How to Do Deals Using The “Driving for Dollars” Strategy
– Part Two-
This is the second of a four-part Training Course
….Welcome back! I hope you enjoyed the first part of this Driving for Dollars strategy training, and I hope you’re ready for Part 2 now! Before we get into it, let’s have a very quick review of what you’ve learned so far…
In the Part One, we introduced what Driving For Dollars is and what you need to get started. You also got a nice overview, you found out where to go, what to look for, how to take pictures of what you find, how to get organized when you’re driving, and you even got a nice brain hack to “program” yourself on what to look for so that it’s as easy as possible! Remember all that? Great! Let’s continue, shall we? 🙂
What We’ll Cover in THIS (Part 2) of the Training
In this part, you’re going to learn WHAT to do with those leads you’ve gathered while you were out driving around on your road adventure.
You’re going to learn HOW to find out WHO owns these houses, and you’ll find out the different ways of HOW to contact them! Exciting stuff, right? I can’t wait, and I’m sure you can’t either, so let’s get right to it by kicking things off with…
Finding the Owners (Who OWNS the House)
All right, so you’ve got your stack of leads. You’ve taken pictures & noted the addresses of several houses in your target area. You’ve had a productive day so far, but you’re not quite done yet! After you return home, you’ll need to get on your computer to do a little research to find out who owns these houses. (In part 4, I’ll show a cool way of how you can do all this stuff while you’re still out in the field!)
A little necessary background: What many people starting out in real estate investing may not know is that EVERY single piece of property in our country is a revenue stream for the local government. This is often the local county where the property is located, but it can sometimes also be a city, municipality, or township located within a county. And every property inside that area has Property Taxes. These are taxes that the local government charges the owners of properties located there so that they can fund their local government infrastructure, including the police, schools, libraries, roads, and the government itself, among other things.
In order to collect these property taxes, the local governments require to know WHO the owner is and where they live (or their mailing address), so that they may know who is responsible for paying these essential taxes and how to bill them. When someone lives IN the house, their mailing address will usually be the same address as the house. If they’ve moved out but still own the house, or if it’s just an investment property that they’ve never lived in, their mailing address will usually be a different address. You with me so far?
Here’s why that’s important information to know: Whenever you want to find out WHO owns a property, a great place to start is the COUNTY REAL ESTATE TAX ROLLS/RECORDS! “Tax rolls” is an old phrase that just means what I’ve just described, and includes the rest of the property tax information records.
So WHERE and HOW do you find that information?
Where do we find anything these days? The internet…we Google it! Here’s what to search for…
You may start off with “[NAME OF] county real estate tax records” Ex: “Montgomery county real estate tax records”
In order to assist you with your search, it’s important to know that there are TWO main types of property: REAL and PERSONAL. REAL property is REAL ESTATE, and that’s what we’re obviously looking for here. PERSONAL Property is pretty much everything else, like cars, bank accounts, vehicles, etc. Maybe we’ll discuss that stuff another day if you like. But for now, just start off with a simple Google search to find your local real estate property tax assessors office. It will usually be an official government website of some sort. This information should be FREE, so don’t fall for any scams that make you pay to get it.
Once you’ve found it (you might need to search a little bit), you’ll usually find a page that has a search feature. Depending on how this county’s site works, this will allow you to search for different criteria. This may include sale dates and prices, etc. Some counties have everything nicely consolidated, so you can even search for vehicle info, business info, etc. within the same online portal!
REMEMBER: Every county or local government is responsible for levying and collecting their own taxes, so every local site may/will be different. Yay – have fun with that!
Be sure to take a note of WHO the owner is and add it to your file (whatever that may be for you) so that you can remain organized. Don’t worry, I’ll give you some more ways of being organized soon enough. But for now, it’s totally fine if you just write it on that same piece of paper/notebook where you have the rest of your info. It’s important to keep all that info together in the same place!
NOTE: Many times, you’ll find that the owner may have a different mailing address than the house’s address. That’s a good thing! It means that they’ve reported that they’re not living in the house (usually).
What If the Owner is an ENTITY (LLC, Trust, etc.)?
When you’re looking to find out WHO owns the property, you’ll sometimes come across a non-individual entity that owns it, such as a Corporation, LLC, or even a Trust. So what do you do then? Most people get stumped and give up right there. But not you!
Make a note of who that entity is, and do a Google search for them. If it’s a Corporation or LLC, it’s a matter of Public Record, so you should usually be able to find out who the Members, Agents, or Owners of that entity are on the State Website of where that property is located. Again – usually. Sometimes, that entity may be an out of state entity, so you’ll have to do a broader search. Sorry.
If it’s a TRUST that owns that property, the name of the trust as well as the TRUSTEE should still appear on the tax record, along with a mailing address. You’ll want to focus on finding and contacting the Trustee to see about making an offer (covered in Part 3). You’ll also want to make note of the mailing address, because it might just come down to sending out a Direct Mail piece or two (or eight) if you’re not able to get a hold of the Trustee.
Now that you’ve found out WHO owns the property, we need to find out how to contact them…
Finding The Owners’ Contact Info
To contact someone, you’ll need to know a few essential things. At the very least, we should know the person’s NAME and their present ADDRESS. From there, we can usually find their cell phone number and maybe their email address using one of the methods below. As a bonus, we can also sometimes find their social media profiles. Back in the day, we used to have to get their HOME phone number – What is commonly referred to as a “land line” these days. Funny how things evolve, isn’t it?
There are several different ways to get this info. We can easily break this into a two categories: FREE and PAID. The great news is that thanks to technology (and no more privacy), it’s SO easy to find someone’s information for super cheap. Yes, this is usually known as ‘Skip Tracing,’ and has been a real estate investor’s best friend for many years.
