Alright guys, welcome back to the Discount Property Investor podcast. This is a pro tips short episode. Right now it is just Mike. I am driving around in my car actually doing a little driving for dollars. I thought I would just do a quick episode and give you guys a heads up on what I look for when I am out driving for dollars, as well as some tips about it. So recently we started using a really cool app for driving for dollars, and we are absolutely loving it. It's the Deal Machine app, very slick. You can literally just drive around and you click location, and the app tracks where you're at, and you click on a house, it pulls up the address, you are then able to save that property to your list, and when you get back you can either mail them directly from their platform, or you can download a CSV file of it, and use your own mailing service to mail those people, or skip trace them and get a hold of them, and see if you can work something out to buy their property.

So it's the Deal Machine app, I have a link or I am going to add the link to it in our show notes to give you a 14 day free trial. So that would be the https:/DealMachine.app.link/DiscountPropertyInvestor. That will get you a free 14 day link. Again, I will put that in the show notes of this episode. That is really the big tip I wanted to give away in this episode 'Pro tips short clips'. Check out the driving for dollars app, the Deal Machine. It is a beast and it has really changed the way we do business.

Dave and I talk about how we used to drive around, take a picture of a house, we would put it in a folder and we would get back to it, or send it to the V.A, or we would write down an address. It was just very sloppy, but having this app on your phone just organizes all of those vacant properties that you drive by in your daily life. You don't even have to go out and specifically drive for dollars. Just when you see a house you open the app, click location and tap on that house, it's huge. So it has really been a game-changer for us being able to add houses that quickly to our list of properties that we want to try and get a hold of the owner. That's the name of the game once you identify that property is getting a hold of that owner.

So driving for dollars, let's do one more little pro tip or something I feel like people overlook. So a lot of times when I'm out driving for dollars, I see properties and-- the simple tip is oh if the grass is long, if the grass is long and it's all overgrown, all the weeds are out of control then it is probably a vacant house. That's a great tip, and it definitely holds true pretty often. One thing I would say is to check out the vehicles in the driveway. If there are no vehicles it could be vacant. But, if there are older vehicles in the driveway it could be vacant, or if you're walking or driving slowly you can see if the license plate is expired or not. If you have got expired tags on a vehicle, and it is parked in a driveway or off the street, and the grass is long; it's a good indication that property is actually vacant. We've had properties that we have purchased-- the neighbors actually parked one of their older vehicles. That was a vacant property and we were just driving by because there was a car there. Or, the owners just abandoned the vehicle, so the car is not getting driven, and they are not updating the tags on it. That house is just sitting there vacant, but there is a car in the driveway. So it is kind of deceptive. So pay attention to the vehicles that are in the driveways. If the house appears to be vacant but there is a car there, a good chance it could be vacant. Just keep those things in mind, and check out the Deal Machine app at the link in the show notes here. Alright guys we will talk soon on a full episode, bye