Well, there has been a rising trend lately of people opting to looking at online videos and photos to buy investment property interstate. Some property experts are supportive of the strategy stating that it takes the emotion out of making investment decisions that should be based on fundamental research and property reports while others are saying that this practice us very risky, especially that property buying is the biggest transaction that people make, and that you don’t get an accurate picture of the tone of the street or the fact that you don’t see the property in it’s true light. I find buying sight unseen is a strategy that I can’t get my head around partly because I have gone to see many properties in the flesh and they ended up looking nothing like the photos, particularly in the perception of room space and the aspect of the land. One property I saw online gave the impression of a flat block leading from the street and when I got there it was extremely low side, slopped and the roof was lower than the street. Any views about this practise?
If you are engaging a BA with local expertise I think its fine If you are doing it alone and dont know the area well and are not an experienced investor thats a different story..
I've done it once when I found a property selling for land value. I thought ok well even if the house is trash, I still get a free trash house out of it. Turns out the house was great lol. I would have also done it a second time as I was interested in the land / location, and told my broker I didn't care if it burned down the next day I'd still buy it. When it's about land / location I think many are happy to buy sight unseen.
