@Benjamin Ying1) Waste of time unless you are buying hundreds of units.2) Any option to minimize risk is usually a good idea.3) Always better to visit an area before investing.

Hi Garry,To ensure your safety, it is highly recommended to visit areavibes.com and select the "See more crime data" option.

Visiting 3 projects in Columbia tomorrow.

Kind of.  

I’ve visited every other property I’ve considered in the past, so this is uncharted territory for me, and it feels a little out of my comfort zone.I’m considering putting it under contract sight unseen to lock it up, but I don’t want to make a rookie mistake here.I'm looking for some advice here.

Plenty of people invest remotely, and as long as you have modest expectations (not chasing the highest possible yield), and are using light leverage, and don't get suckered into buying in a part of town that you wouldn't feel comfortable visiting in broad daylight, plenty of people do this and do... fine.

With that home we see a lot of family visits.

So a question, haha, and forgive me if this sounds incredibly naive - how about getting a property manager or someone else with boots on the ground to do the underwriting by visiting in person etc.

While algorithms can analyze data at scale, real estate isn’t just about numbers—it’s about nuances and the most important component of real estate is understanding its value, and that to me (maybe I am old school) but can only be done by physically visiting and walking the property.So for me, factors like local market conditions, property inspections, and borrower credibility can’t be fully captured in a formula.

@Michael Baum You are right in saying that if guests break $2000 worth of stuff in a year, we have the wrong kind of guests.