Most of the best flip deals I’ve put under contract never showed up on the MLS. They showed up because I drove past them. Driving for dollars in the Des Moines metro is still one of the most reliable ways to find off-market deals before another investor or a wholesaler gets there first. It costs nothing but gas and a Saturday morning, and it works because most owners of distressed properties aren’t listing anywhere. They’re just sitting there, waiting for someone to knock.
What Driving for Dollars Actually Means in the Des Moines Metro
Driving for dollars is exactly what it sounds like. You pick a neighborhood, drive it street by street, and note every property that looks distressed, vacant, or neglected. Then you track down the owner and make contact before the property ever hits an agent’s desk.
It’s slower than scrolling Zillow. It’s also a lot less crowded. Every investor in the metro is watching the same MLS listings and the same wholesaler lists. Almost nobody is spending a Saturday morning driving Beaverdale or Norwalk block by block.
Where I Start: Picking a Target Neighborhood
I don’t drive the whole metro looking for anything. I pick one neighborhood at a time and go deep. Older housing stock throws off more distress signals: original windows, aging roofs, deferred maintenance that’s been deferred for a decade.
Beaverdale is a good example. Lots of 1930s and 1940s bungalows, a mix of long-time owners and heirs who inherited a house they don’t want to deal with. Altoona and Indianola work the same way on a smaller scale, older cores surrounded by newer subdivisions that aren’t worth the drive.
What You’re Actually Looking For
You’re not looking for run-down. You’re looking for signals that a property is a problem for its owner. On a slow drive, here’s what I flag:
- Overgrown or dead landscaping that’s stayed that way more than one season
- Boarded or broken windows, or a blue tarp still on the roof
- Mail or newspapers piling up on the porch
- A dumpster or code violation notice taped to the door
- Peeling paint, a sagging porch, or a roofline that’s visibly failing
Any one of these alone doesn’t mean much. Two or three on the same house is a property worth writing down.
Building a Route and Tracking What You Find
Pull up a map of the neighborhood and drive it in a grid, not a wander, so you cover every street once instead of the same three streets four times. I block off two to three hours, cover four or five hundred addresses, and call it done for the week.
Keep the list simple: address, condition notes, a quick photo, the owner’s name if the county assessor site has it, and a follow-up date. A list that lives in your head is a list you’ll lose by the time you’re two streets over.
From List to Offer
Most driving for dollars leads don’t turn into a deal on the first contact. A short, handwritten-style mailer works better than a slick postcard, something that reads like it came from a person, not a company. Follow up in thirty days if you don’t hear back; owners of distressed properties usually aren’t in a hurry, and neither should your follow-up be.
When you do get a call back, run the numbers the way you would on any deal. Comp it against recent sales in that same pocket of the neighborhood, not the metro average, and hold the line on your after repair value and rehab estimate before you talk price.
Where This Fits Next to MLS and Wholesale Deals
Driving for dollars, MLS deals, and wholesale deals Iowa investors pass around aren’t competing strategies, they’re three sources feeding the same pipeline. MLS deals are fastest to find and hardest to get a good price on, since everyone sees them. Wholesale deals are already marked up once. Driving for dollars is slower, but you’re the only one who found it, so you set the price conversation instead of reacting to one.
What a Driving for Dollars Deal Looks Like on the Financing Side
Once you’ve got a property under contract, the financing terms work the same whether the deal came from a mailer, an agent, or a windshield note. On a purchase and rehab, funding goes up to 90% of the purchase price, and rehab draws cover up to 100% of your rehab budget. The number that actually controls the deal is the after repair value cap, set at a maximum of 70% of ARV. That 70% ARV cap is your real ceiling, no matter how good the price looked on paper.
FAQ
What is driving for dollars?
Driving for dollars is a deal-sourcing method that has an investor physically drive target neighborhoods to spot distressed or vacant properties, then contact the owner directly before the property is listed.
How do I find motivated sellers using driving for dollars?
A motivated seller found through driving for dollars is usually an owner dealing with an inherited property, deferred maintenance, or a house they can no longer manage, and county assessor records are what turn a driven address into a name and mailing address you can contact.
Is driving for dollars still worth it with the MLS and online tools available?
Driving for dollars is a source that finds properties before they compete with every other investor watching the MLS or a wholesaler’s list, which is exactly why it still works even with more tools available than ever.
How many properties should I expect to find on one route?
A typical driving for dollars route through four to five hundred addresses in an older Des Moines metro neighborhood usually turns up a handful of properties worth a second look, not dozens, and that ratio is normal.
Driving for dollars isn’t glamorous and it isn’t fast. It’s a Saturday morning, a tank of gas, and a notebook, applied consistently to one neighborhood at a time. Investors who stick with it long enough to build a real list end up with a deal pipeline that doesn’t depend on beating everyone else to the same MLS listing or paying a wholesaler’s markup. Pick one Des Moines metro neighborhood, drive it this weekend, and start the list.
