Ranking 90 driving addresses by roof plane and mailing only the top tier is a case worth studying

A framing eye is a useful curb screen for a driving list, and here is a case that shows both the payoff and the limit of it. Take 90 addresses logged over six weeks in an older tract, mostly hip roof ranches from the sixties, sorted into three tiers from the curb only. Tier one, 28 addresses. Roof plane visibly out of line, a sag between rafters, or a rooftop patch that had been patched again. Add anything with a bulge or a stair step crack in the visible foundation line, or a porch column that had moved off its bearing. These are houses where the repair number is big enough that an owner without cash has probably already gotten a quote and gone quiet. Tier two, 39 addresses. Deferred maintenance that has not turned structural. Cupped siding, gutters gone, a section of fence down. Tier three, 23 addresses. Just untidy. Mail tier one only. Two touches to 28 addresses costs under $50. A realistic result from that list is 5 calls, 2 kitchen conversations, and 1 contract at $141,000 on a house scoped from the curb at $38,000 of work. The limit shows up when the rear wall comes off. Actual repairs land at $46,000, because the sag visible from the street is a rafter that was sistered badly with the top plate under it gone. On a house bought to hold, that $8,000 comes out of the owner's pocket rather than a buyer's, and that is the part to change. A curb number 17 percent light on a house where the problem was visible from the street is the lesson. The fix is to run the curb estimate and add 20 percent before putting a price on paper. What to keep is mailing 28 instead of 90. The tier three letters would have cost forty dollars and taught nothing.