Hi,
This is my first message. I have commenced researching positive cash flow investing and have noticed that Margaret Lomas the author of “How to Create an Income for Life” does not inspect a property before purchasing. Does anyone else believe in this strategy? The book suggests this approach as a way of removing emotion from the purchase of an investment. I am not too sure I agree but am keen to here peoples thoughts.
Regards
NikkiIn my view while no doubt there are a number of building defects etc you can’t identify, there are issues you can eg can you get a car in the garage, etc etc. You can try all the windows and doors for ease of movement. Fine, you don’t eliminate the need for professional reports, but you can ask the vendor or tenant about the neighbours etc.
On the left hand side of the screen you will find the word “SEARCH” using this function; typing in the keywords SIGHT/SITE UNSEEN (selecting Subject Only in the Search In section) will bring up pages and pages of threads pertaining to this very subject.
Enjoy!!! [biggrin]
I think that this approach is frought with danger.
I agree that you should try and keep the emotion out of the purchase equation, but buying properties site unseen is a very naive and simplistic approach. It suggests that properties are like shares – all the same. You can buy you NAB shares site unseen – it makes no difference which one you buy, but this DOES NOT work for property.Each property has some speicial attributes that make it unique. And as crj suggests, you could be buying yourself a heap of trouble
Michael Yardney
METROPOLE PROPERTIES
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FREE subscription http://www.metropole.com.auI think you can do a lot of your research initially without necessarily viewing a property, but I’d certainly hesitate to actually buy without going there. Mainly because you can’t get a feel for the area without being there. Are there big power lines right behind the back fence? Bikies next door? etc etc These are things that can affect your ability to rent out the property (if that’s what you plan to do) and no amount of building inpsections will reveal them.
Having said all that, once you’re familiar with an area and have an agent there who you can trust, perhaps you could do it.Keep smiling
Felicity
Apologies for the delay in response. I agree with all of the responses above. I also believe that if you have a criteria to select a property then it is a way to mitigate the risk that the emotions will take over. When a lot of people buy blue chip shares they do so in companies that they are familar with and can see eg. Woolworths, CBA, NAB, Coles Myer and even smaller stocks like Billabong. I really do not understand why you would not take the opportunity to prove the research right or wrong. Thanks for the searching tip.
Nikki
I recently bought a property in outback QLD sight unseen through a buyers agent connected with a seminar giver. I asked her whether the property was in a good area, she said yes. A couple of months later I went there and discovered it was quite the opposite. However, I haven’t had any problem renting it, plus, even tho I had a building etc inspection, I am now told there are multiple things that need fixing – that the inspector did not reveal and which I could not see while I was there. Upshot: while I think it’s desirable to go visit the place first, its also expensive, time consuming and tedious. Visiting will not tell you everything – but it will tell you what sort of area the property is in.
You said – “””Upshot: while I think it’s desirable to go visit the place first, its also expensive, time consuming and tedious”””
But when your spending over $100k on a property – spending $1k is better than buying a bad performing property. You cannot buy the time back. I am an investor not a gambler. Reducing the risk is an expense that I am more than prepared to pay.
But thats why I only invest locally. I know my area. Its a good performer and my risk is very limited.
I once thought sight unseen with the right professional inspections would be fine until I knocked back a real lemon in regional WA.
I found out that someone from Sydney had later placed an offer on this property. Even with the right inspections they would not realise that it was in the wrong location, the design was an absolute nightmare, and try renting it.
The photos on internet looked great infact I would say the IP was a bargain.
We learned you can’t smell cat’s pee on internet photos either. And were very glad we went to personally inspect a property that looked fine but made us pewk!!
Diane[blush2]
I bought my first IP interstate; I only had a few hours before work to drive-by a list of candidate places, so I didn’t see inside but was glad I saw outside.
One place that looked good from photo actually had a vacant block next door (with huge cyclone mesh fence) and the back wall of KMart towering next to that. Really glad I got to see it first!!
Cheers, Mick
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