Driving for Dollars

Read on for tips and tricks to be effective at gathering addresses that will hopefully convert to dollars

 

Neighborhood driving

WHAT TO LOOK FOR:

When driving around, you are looking for obvious signs of vacancy.

You are looking for vacant/abandoned single family homes.

  • Boarded up windows/doors
  • Piled up mail
  • Piled up newspapers
  • Smashed out windows
  • High grass
  • Code violation stickers
  • Condemned stickers
  • Old door hangers, only on one door and no other houses on the street
  • Clearly empty houses
  • Trees down in driveway
examples3

Example of what a code violation sticker looks like, although their are different types, so different cities may vary, but generally speaking the image below is what they will look like. You will see these types of stickers/papers posted on doors & windows. Look for words like Violation to confirm.

example 1

Good areas include but not limited to;

St. Charles County-

  • St. Charles
  • St. Peters
  • Wentzville
  • Lake St. Louis
  • O’fallon
  • Cottleville
  • Dardenne Prairie
  • Defiance

Good areas include but not limited to;

Misc Cities/Areas-

  • Troy
  • Moscow Mills
  • Warrenton
  • Washington
  • Herman
  • Eureka
  • Arnold
  • Fenton

Good areas include but not limited to;

St. Louis County-

  • North County
  • Florissant
  • Hazelwood
  • Spanish Lake
  • Black Jack
  • Maryland Heights
  • Overland
  • Creve Coeur
  • Kirkwood
  • Clayton
  • Manchester
  • Ballwin
  • Maplewood
  • Chesterfield
  • Brentwood
  • Crestwood
  • Richmond Heights
  • South St. Louis City
  • The Hill
  • Shaw
  • Benton Park
  • Soulard
  • Tower Grove
  • Central West End
green check mark
painted X mark on white

What not to look for

When driving around, you are NOT looking for:

  • Homes that have a for sale sign in the yard
  • Homes that are in perfect condition
  • Homes that people live at
  • Homes with a lockbox on the door
  • Homes that are listed with an agent
  • Homes that have a dumpster in the front (sign someone else is already rehabbing it.)

 

Areas we typically do no invest in;

North City, Glasgow Village, Bellefontaine Neighbors, Riverview, Moline Acres, Castle Point, Northwoods, Pine Lawn, Hillsdale, Pagedale, Hanley Hills

TIPS & TRICKS:

Some additional tips that will help you.

  • Talk to neighbors who are outside, ask them, “Hey do you know anything about this house?” Many times neighbors can give you a lot of information about a property, and they are usually willing to help, sometimes they even give you the owners phone number. Neighbors don’t want vacant houses in their neighborhood because it brings their property value down.

 

  • If you drive around on trash day, you can see all of the properties that do not have their trash can pulled out, this means they are either on vacation, are vacant, or have no trash! It is an easy way to see which properties are vacant.

 

  • If their are alleys, driving around the back of houses can many times give more signs of vacancy. If you can see the backyard or back of the house, this usually helps show if a property is vacant/abandoned or not.
  • On snow days/times, houses that don’t have foot prints in the driveway after snow falls can be an indicator of a vacant house.

HOW TO GET PAID:

This is the fun part! When you have found a vacant/abandoned property that fits the criteria above send the address with any notes for example:

Always send a picture of the front of the house

Example of what to send:

333 Fourth St 63301 (windows boarded up, mail piling up)

123 Hot St 63114 (high grass, neighbors said property has been vacant for two years)

You can email, text or facebook message these properties to whoever sent you to this training, or you can submit the property address to submissions@stld4d.com