How to Hire Drivers Who Will Actually Find You Deals

Hiring drivers is one of the smartest ways to scale your wholesaling business. If you’ve been doing everything yourself, you know how much time driving for dollars can take. Having a team of drivers helps you find more properties, expand into new neighborhoods, and ultimately close more deals.

But here’s the challenge: hiring the wrong drivers can cost you thousands. For wholesale real estate investors, wasting money on someone who quits in a few weeks or never produces results can set your business back.

If you want to know how to hire drivers who will stick around and bring in quality deals, the answer is preparation. You need a process that tests applicants up front, sets clear expectations, and equips them to succeed.

Why Hiring Drivers Matters for Wholesalers

Hiring drivers isn’t just about saving time. It’s about creating a scalable system for finding deals. A single driver can only cover so much ground. But with three or four drivers, your team could be adding hundreds of properties a week to your CRM.

Drivers help you:

• Expand into more neighborhoods quickly
• Multiply the number of potential leads in your pipeline
• Spend less time behind the wheel and more time closing deals
• Build a repeatable process instead of relying on your own bandwidth

If done right, hiring drivers can transform your operation from a one-person hustle into a true business.

Step 1: Be Clear About How Drivers Will Be Paid

The first thing new hires want to know is how they’ll make money. Being vague about pay is one of the fastest ways to lose good applicants.

You have several pay options when hiring drivers:

• Hourly Pay: Drivers get a flat rate for the time they spend scouting.
• Pay Per Property: You pay for every qualified lead submitted.
• Performance-Based: Bonuses or higher rates if a lead turns into a deal.

Each system has pros and cons. Hourly pay provides drivers with security but may reduce their motivation. Paying per property keeps drivers motivated, but quality control becomes critical. A hybrid model (base pay plus bonuses) often works best.

Whatever system you choose, communicate it clearly before hiring. This ensures that drivers know exactly what to expect and whether the job aligns with their goals.

Step 2: Emphasize the Importance of Quality Photos

Even the best property leads mean nothing if the photos are poor. One investor shared that he spent $5,000 in three months on drivers who brought back numerous properties, but the photos were so poor that none of them turned into deals.

Quality photos should be:

• Clear and unobstructed
• Properly rotated (no sideways images)
• Focused on key signs of distress
• Taken from multiple angles

Show your drivers sample photos of what “good” and “bad” look like. This small step saves you frustration later and ensures every lead they submit is usable.

Step 3: Train Them on What Properties to Target

Not all distressed properties are obvious. A pile of mail in the box or boarded-up windows is easy to spot. But what about the less visible signs?

When learning how to hire drivers, make sure they can recognize:

• Vacant homes (mail piling up, uncut grass, broken fences)
• Homes with visible code violations (roof damage, peeling paint, sagging gutters)
• Signs of neglect (chipped siding, overgrown landscaping, cracked driveways)
• Properties in transition (construction projects that seem stalled)

The more specific you are about what qualifies as a lead, the better results you’ll get. Consider providing them with a checklist or showing examples in your house flipping software to avoid confusion.

Step 4: Have Them Track Their Routes

Without a system to track routes, drivers will overlap, waste time, and miss opportunities for growth. Route tracking also makes it easier for you to measure performance.

In the past, tracking routes was a headache. But today, apps like DealMachine make it simple. Drivers can log their routes in real time, and you can see exactly where they’ve been and what properties they’ve added.

This helps you:

• Ensure drivers aren’t duplicating each other’s efforts
• Measure productivity based on distance covered and leads submitted
• Hold drivers accountable for the hours or properties they report

Effective route tracking turns guesswork into actionable data.

Step 5: Give Them the Right Tools (and Training)

Technology makes hiring drivers much easier, but only if your drivers know how to use it. Handing someone an app and expecting them to figure it out often leads to mistakes.

Take time to:

• Walk them through how to use the app
• Provide written or video instructions
• Answer their questions before sending them out alone

When drivers feel confident with their tools, they’ll work faster and make fewer errors. At DealMachine, we’ve built the DealFinder Training Portal for exactly this reason. It automates parts of onboarding so you don’t waste time explaining the same steps over and over.

How to Filter the Best Drivers Before You Hire

Here’s a tip that can save you hours: add a small challenge to your job posting. For example, ask applicants to include a specific phrase in their application or record a short video explaining why they are interested in the role.

This simple filter eliminates individuals who aren’t paying attention or aren’t serious. In one case, requiring an extra step reduced the number of applicants from 200 to 30, making the hiring process much more manageable.

The right drivers are the ones willing to go the extra mile before they even get the job.

Final Takeaway

Hiring drivers is one of the most effective ways to grow a wholesaling business, but only if you set expectations early. Be clear about pay, insist on high-quality photos, train them on what to look for, require route tracking, and provide them with proper tools.

If you treat the hiring process as a way to filter serious candidates from the start, you’ll avoid wasting time and money. With the right drivers on your team, you can multiply your deal flow, scale your business, and focus on closing instead of driving.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How do I pay drivers for driving for dollars?

You can pay hourly, per property added, or based on performance. Many investors prefer a hybrid model that includes bonuses when leads turn into deals.

2. Do I need to hire drivers full-time?

Not necessarily. Many who do wholesaling hire part-time drivers, such as college students or gig workers, to scout neighborhoods a few hours per week.

3. What’s the biggest mistake when hiring drivers?

Not setting clear expectations. If drivers don’t know what properties to look for or how they’ll be paid, they often lose interest quickly.

4. Can I use an app to manage my drivers?

Yes. Apps like DealMachine enable you to assign routes, track progress, and centralize property data, allowing you to stay organized and efficient.