Offers on same days of Listing

[John Smithe]

I've been on the market for a few months...not finding any properties where the numbers work.  One duplex through the other day that looks promising (still a low 5% cap but that seems to be amazing compared to all the other properties ive been sifting through).  It went to a pending status within 2 days.  I spoke with the property manager I'm working with who knew the selling agent and apparently 4 offers came in at asking price on day 1. 

My question:  should I be putting in offers immediately before I even view the property?  I know a lot of OOS investors do this all the time....and probably what I'm up against.  It just scares me that I'm going to get roped into a property I don't want because I wasn't able to view the situation that could make a property an easy no.  I don't want to pour inspection money into a place that I didn't view that I never would have offered on had I seen it in the first place.

Any thoughts from the group?

[Aaron Simpkins]

What Cassi said.  You have to know your market well.  

My most recent purchase is a duplex in great schools and a hot area.  I saw it within the first 20 minutes of going on market, it was being sold as is.  I worked the numbers in about 7 minutes just to confirm my rule of thumb, called the listing agent to confirm if they were currently leased at what I thought they should bring for that market, sent a full price offer without waiving my right to inspection.  Found out that evening it had multiple offers and it went to a "Highest and Best".  I upped my offer by 3k, wrote a personal letter with a family photo, (did this because when speaking to the listing agent I found out the tenants cried when they learned the current owners were selling, so I knew emotion might be in play and wanted to let them know we are a young local family that care about our tenants).  Low and behold, we got the deal and we were NOT the highest offer.  Inspection turned out great, I got a nice little duplex with long term tenants in it who do take pride in ownership.  All of this from knowing the market well enough to realize we had to move quickly.