Veteran Investors - How do you analyze a property w/o a tour?

[Caleb Webster]

I've heard that once you're in the business long enough, you can feel comfortable enough about a deal to make an offer without ever having laid eyes on it. This seems hard to believe for me since I'm still fairly new to REI but I would like to get to that point since I'd to invest out of state. I'm interested in a buy and hold strategy but feel free to chime in on what you look for in flips as well.

So, assuming the numbers checkout, what questions do you ask your broker if you can't get a physical tour? Are you looking at cap-ex items, neighborhood, tenant history, etc.? What do you need to know about the property before feeling confidant enough to make an offer?

[Larry Turowski]

@Caleb Webster First off, the offer would always be contingent on some sort of inspection.  But yes, when you've seen hundreds of properties, you know the area, the types of properties, what the rents are, what properties in various conditions go for, how much it costs (ballpark) to rehab, and have a description of the condition of the property (which may or may not be true--that is why you need to get eyeballs on it), then you can make an offer site unseen.

There are a couple of reasons you would do this.  One is to be able jump on a hot property.  Another reason is to save your time.  Not only can you make more offers if you do so site-unseen, but you can avoid looking at properties where you and the seller are not even in the same ballpark as far as price goes.

As a new investor, however, you want to actually look at and track hundreds of properties in order to develop that expertise.