Question for long-distance STR investors ...

[Sean Bramble]

Hey everyone - I'm looking for my first STR property and am considering expanding my search to include multiple long distance markets since my home market is super slow right now (upstate NY). I have a question about if and when you actually travel to go see properties you're interested in ... seems like it would be a huge waste of time and money to travel cross-country to see a property before your offer is actually accepted

Question for those of you doing long-distance investing: do you wait to visit properties you're interested in until after your offer has been accepted? And then if something is majorly wrong find a way to get out of the deal during the inspection period? Any advice would be really helpful ... trying to widen my lead funnel as much as possible

[Ryan Moyer]

I think very few of us here see the property in person before putting in an offer.

One of mine I put in the offer and went and saw the place after it was accepted (during inspection period).  The other place I never even went to visit until after it closed.

It's a crazy market right now, most places worth doing STRs you don't have time to fly in and see a property in person, it will be gone by the time you see it.  Some are so crazy even having an inspection period/contingency will make your offer non-competitive, but I'm not a fan of skipping those.

Anyway it sounds like you're on the right track.  Check with your realtor on the state you're looking in.  Most of the best states for STRs you can get out of the deal pretty easily so your approach (get offer accepted, then go see it during inspection period) will work well and is what many of us do.