More Local Offers - Sight Unseen?

[Kenny Dahill]

I have been looking for my first investment property for 9 months now and beginning to reconsider the way I do my offers.  I have submitted probably 8 offers and have had a mixed result.  I've now backed out of two deals within my inspection period either due to shady owner (pretty sure related to drug cartels) or owner wasn't willing to budge on a $12K roof repair.

The last deal was a triplex that had an accepted offer contingent on increased rents and inspection.  All tenants were willing to increase rent as long as I did a better job taking care of the property, i.e. don't let them go 1yr without AC.  The inspection went as expected but when I got a quote for $12K to repair the roof I was forced to back out of the deal knowing the owner wouldn't pay for anything.  So I'm out $600 for the inspection.

This got me thinking... I'm pretty knowledgable in construction and with a few electrical reading tools I could do my own inspections.  Moving forward I am considering being more aggressive about the quantity of offers I send out and seeing which owners bite.  To save time I intend on submitting a lot of offers on properties that are sight unseen, if we get an accepted offer I would do my own first inspection.  If it doesn't meet my expectations I can counter or back-out.  I hate wasting my agents time but I feel this could be a better use of our times while saving me future costs since my title and earnest would be refunded within the inspection period if I cancel.

Does anybody do something similar? 

How do you handle situations like this?

Any tips if I proceed with this method?

Thanks.