Would You Buy a Home Sight Unseen?

If you were a Grand Rapids real estate agent and a buyer wanted to purchase a home sight unseen, would you be surprised? For most buyers, it would be hard to make such a huge investment and life choice without at least one personal tour of the home. But for some people, it’s the only option they have; circumstances prevent them from being able to tour a home before they can purchase it and move in. Most often these buyers fall into one of a few categories:

• Out-of-state job transferees who have no time to travel to tour a home. Often these folks are high level employees seeking an executive home. Perhaps they have already visited the area, toured some homes, and maybe even made an offer on a home that fell through.
• Military personnel who have received a PCS (Permanent Change of Station) from an international assignment
• Investors who know the value of the market and want to snap up hot properties before real estate values recover any further. Lately you hear of foreign investors from Canada or Asia looking at Florida homes or luxury real estate.

Often an absentee buyer already knows the neighborhood well, and may even be familiar with the actual home that’s on the market. They may want a particular street or neighborhood where homes seldom come on the market, and are quickly snatched up. For whatever reason, some people are comfortable making a major decision without seeing the home in person. You’ll know whether that fits your personality or not! If you are considering buying a home sight unseen, here are a few tips:

1. Have a trusted friend or relative look at the home for you if at all possible. Participate by Skype if you can!
2. Find an agent you trust to act as your eyes and ears. Ideally that agent should provide you interior shots of appliances, closets, all rooms, all sides of the exterior, the air conditioning, furnace, entry, driveway, neighboring homes – anything you are interested in to get a complete picture of the home.
3. When you’re ready to make an offer, you may need to convince the buyer that you are serious. Make sure sellers know you have educated yourself about the property.
4. Make sure to include contingencies for a full round of inspections.

Years ago, buying a home without touring it first would have been unimaginable, but the web is making it a little more feasible. Most home searches now begin online anyway, with a search and often a virtual tour of the home. Our clients tell us that The Sprich Group’s online home search is invaluable in the search process. Technology makes so much information available about Grand Rapids homes for sale: high resolution imagery, speedy virtual tours, and statistics about the home. You can also easily locate neighborhood mapping, as well as a wealth of school, community, tax, and mortgage information.

With the assistance of a very committed Grand Rapids real estate agent, you may be able to accomplish a purchase without first seeing it in person, if you need to. Whether you’re in that situation or whether you plan to make several tours of a home before you buy it, be sure you’re working with an agent that takes the time to really learn your lifestyle as well as your specific housing needs, who is willing to make the extra effort to make sure you’re comfortable in that home. Contact The Sprich Group today.

Photo: Keirsten Marie ( some rights reserved )