Driving for Dollars: How to Run the Drive and Target It with Property Data

Key Takeaways

• Driving for dollars means driving neighborhoods to spot neglected or empty houses, logging each address, then finding the owner and asking whether they would sell; most of the work happens after the drive.
• A distressed-looking house is a clue, not a deal: two or three signs on one house, such as stacked mail, boarded windows and a code violation notice, are worth more than one overgrown yard.
• After each drive, the steps are: look up the owner of record, check public records for a lis pendens, notice of default, probate or unpaid taxes, skip-trace the owner, reach out, and follow up on a schedule.
• The IRS business mileage rate rose to 76 cents a mile from July 1, 2026, so a 40-mile session costs about $30 in vehicle cost.
• ATTOM counted 227,548 U.S. properties with a foreclosure filing in the first half of 2026, up 21% from a year earlier, which is why pulling distress records first tells you which streets to drive.

Goliath Data publishes this guide, and Goliath is one of the tools mentioned. Features and prices were checked on each company's own site on November 5, 2026, and can change.

Driving for dollars means driving neighborhoods to spot houses that look neglected or empty, logging each address, then finding the owner and asking whether they would sell. It costs little besides time and gas, and it finds sellers who never show up on a purchased list. The catch: most of the work happens after the drive, and a drive with no plan burns a Saturday on houses that are just untidy.

What is driving for dollars, and what is it not?

The house you spot is a clue, not a deal. Overgrown grass can mean a probate estate, a tired landlord, an owner in the hospital, or someone who just hates mowing. Driving for dollars works because the follow-up asks the owner directly, while competitors are still mailing the same county list everyone bought.

It suits wholesalers, flippers and buy-and-hold investors working a farm area they know well.

How do you run a driving for dollars session?

1. Plan the route before you start the car

Pick one or two neighborhoods inside your buy box: price range, property type and condition you can actually fund. Older housing stock, rentals and areas with recent foreclosure filings tend to show more distress. Map a loop that covers each street once, and keep sessions to an hour or two.

Bring a partner if you can: one drives, one logs.

2. Know which distress signs to log

Two or three signs on one house are worth more than one. A single overgrown yard in July is often just July.

3. Record each address the same way

For every property, capture the exact address (or a GPS pin), a photo from the street, the signs you saw, and a quick condition rating such as light, medium or heavy repairs. Tag it (vacant, distressed, rental) so you can sort later. An app does this with a tap; a spreadsheet works if you're disciplined.

Stay on public streets and sidewalks. Do not walk onto the property, peek in windows, or touch the mailbox.

What do you do after a driving for dollars session?

1. Look up the owner. Search the parcel on your county assessor or recorder site to get the owner of record and mailing address. A mailing address in another state flags an absentee owner.
2. Check for public-record distress. Search the same parcel for a lis pendens or notice of default (pre-foreclosure), a probate case, or unpaid taxes with the county treasurer.
3. Skip-trace the owner. Skip tracing turns a name and address into phone numbers and emails. Match rates are similar across vendors; accuracy is where they differ. Our comparison of skip tracing services for investors covers that in detail.
4. Reach out. Mail, a call, a text or a door knock. Lead with why you noticed the house and ask a plain question. These cold calling scripts are a starting point.
5. Follow up on a schedule. Most owners say "not now" before they ever say "maybe." Log every touch and set the next one, or the address you drove past goes cold.

How much does driving for dollars cost in money and time?

The cash outlay is mostly your car. The IRS raised its business mileage rate to 76 cents a mile from July 1, 2026, per the Journal of Accountancy, which is a fair estimate of what a mile really costs you. A 40-mile session works out to about $30 in vehicle cost at that rate.

Then add what comes after: owner lookups (often free on county sites), skip tracing, mailers or a dialer, and an app subscription if you use one. The bigger cost is time. A two-hour drive can easily mean several more hours of lookups and follow-up. After a few months, compare your hours per signed contract with what a list would cost.

What legal rules apply before you call or text owners?

This is not legal advice. Check with a lawyer in your state before you start outreach.

• Do Not Call. The FTC's Do Not Call Q&A for sellers and telemarketers says you must scrub calling lists against the National Do Not Call Registry at least every 31 days, and violations can bring fines of up to $53,088 each. Data for up to five area codes is free.
• TCPA. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act limits autodialed and prerecorded calls and texts to cell phones without consent. The FCC rule at 47 CFR 64.1200 also bars telephone solicitations to homes before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. local time.
• Courtesy. If a neighbor asks what you're doing, tell them. If an owner asks you to stop, stop and mark them. Many states add their own calling and texting rules too.

Goliath flags numbers that appear on DNC registries, but as its page on DNC flagging says, that is an informational aid and does not replace your own scrub.

How does property data improve driving for dollars?

Driving blind finds ugly houses. Driving with data finds owners who may need to sell. The "smart data" version flips the order: pull the distress records first, then drive the streets where they cluster.

The volume is real. ATTOM's mid-year 2026 foreclosure report counted 227,548 U.S. properties with a foreclosure filing in the first half of 2026, up 21% from a year earlier. Probate works the same way: probate data can point you to an estate house before an heir lists it.

A house that looks vacant and shows a tax delinquency and belongs to an out-of-state heir is a different call than a house with long grass. Stacking the visual sign on the record tells you who to call first and what to say. For empty houses specifically, see how to use USPS data and drive-bys to find vacant homes.

Which app is best for driving for dollars?

A dedicated app saves the lookup step. A few options:

• Goliath Data. The iPhone app shows the owner and estimated equity when you point the camera at a house, and can skip trace on the spot. Lists are built from pre-foreclosure, probate, tax delinquency, absentee and equity signals, with each record keeping its source. Property and distress records refresh on each source's schedule, and timing varies by source and market. CRM, dialer and texting are built in. Plans start at $1,499 a month with 5,000 skip traces (pricing), with no free trial, so it fits teams more than a first weekend of driving.
• DealMachine. Its app tracks your route from a Drive tab and lets you tag, photograph and note properties as you go, which suits drive-first investors.
• PropStream. Its mobile app pulls ownership, equity and mortgage details on a house you spot.

For features, pricing and trials side by side, read our driving for dollars app comparison.

What is the short version of driving for dollars?

Plan a loop inside your buy box, log two or more signs per house, stay on the sidewalk, look up and skip-trace the owner, scrub for DNC, and follow up on a schedule. Then let distress records pick the streets, so each mile of driving for dollars goes toward owners with a reason to sell.