Driving for dollars app?

[Scott Duman]

I remember hearing of an app that you could take a picture of a property with your phone and it would send a postcard to person who owned it. I don't remember if it was automatic or if there were other steps involved. Is there one that does it that simply? What are the best apps for that type of marketing?

[Nic Werner]

I’ve been playing with DealMachine and Propstream (their sub product). No clear winner, but I’d use DM while still cursing it. I’m going to try others. 

DM is clunky but has clearly optimized for quickly adding properties, even auto sending texts, emails or mailers through zapier. But it crashes often, has confusing, limited filters. There are different colors on the map, but no legend. You can’t zoom out to see clusters of houses that meet your criteria, the app forces you to zoom back in. Filter-wise,min Property size is measured in acres :). You can’t exclude commercial, corporate owners,etc.  There is no True North feature so it can be hard to drive and stick to a route. Adding notes is a couple taps too deep.   

DM has done a good job focusing on the workflow, even recording my route. I’d like it to show me while driving so I can work the roads like Pac Man.

DM also just feels....scammy with everything being a product. Did you want to add a google street view pic? That’ll be an additional $20/month for their Street Pic product.


Propstream  has superior filtering, which makes sense as their main product focuses on research. But the app fails as it takes a few steps to add a property, and the property lines aren’t as clear on the map, crucial when you are driving! The app lacks a designers touch, meaning it’s easy to get into another part of the app while driving, and then a couple taps to get back. The button features were added wherever, so, yes, the feature may be there, you just have to “know” where it is.  (I still don’t know why there is a bird icon).

As I said at the top, I’ll continue with DM, but import and research my leads with Propstream. For those of you who have said they are “watching” this thread, you really just need to load up a couple and drive, no excuses! :) it’s instantly apparent what parts work. May look at ProfitDriving, Batchdriven next.

Happy driving.