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Would you/have you ever bought a property without actually seeing it in person? Obviously lots of online photo and video resources are available to "tour" properties: has that been enough to take the plunge? Or would you consider buying a place without physically walking through it?
A client of mine just did this, bought from the other side of the country, couldn't have been much further away without being in a boat. Closed a couple weeks ago. So far so good
We spent a lot of time in the home on the phone, texting and sending pictures, and did a facetime with them on my speaker phone when the inspector was there so they could ask him questions. It was still a lot of pressure! -Particularly when there was a choice between two homes. The pressure was somewhat eased because a nearby relative of the client did come and walk through once and give them his opinion too, so it wasn't just me .
It doesn't hurt that it's a very nice home in one of the more high-end, HOA manicured, new planned neighborhoods in the area. All the homes are by the same builder. They're all very similar. The colors all still match. There is no one oddball down the street. It is what it is, and what it is shows well in the pictures. Not much to be surprised about.
That kind of house and that kind of client, I can see it, and I would do it again. Or an investment property that the client isn't particular about anyway.
An older starter-range home in a mixed-use mixed-age neighborhood and clients who could not afford to have anything go wrong? Probably not a good idea for them.
I have done it three times, but the deals were much better in 2009 and 2010. One was SFR, and it was a small house on a nice lot. The value of the lot minimized the risk. It was on a slab, too, on good soil. The crawl space and pier construction make me more nervous, but that is what they primarily use in some areas. Seen a lot of water damage that was not mentioned in the listing. "Go in low."
Would you/have you ever bought a property without actually seeing it in person? Obviously lots of online photo and video resources are available to "tour" properties: has that been enough to take the plunge? Or would you consider buying a place without physically walking through it?
If you have done this, how did it work out?
I just sold 2 investment homes to an out of country client, sight unseen. They came and looked at them after they were closed and funded. Thrilled with them.
I purchased a home in Texas wile living in Las Vegas, the realtor was great took loads of pictures. It worked out perfect, The house was exactly what I thought it would be and we love it!
I've done dozens of sight-unseen purchases for clients. With hard-to-find property types an out-of-town buyer may never get what he's looking for if he doesn't trust me enough to get him under contract quickly, obviously with a reasonable inspection and right to cancel period. Requires an agent you can trust but it's a tried and true method for some property types.
Would you/have you ever bought a property without actually seeing it in person?
That would be the most incredibly stupid thing anybody could ever do.
Like buying a car without seeing it in person, people who do that often end up on legal forums whining "What are my rights?" because they got hopelessly screwed.
My dad did that several times: in San Francisco, California, Anchorage, Alaska, and Moscow, Russia. He is in the oil biz. Military people do that a lot too. And this was before the internet was so huge. The realtor snail mailed him pics and he chose homes from them, with an opt-out option if the house was completely misrepresented. He did not back out of any of them.
I bought my present and last home before I got to walk through it. They were in developments so I got to walk through the model of my house, but not my actual house.
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