Skip Tracing the Seller (Paid)
When I first started out, it was pretty common to spend at least $20-$25 or MORE for a single skip trace. These days, you can pretty much get the same level of info for maybe $.10-$.15 a skip trace. That’s right – what used to cost over $20 now costs around a dime. AND it’s a LOT faster.
If you want to find some great skip tracing sources I recommend, just check out my Resources page on this site!
To run a skip trace, it’s quite simple. You just gather your leads, go to one of those skip trace sites, setup an account along with a form of payment, import your leads, and follow the instructions on there. You’ll get your results back pretty quickly. Then comes the fun part – interpreting the data. This can sometimes be easy and other times hard. You’ll see. But the main idea is to find the owner’s phone numbers and current address if you can.
Note that you’ll usually get several different phone numbers per person you’re trying to find. These numbers are often accurate, but sometimes they’re not. The person you’re trying to find could have gotten a new number. Or given their old phone number to one of their kids (my brother has done this a couple times!).
You may also sometimes get the phone number of one of their relatives, and their record will indicate this.
TIP 1: If you don’t get the person’s correct phone number, don’t give up! You may need to try calling their relatives or neighbors. If that’s what happens, just quickly let them know who you’re trying to reach (that homeowner) and your reason for calling – that you want to see about buying their house. Then ask if they might be able to help you by sharing their phone number with you if they have it.
TIP 2: If they don’t want to share it for whatever reason, or if they tell you that they don’t have it, offer to leave them your name & number for them to pass on to the person you’re trying to reach “just in case” they happen to find their info later. You’ll be surprised at what can happen if you just leave the door open here, because these folks might just be trying to do the right thing and protect that person – but can still pass your info on to them, and the seller just might call you back and want to work with you!
Skip Tracing the Seller (Free/Cheap)
Yes, it’s possible to find the seller’s contact info for FREE! Obviously, if you pursue this method, it will usually just cost you a little time – but could be well worth it! I’ll just give you a few ideas & quick resources here for your reference.
- https://www.beenverified.com – This is a great website to start your search! You simply enter the homeowner’s name and see what shows up. From there, you’ll just chisel it down to some of the obvious things – location, etc. Please note that although many searches can be/are free, they are a data site and will probably try to sell you something, such as more advanced information about the person you’re searching.
UPDATE: They will most likely look to sell you a membership to their site. If you’re going to use this often enough, it might be worth it. I’ll leave that decision to you. - https://www.intelius.com – Another online search site. Check it out when you can!
- https://www.peoplefinder.com – And another search site.
- The legit FREE Way: You can also search for people’s SOCIAL MEDIA accounts, such as Facebook, Instagram, etc. You’ll most likely have some good success there, but it will take some time, and can easily distract you. (Remember that the social media platform engineers have designed these platforms to keep you as addicted as a crackhead).
Keep In Mind: When you’re trying to find a seller of a specific home, the harder it is to find them, the less competition you’ll have, because most people will give up at the first sign of adversity.
How To Contact the Owners (Different Ways)
There are several different options for how you can contact the owners of these houses. These options include:
- Direct mail (Best is the Yellow Letter)
- Texting them (Keep it simple & just ask a question. Click Here for more info on this technique)
- Knocking on their door (Bold but potentially dangerous if you’re not packin’)
- Reaching out to them on Social Media (May be a great option for some if your account is set up properly)
- Emailing them (Can’t hurt)
- Smoke signals (just kidding)
- Or just calling them (My favorite & the usual best option)*
*I usually like to recommend just picking up the phone and giving them a call. It’s usually the fastest and most effective method.
But these days, most people aren’t picking up the phone when an unfamiliar number calls (I sure don’t!). So if that happens, you should immediately text them. Again, refer to my expert article here on the proper Texting Strategies: “The Joy of Text”
After that, you may fall back to any of the other options above.
Tips for Making the Most of “Driving for Dollars” (Parts 1 & 2)
- Be persistent: “Driving for Dollars” can be time-consuming, so it’s important to be persistent in your efforts. Set aside a specific time each week to go out and drive around.
- Be strategic: Focus on neighborhoods with a high concentration of older homes, as these are more likely to need repairs.
- Be organized. Don’t just fly (or drive) by the seat of your pants. Keep track of your potential leads, how they develop, who you made offers to (covered later), and who you need to follow up with and when.
- Follow up quickly: Once you’ve identified a potential property, it’s important to follow up quickly. Find who owns the property. Get their contact information. Get ready to contact them using one of those methods above. Remember – The longer you wait, the less likely the owner will be motivated to sell.
- You’ll learn WHAT to say and how to make offers in Part 3!
And In Conclusion (for now)…
How are you enjoying this training so far? Is this good stuff or what? I hope you’re putting what you’re learning here to good use.
Quick Recap: Up to this point, you’ve learned WHAT Driving For Dollars is, WHY it’s so useful, and HOW you can get started today with a few simple starting strategies. That was just in part 1.
In part 2, you learned how to find who owns the houses you found using the county tax rolls AND how to get their contact information, as well as the different ways of contacting these people.
But we still have MORE to cover! Here’s what’s coming up:
In Part 3, I’ll show you HOW to contact these owners with each of those ways. I’ll show you exactly WHAT to say, and HOW to make those offers!
Finally, in Part 4, we’ll recap everything. I’ll share some special tips to make it so easy. I’ll show you how to get others to do this for you, and if I’m feeling generous, I’ll even give you a BONUS method of how to use this for PRETTY houses (So simple)!
So stay tuned and be sure to check out that next part as soon as it’s ready!
See you in Part 3,
Tony Pearl