Driving for dollars
Driving for dollars: find distressed houses from the street, then the owner, then make contact
Updated September 2026. The free method first, the paid shortcut second.
Driving for dollars is driving through the neighborhoods you want to buy in, noting properties that look neglected or empty, then finding each owner in the county record and reaching them by letter or phone. By hand it costs your time and fuel. An app adds route tracking and an owner lookup from the car: DealMachine at $99 a seat, or FlipMantis, which includes driving for dollars on its free plan.
- You need
- A car, an area and a way to log addresses
- Look for
- Signs of neglect or vacancy
- Cost
- Time and fuel, or an app from $0
- Then
- The county record for the owner
Step by step, for nothing
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Pick an area and plan a route
Choose a few neighborhoods where you would buy, small enough to cover street by street, and plan the route before you set off. PropertyRadar’s own guide suggests lists of 30 properties or fewer, a drive you can finish in a day or an evening. Driving the same streets again later shows which houses have changed.
What you come away with A route you can repeat.
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Look for signs of distress
Overgrown yards, boarded or broken windows, mail or notices piling up at the door, a damaged roof or a tarp, peeling paint, and posted code enforcement notices. None of these proves the owner will sell, but several together mark a house worth looking up.
What you come away with A list of tagged addresses.
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Log the address and what you saw
Write down the exact address, what you saw and the date, or drop a pin in an app. Stay on the public street: photograph from the road and do not step onto the property.
What you come away with An address and a reason for each house.
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Find the owner in the county record
Look each address up on the county assessor’s or property appraiser’s site for the owner’s name and the mailing address for the tax bill. A mailing address elsewhere means the owner does not live in the house.
What you come away with The owner, and where a letter reaches them.
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Reach the owner, and log each contact
A letter to the mailing address needs no trace. To call, trace the owner and scrub the numbers against the Do Not Call list first. Log who you contacted and when, so a second letter or a call follows on from the first.
What you come away with A first contact with each owner.
What driving costs, and where an app helps
By hand, every street costs time and fuel, and the owner lookups at home take longer again. An app moves the lookup into the car: DealMachine traces the owner from the seat’s 10,000 data credits for $99, and PropertyRadar records each drive on a map, with its duration and distance.
Apps also keep the drive for later. PropStream’s app records trips to analyze in the office, BatchLeads’ lists route tracking, notes and saved property details, and PropertyRadar color-codes each team member’s tracks.
Driving for dollars apps, priced
What each app lists for the drive, from its own app store listing and pricing page, September 2026.
| Tool | On the road | Price | Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|
 DealMachine |
Route tracking, tap to tag, owner lookup | $99 a seat | See DealMachine pricing |
 PropertyRadar |
GPS tracks of each drive, by team member | $119 a month | See PropertyRadar pricing |
 BatchLeads |
Route tracking, notes, saved properties | $119 a month, three users | See BatchLeads pricing |
 PropStream |
Records trips to review later | $99 a month | See PropStream pricing |
 REsimpli |
Routes assigned to drivers | $299 a month with the CRM | See REsimpli pricing |
 FlipMantis |
Driving for dollars on the free plan | Free, Pro $99 | See FlipMantis pricing |
The driving for dollars apps page compares their store ratings and what each does after the drive.
Paid links. If you subscribe through one we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes our ranking order.
Driving for dollars: questions people ask
What does driving for dollars mean?
Driving through neighborhoods to spot houses that look neglected or empty, then finding the owners and asking whether they would sell. The name comes from turning a drive into deals.
Does driving for dollars work?
It finds houses that show distress from the street, which may not be on any list yet. We have not measured response rates, and no app here publishes one we can check.
What should I look for when driving for dollars?
Overgrown yards, boarded or broken windows, piled-up mail or notices, roof damage or a tarp, peeling paint, and posted code enforcement notices. Several together make a house worth looking up.
Is driving for dollars legal?
Driving public streets and noting addresses is legal. Stay off the property, and follow the calling rules if you phone the owners. Nothing here is legal advice.
Which apps can I use for driving for dollars?
DealMachine, PropertyRadar, BatchLeads, PropStream and REsimpli list it in their apps, and FlipMantis includes it on its free plan. The apps page compares their ratings and prices.
How do I find the owner of a house I found driving?
Look the address up on the county assessor’s site for the owner and the mailing address. The who owns a house guide covers it step by step.
How do I pick a neighborhood to drive?
Pick one where you already know what houses sell for, so you can judge a property from the street, and small enough to cover street by street in one drive. Driving the same neighborhood again later shows which houses have changed.
What do I send the owners I find?
A short letter or postcard to the mailing address on the tax record, naming the property and asking whether they would sell. Mail needs no trace, and a second piece a few weeks later follows up. Several apps send direct mail from the app, DealMachine from 75¢ a postcard.
How we put this together
| Line | Source | What we read |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | App stores | Each app’s App Store and Google Play listing and pricing page, read September 2026 |
| 02 | Public records | County assessor search pages, for what the owner record holds |
What we did not do. We have not driven with any of these apps. The signs of distress are what investors look for, not a measured predictor of a sale.