Maybe a stupid question: visit before offer?

[Jason Love]

I'm looking to find a single family or small multifamily as my first rental property in the near future. I've listened to a bunch of the BP podcasts and attended several of the BP webinars on getting started. I've bought/sold a few primary residences, but never an investment property. From all the podcasts and webinars, it hit me that I can't recall them ever mentioning actually visiting a property before making an offer. 1. Get leads, 2. Analyse, 3. Purse (i.e. Offer), 4. Success.

So the question is: Do experienced investors regularly make offers on properties without ever visiting them? And if so, is it a correct assumption that rookies should visit first until getting comfortable with the process?

[Ed B.]

It's a very smart question. Let's say you have to make 10 offers for every acceptance. Do you really want to waste time visiting 10 properties? Stop doing that until you get the answer to the most important question: "Is the seller going to accept my offer or at least be willing to negotiate?"  The time to visit it is after you get acceptance and you do your due diligence to ensure it's something you want to go through with. If your offer is rejected, at least you've saved the time and gas money driving for a person visit to kick the tires.