Have you ever bought a house sight unseen? Would you consider it? Obviously there is HUGE risk in purchasing a house that you have never been in so how do you determine if it is worth the risk?

Research

One important part of real estate investment is actually not just the money, but your realtor. It is true that realtors charge fees, but if you have a great realtor (like I do), they are worth every penny.

Your realtor can research a lot of information on a property if you are interested in it. Items might include: city inspections, tax history, well/septic reports, land surveys, previous sale prices of that property, and so much more.

If walking through a house, your realtor should also know all the things to look for that might be concerning or costly. My realtor (who will remain nameless) comes out of basements with cobwebs in her hair because she was down there scoping out the water heater, foundation, electrical, etc. I cannot stress enough the value of a great realtor- they know the market!

So what about the ‘sight unseen’ house? Well, it was a crazy story….this house came up on MLS, but could not be viewed. So we walked around it, but couldn’t see anything inside as all the windows were covered. The initial listing agent received over 50 phone calls the first day and had to pass the listing to another agent. So it changed hands and ended up going to online auction.

How does an online housing auction work?

Once the listing said ‘to be sold through online auction’, my realtor started asking around her office if anyone had dealt with this company before. Indeed, a few had and they had no issues with closing.

So I proceeded to create an online account and then wait until the auction date. Turned out, there was a pre-sale auction that popped up. My realtor saw it almost right after it opened up and called me (again….worth her weight in gold), and so I jumped on my laptop and made a bid. Turns out, I won!

The closing process was the WORST ever. Everything was extended which caused so many delays, BUT we hung in there and have now closed on our next project.

The ‘Before’ Pics

So what did we buy???

Here we go: 4 bedroom, 1 bath house, 1800 square feet on just over an acre in the country. The property is gorgeous. Based on the outside alone and limited information we had, we knew this would be a great property and had to have it.

Plan: repaint cabinets, new cabinet hardware, new appliances, refinish floors, take down half wall, bring up header, new light fixture, and fresh paint.

Plan: Take down all wall tile, remove shower enclosure (that is glued to tile) and take shower area down to studs, remove vanity and replace, new toilet, new shower, remove linoleum, refinish wood floors, new light fixture, and fresh paint.

Plan: new light fixture, carpet (floor was cut out :(), paint ceiling, fresh paint on walls.

Plan: remove linoleum, refinish floors, new light fixture, and fresh paint

Plan: take up plywood and refinish wood floors, all new trim, fresh paint.

Plan: not sure on flooring, new light fixture, and fresh paint on walls.

Plan: make it shine!

Plan: refinish floor, build bench over HVAC,  and fresh wall paint

Plan: remove carpet and refinish floors, and fresh wall paint

 

That’s the overview! What do you think of our ‘sight unseen’ purchase!?