I made $37k first time I drove for dollars!!

Many people think driving for dollars is a waste of time, too hard, too many people doing it, etc etc. I'm here to tell you that it can be difficult but it can also be very lucrative if you're consistent. This is how I found my very first deal which led into my second even more lucrative deal.

I drive around neighborhoods doing appointments for my W-2 job on a daily basis so I always keep an eye out for typical distressed properties. I'll jot down the address or use an app to capture the information and follow up with it later that day. One day my fiancé and I were leaving her neighborhood and I noticed an obviously distressed and vacant property. We took down the address and looked it up on the property appraiser's website that afternoon. We found that it was owned by a non-profit organization and simply googled their name to find a website and phone number that we called the next business day.

I had written down a list of questions I wanted to ask prior to calling so I knew I wouldn't forget anything. I called the number, asked about the property and they said the person who was in charge of it would call me back. When the manager called back I asked if the property was for sale, listed with a realtor, if they had any other offers, and what the one other offer was. They said they wanted to sell the property and would be interested in an offer.

We looked at the property, made an offer slightly above the other offer and got it under contract after some back and forth on the contract being assignable. We then reached out to a rehab company I have followed for awhile and assigned it for a $6k assignment fee. 

Here's the exciting part. We searched by owner name for the non-profit in other nearby counties and found one other property. We asked the non-profit's contact about it and at the time they were not going to sell. Several months later we got a call saying they were ready to sell and wanted to know if we'd be willing to help. I made an offer and listed out all of the repairs that needed to be made to justify the low offer. They immediately agreed to the offer based upon the trust built around our previous transaction.

We reached out to our network again and had quite a bit of interest. We were able to assign it for a $31k assignment fee to some rehabbers in our network. They then flipped it for a $40k profit!! This was a complete win win for everyone involved.

The lessons I learned here is to never hesitate to call and simply ask questions, always search for and ask if there are other properties the seller owns, building trust can pay real money down the road. The first deal I did was a driving for dollars deal which happened to also be the very first call I made. This one action step led to two deals for a total of $37k dollars in my pocket. Take action and don't be afraid to move forward and ask for help along the way, and always follow up!