Offerings without viewing

[Account Closed]

If you are making multi offers without going to view the property as Brandon has mentioned on podcasts and webinars - do you make the offer contingent on inspection? How do you know you aren't over offering without having gone through the place?

[Peter MacKercher]

@Account Closed If you offer before viewing your starting price will be based on a number of estimates and prior knowledge about the area, its economics, the property type, typical construction for the city, etc. You'll ideally have a general idea of price for that property class in that neighborhood, and from the pictures have an idea of the general condition, enough so that you're comfortable to move forward with an offer based strictly on numbers that give you overhead to make the deal work if surprises pop up (they will).

The contract should include an inspection contingency, like you said, and you'll set up a walkthrough if your contract gets accepted to get your eyes on the property before you pay for a professional inspection. If you generally know what the major issues you'll have to look out for are you can spend 20 minutes walking through a place, with some practice and experience, and be able to estimate what you'll put into the building in a good margin of error. Keep in mind I'm saying this as someone who's done hundreds of rehabs and also owns a renovation company, so I know I'm more experienced at this than most people, but it's something anyone can learn.

If that initial walkthrough gets your OK, then you get the professional inspection. With the inspection contingency you can always renegotiate price after you get the report back if there are numerous things you're not comfortable with. Because of contingencies like that negotiations really don't stop after you have an accepted contract, they instead just get delayed until everyone has more information at their disposal.

I guess the short answer to "how do you know you're not over-offering" is basically just experience, along with a certain dash of gut-level confidence. Hope this helps!