Sight unseen offers.....my 2 or more cents

[Account Closed]

I read a post somewhere where someone that I will suppose is a wholesaler was offering a property for sale to investors that he had never seen.....and from what I read, had no intentions of ever going to see because it was too far away from him and was not worth his time to go and physically look at.

Eeeeh.....bad strategy and more so a really bad idea. In my opinion, your credibility is shot as a wholesaler if you cannot even take the time to go and look at the property that you will be offering to investors. Now, I am not professional home inspector but your 5 senses thoroughly engaged will give you a good sense of a property IF you physically go there and take a look. Just off the top of my head, two very valuable things you will learn are:

1. What kind of neighborhood is your subject located in? (e.g. is your subject located next to a liquor store or are the properties to the left, right, front and rear of the subject vacant and boarded up or is it located behind a gas station or is the neighbor's yard full of miscellaneous junk and 5 inoperable vehicles all supported on cinder blocks or is it a nice quiet neighborhood where everybody has a manicured lawn).
2. The smell test - once you walk in the front door of your subject, despite the pretty pictures on the MLS or on Craigslist, do you have to have CPR because you immediately collapsed to the ground unable to support your weight...overcome by the aroma coming from the interior of the subject?

While I could think of more reasons why you want to physically visit your subject, I will leave it at those two for now. Trust me that those two reasons alone would definitely factor in your decision to move forward or pass on the deal or to significantly reduce your offer price if you choose to move forward.

Now, do I make or have I made sight unseen offers before? Yes I have, but if and when I do, I low ball them to get my foot in the door and then I try to go and take a look as soon as I can - especially if I get a counter-offer. The point is, in my opinion, ALWAYS get your eyes or the eyes of somebody you trust if you cannot physically get to your subject as soon as possible preferably before you even make an offer.

Case in point. Just a couple of days ago, I went to take a look at a SFR property that was being offered for $266,000.00. I had not made an offer, I wanted to first take a look at it. The online photos looked great, the satellite photos of the subdivision looked great. The subject, once I got there looked great and I was thinking to myself...yay, sweet deal!!!....until I got to the basement. There was a definite odor in the basement and closer inspection revealed a bunch of mold on the floor joists and the bottom of the sub-floor viewable when you look up when standing in the basement. I would say that approximately 40% or more of the floor joists and viewable sub-floor had mold.

THAT had an almost immediate effect on my good feelings about the property and definitely changed my attitude on my offer because now, I had to factor in mold remediation and/or basement water-proofing into my offer equation which you guessed it...translated into a much lower offer than I would have offered...sight unseen blissfully unaware that there was a mold issue.

Feel free to share any sight unseen stories or horror stories. Thanks for reading.