get a low enough price.

My plan is to drive for dollars in 3 neighboring towns that have populations of about 6k each and then driving my own city with about 72k population. The 3 towns are highly desirable locations to live and inventory is low. So I believe there to be potential. I know DFD does not scale, but by driving I will become intimate with each town. Also, as a benefit of my handyman business I will always be driving so I can keep my investor eye out as well for places.

The question is, how would you go about driving every street in a small town efficiently? Any apps out there that would give you every street in a town that you could cross off as you drive them?

My best thought at the moment is to get a paper map of these towns and highlight streets as I drive them to make sure I drive every street. Old school I know but thats all I can think of right now. Google maps shows the streets but I do not know if I can cross them off somehow. I understand this process will be a snapshot in time and there will be run down properties a year from now but DFD is a good way to start without spending a lot of money on mailers to a list. Its also laser focused on poor looking properties.

Thanks in advance for the help and suggestions!

[Amanda G.]

Paper maps will keep you sane in this situation. That's what I used. It helps to have a second person to write down addresses and hang doortags or put postcards in mailboxes as you go. And if your budget and the city ordinances allow, bandit signs are all over because they work.

You probably already know this, but I like to scout and look for trash cans that are out when none of the neighbors are, as well as the obvious distress signals.

Good luck!

[Lydia R.]

@Kevin Moules Batch geo or some other driving for dollars app will probably make your life a whole lot easier!

[Kevin Moules]

@Lydia R., I plan on using both Property Radar and The Driving for Dollars App on my phone for saving addresses. However I do not believe these create a driving route for you. I will have to check out batchgeo and see what it is about. Thanks for heads up.

@Amanda G., I want to keep my sanity so that's why a paper map was the most appeasing to me. I would like to do this with my wife but most likely it will just be me. It would make it easier to have her write addressed and I would drive.  

What do your door hangers and postcards say? Do you send another post card or letter later? My thought at the moment is to hand write letters with my wife to the properties we find. Good idea on the trash can! This is not one I had thought about. 

Wrote down two addresses as I was doing handyman jobs today. Plan on sending them a simple I buy houses letter.  I need to do more research on what the hand written letter should say. 

Thank you!

[Amanda G.]

I use the basic "We buy houses" door hanger from Vistaprint. I used a custom one with my picture for a while, but I decided I didn't actually want my face out there.

My marketing is NOT a coherent method. In the time/money balance, I have a bit more money than time to spend on it, so my free time is spent looking at houses other people have already identified (wholesale or MLS). My market is continuing to tighten, so I may have to get better at this.

Paul Thompson, who was a BP podcast guest a while back has a 3 offer letter he sends out. I collaborate with Paul, and I like his letter. 

[Kevin Moules]

@Amanda G., i really liked Pauls podcast. That guy took off like a rocket! I like how he just goes on down the line of options to make a property work. He does not tie himself to just buying a place for buy and hold. He will flip or wholesale or lease option or... on and on. I really enjoyed that. So on the letter does he present, cash sale, owner finance, or subject to? This seems like an interesting approach on the letter. 

[Amanda G.]

I think he has his template up on his website pauldavidthompson.com. (not positive). He presents a cash, an interest only, and a principle only option. There's a spreadsheet for determining the MAO in each case. He set it up as a google file, and then had someone do the code so one could press a button and drop the numbers into a form letter. I'm trying to find someone who is willing to split the cost of having someone code that for me/us. Then print, sign, and bam, it is out the door.

[Kevin Moules]

I thought I would add some info here on what I am doing. I downloaded the "Driving for Dollars" app which allows you to pin properties as you drive by them. Its also a skip tracing service that will send an excel file with owner info once you are done driving. Anyways, the latest update to the app actually tracks where you have driven so it makes it very easy for me to hit every street in town. 

I currently have pinned 100 distressed homes in 2 towns. I plan on driving through 2 more towns in a couple weeks and getting my list up to 200 people. At that time I plan on using Roor to send out txt messages and possibly ringless voicemails. Those who do not respond to these i will cold call and then I will send out direct mail. At least that's the current plan. 

[James Dunwoody]

@Kevin Moules if you us the Deal Machine app you can save your routes so that you can see which streets you have driven on previously. This will help you make sure you don’t keep driving down the same streets. You can also take a picture of the property with the app and then send a postcard with the picture of the house on it to the owner all through the app very easily.

Check out the DealMachine app and effortlessly follow up with property owners. Get $10 of direct mail credit w/ promo: M2C8BC https://dealmachine.com/?promo=M2C8BC

[Kevin Moules]

@James Dunwoody, I have heard it advertised but have not looked into it. I see that you can save the address and send them a postcard with the picture of the property. Does the app also skip trace to find out owner phone numbers, mailing addresses, last sale date, email addresses, ect..

I have another town to drive through, maybe I will download this app and give it a shot. My plan at the moment is to follow the method from the podcast with the two guys who wholesale. Txt, cold call, letter. Maybe with this app i can do letter, txt, cold call? 

Thanks for the reminder on this app!

[Kevin Moules]

@James Dunwoody, i did look into the software just a bit. The postcard they send with the house picture is pretty cool. However I am only paying $20/month for the dirving for dollars app which skip traces. I can mark 100 properties with that tier level. Granted I have to figure out and pay for direct mail beyond that. From what I read the deal machine folks also charge to send out the postcard beyond the monthly fee, is this correct?

My plan was to text message but I am learning that is illegal to do, so now I plan to cold call and follow up with direct mail. 

[David Lecko]

@Kevin Moules yes, postcard is an extra charge. $.99 of you send less than 100 per month... $.49 each of you send more than 100 in a month (Mailer Pro)