How "present" are remote investors?

[Sebastian Gast]

How often do people (mostly remote investors) do deals without ever physically visiting the property? What about doing light rehabbing? Or do you have "a guy" on the ground that you trust have a look at it first? Buying or rehabbing without ever really seeing seems risky and an easy way to get taken advantage of. It seems like a trip to the see the property is worth the time and cost of travel prior to dropping money on it. In what cases would doing a completely remote deal without physically seeing the property be ok and when would it not be ok? Any thoughts on this?