How to Drive for Dollars in Texas (With a Free App)
Where to drive, what to look for, the best times to go, how to track it all with a free D4D app, and how to find and follow up with the owners.
Driving for dollars, or D4D, is the cheapest way to find motivated sellers: you drive neighborhoods, spot houses that look vacant or neglected, and reach out to the owners before anyone else does. All it costs is gas and time.
This guide covers where to drive, what to look for, how to track it all for free, and what to do with your list afterward.
Why driving for dollars still works
Most investors buy the same lists: pre-foreclosures, tax delinquents, absentee owners. Everyone mails them, so those owners get a stack of letters a week.
A house you find yourself is different. An overgrown yard or a pile of mail doesn't show up on a list for months, if ever. When you reach that owner, you may be the only one who has.
Pick where to drive
Random driving wastes gas. Pick one area and drive every street in it.
- Older neighborhoods. Houses built before the 1980s need more repairs, and more of them have owners who have had them for decades.
- Areas where flips and rentals work. Drive where your buyers want to buy. If your Texas buyers want 3/2 brick homes under $250K, drive those neighborhoods.
- Small enough to finish. Twenty to forty streets is a good drive. Come back to the same area every few weeks: a house that looked fine last month may not now.
What to look for
Signs a house may be vacant or the owner may be ready to sell:
- Overgrown yard, weeds in the driveway, dead landscaping
- Boarded or broken windows
- Mail, newspapers or door hangers piling up
- Roof damage, a tarp on the roof, sagging gutters full of leaves
- Code violation notices or a city sticker on the door
- Old vehicles parked in the yard
- A faded "For Rent" sign that has been up for months
- Fire damage
One sign might mean nothing. Two or three together is worth tagging.
Best times to drive
- Weekday mornings (6 to 8) or late afternoons (4 to 6). You see which houses are lived in when people are coming and going.
- After a storm. Roof damage and fallen trees show which owners can't keep up with repairs.
- The first week of the month. Mail and newspapers pile up where nobody is home.
Drive with someone if you can: one drives, one tags.
Track your drive for free
You want three things from an app: your route on a map so you don't drive the same streets twice, a fast way to save a house with its address, and a list you can work afterward.
PropPipeline's Driving for Dollars app does all three, free, with no paid tier:
- Start a drive. Your route draws on the map as you go, with miles and time. Streets from earlier drives show in gray.
- Tag a house in one tap. The address fills in from where you are. Pick what you saw (Vacant, Overgrown yard, Mail piling up and more), add a note and up to three photos.
- Keep going in dead zones. A house tagged with no signal saves on your phone and syncs when you're back in range.
- Work your list. My Houses shows every house on a list or a map, with a status: New, Researching, Contacted or Not a lead.
- Export a CSV with addresses, tags and notes when you're ready to reach owners.
It works in your phone's browser today. Keep the screen open while you drive.
Comparing apps? See driving for dollars apps compared, free and paid.
Find the owner
A tagged house is only a lead once you can reach the owner.
- County appraisal district. Every Texas county has a free search by address that shows the owner's name and mailing address. If the mailing address isn't the property, the owner likely doesn't live there.
- Skip trace. Upload your CSV to a skip trace service to get phone numbers and emails, usually for a few cents to a quarter per record.
- Mail service. Upload the same CSV to a mail service to send letters or postcards to each owner's mailing address.
Reach out and follow up
- Mail first. A handwritten-style letter or postcard to the owner's mailing address is the most common first touch. Mention the house by street, so it's clearly not a mass mailing.
- Then call or text, following the calling and texting rules for your state and the Do Not Call list.
- Door knocking works when the owner lives at the house. Be friendly and brief.
Most sellers need five to seven touches before they're ready to talk, so plan your follow-up before you drive. A spreadsheet works at first. As your list grows, a CRM built for wholesalers such as REsimpli keeps your sellers, buyers and follow-ups in one place. We may earn a commission if you subscribe. It doesn't change your price.
Once you have a deal under contract
Finding the seller is half the job. You still need a buyer before your closing date.
Post your deal on PropPipeline for free and it goes straight to Texas buyers whose Buy Box matches it. They contact you directly. There's no fee and no cut of your assignment. Before you market a deal, read our guide to Texas wholesaling laws.
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