The Most Important Parts of the House to See as an Out-of-State Investor

[Jonathan Greene]

If you are a new out-of-state investor or thinking about investing out-of-state, you need to see some parts of the house before making an offer. This means you need boots on the ground. Zillow or your agent's MLS portal will never have all of the photos you need to make a fully informed offer. Those sites have the best marketing photos, but that's not where the potential costs are. Here is a list of many things you need photos of that won't be available online:

1. The entire basement, if there is one. Each corner and where the floors meet the wall. A video is best for this. It would also be best to have someone go inside every closet and door. Also, yes to a crawlspace, but this is a big ask of a friend to do it. You are looking for evidence of water and mold and assessing the structural integrity of the walls and support beams.

2. All of the mechanicals, including permit dates and any identifiers. Hot water heater, furnace, gas, electrical box, HVAC, oil tank, plumbing pipes. You just want an overview of the age of the units and upkeep. Remember, just a new furnace could cost $10k.

3. The attic. This is where you find issues with the roof, not on the outside. The leaks are visible from the inside of the roofline inside the attic, if there is one. You will also find pest issues in the attic.

4. The entire exterior. This is best with a video as well. You are looking for issues with the foundation and any other exterior anomalies like giant trees that could be in the sewer line or pressing against the foundation of the house, evidence of buried tanks, where the septic and leach field is, etc.

There are plenty more things to focus on as well, but these four are often neglected by newer out-of-state investors relying on an agent or friend as their boots.

What else did I miss?

[Becca F.]

Great information. I would have saved few thousand dollars in inspection fees and appraisal fees if I had known that and I had a friend send me detailed videos.

I'm not sure if this information is available in all counties but where I bought in the Indianapolis metro area, I can look up property tax records. One experienced investor said to me that if it looks like a different LLC has owned a home every two years it's a bad sign that the property is being passed around from investor to investor. Although some investors don't have LLCs so it would be difficult to tell if it's owned by a primary homeowner vs an investor. Is this accurate, if a property is owned by investors and constantly being sold and bought that's a warning sign?

[Jonathan Greene]

Quote from @Becca F.:

Great information. I would have saved few thousand dollars in inspection fees and appraisal fees if I had known that and I had a friend send me detailed videos.

I'm not sure if this information is available in all counties but where I bought in the Indianapolis metro area, I can look up property tax records. One experienced investor said to me that if it looks like a different LLC has owned a home every two years it's a bad sign that the property is being passed around from investor to investor. Although some investors don't have LLCs so it would be difficult to tell if it's owned by a primary homeowner vs an investor. Is this accurate, if a property is owned by investors and constantly being sold and bought that's a warning sign?

Thank you. Hopefully, some others see this.

Yeah, I would say that's a red flag about the LLCs because usually when an LLC buys and flips, they sell to an end buyer/homeowner, not another LLC. Usually when they transfer from one LLC to another, they aren't finishing the job and are burying something since LLCs often don't do seller's disclosures as well.

[Danny Gonzalez]

Yep, I ALWAYS recommend doing an inspection prior to close.  This is the best way to ensure that you know exactly what you're purchasing.

And most of the time, you can use the findings of that report to reduce the purchase price/get a credit at closing for way more than the ~$400 inspection report.  

[Caleb Brown]

All great points. I would throw in the neighbors. Not technically part of the house but something you can't change about the house. Also photos will not show neighbors and google street is not accurate of current shape