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Hello everyone and Welcome to another
episode of Selling Greenville I am your
host Stan McCune realtor here in the
greater Greenville area of South
Carolina and as always you can find all
of my contact information in the show
notes reach out to me for whatever you
need at any time I'm happy to help you
and of course as I always say please
subscribe leave a rating leave a
review for the show I would really
appreciate that helps to get it out to
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just go ahead and and whatever app
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nice little little note about how
aome this show is I would really
appreciate that today we're going to be
talking about something that it might be
a little bit Niche but I think that
there is greater ramifications to
different audiences I I think that
there could be applications for this
episode to more than just the very Niche
audience that it's initially or at least
superficially designed for we're talking
about buying a house sight unseen
now there aren't a whole lot of times
where you would buy a house sight and
scene and that's why I'm saying it's
niche but I do think that there are some
takeaways from this that that you might
be able to have that could help you and
for those of you that are particularly
investors you will probably have to
buy a house or buy property at some
point sight unseen and that's something
that you'll need to to have a filter
through which to cons consider it I
have done this a few different times
specifically I I bought some properties
early on when I first started real
estate investing from the Greenville
County foreclosure auction the
Foreclosure auction does not allow you
that's a monthly thing and I I don't
know if it's still ongoing during covid
or if they I know they stopped it for
a while they may have restarted I'm
not sure I haven't gone to it in a while
but you're you're not able to access
the property prior to purchasing it
that's just the reality of the of the
situation with it but I had to
purchase a property site unseen there
we have the tax sale the Greenville
County tax sale coming up here in
not too long that's another example of
where particularly for investors
where you might find yourself buying
something sight
unseen and then there are times when
if you're buying rental properties
perhaps multi unit properties you might
not be able to get into all the units
and that may end up being the kind of
thing where you just kind of have to
take that into account you might get
into one unit you might not get into the
other unit you know if it's a duplex and
you might have to just kind of project
what that duplex might look like and
so those are kind of the key situations
where you might find yourself buying
sight unseen there are some other
instances but those are are the ones
that the the primary ones that that
come to mind
and and when you have those
opportunities if you're an investor I
should mention being able to do that
is really powerful that you can Avail
yourself to some opportunities that are
out there that you never would be able
to otherwise and so on the investment
side being able to confidently purchase
something sight unseen is really really
important
so similar to my last episode where
we talked about at least if I do these
in order because I'm recording some of
these ahead of time we talked about
the risk trying to mitigate your risk
when it comes to making an Asis offer
similarly when you're buying something
sight unseen you want to mitigate the
risk and of course this is the ultimate
risky real estate transaction right
because you are buying this almost
certainly as is
and in addition to that you don't
even have a chance to to do the the the
kind of preu diligence that we talked
about in that episode about Asis
purchases like you're not even able to
get inside the unit you don't even know
they might not even have you know an
AC at all let alone one that works so
you're you're taking a substantial risk
but there are some things to look for
and again I'm I'm kind of assuming for
the purposes of this show for the
purposes of this episode that you're not
allowed to gain access to the property
because normally you can't normally it's
trespassing but you can do a driveby
and so I'm going to operate under that
assumption I know that there have
been plenty of instances where people
have trespassed looked in Windows Etc
I'm not encouraging anyone to do that
I'm going to assume for the purposes of
the show that when we talk about
purchasing something at site unseen
that the closest you can get to that
property is doing a
driveby so how do you assess the
property when you're only doing a
driveby and and like I said before this
has deeper ramifications this can help
you assess a property even one that
you're going
into well you can start by looking at
satellite imagery and and really the
simplest is just to look on Google Maps
change it over to satellite view and
look at what you see and often times you
can even go back in time and and change
and and by the way make sure that you
look on Google Maps on their
satellite views see when that imagery
was taken was it taken just a few months
ago or was that several years ago that
can that can make a big difference
usually you can toggle if they've got
multiple different images you can toggle
between them and and see what it looked
like perhaps 10 years ago compared to
what it looks like now but when you
look at that particularly if it's a
recent picture recent satellite image
what do you see do you see a junky car
in the backyard do you see Cats
everywhere do you see weird things
happening in in the neighborhood just
different things that would cause some
flags do you see a tarp on the roof
different things like that or do you see
it just looks like a normal house normal
neighborhood nothing really stands out I
don't see anything that would be
concerning about this for whatever
reason just looks normal that
satellite imagery can can give you a
good idea some good things to look for
to kind of start
pointing you in in the right direction
and at least helping you to get an idea
of perhaps what might be going on inside
the house obviously if you're doing a
a drive a
driveby look at the community itself
drive around the community particularly
the street that that house is on and
what's the vibe of the community
typically rundown homes come in bunches
right so if the Street has several
rundown homes there's a pretty good
likelihood that the house that you're
looking at is also going to be run down
what about the cars are the cars beat up
you know are they all dinged up 25 30
year old cars that tells you a that
tells you something about the community
as well and it can these types of
things as you look at the community can
be indicative that there might be
long-standing maintenance issues with
the house itself of course then you
need to look at the house proper
whatever you can see from the street and
what does it look like can you see some
clear maintenance issues remember as
I've said multiple times if you can see
things that are wrong with the house
there's a lot that you can't see and
this is especially true if you're only
looking at it from the outside you're
not able to look at it on the inside
of the house there's going to be
substantial work probably to be done on
the inside of the house if you can see
stuff outside of just the normal
little things stuff that needs to be
done on the
outside here's one that I personally run
into do you see just a lot of stuff
piled up in the front or the backyards
this is a really bad sign because as
I learned the hard way you might inherit
a hoarder a hoarder house
in the case of the one that I
inherited there was like probably 15
full garbage bags in front of the garage
well A good rule of thumb if there's
15 or so garbage bags in front of the
house there's probably a whole lot more
inside the house that trash had to come
from somewhere and there's probably a
whole lot more of it either behind the
house inside the house inside the garage
etc etc and that can be a disaster can
obviously increase your cost for having
to trash out the house it increased
your your time for being able to get in
get estimates all that kind of stuff
if there is a lot of trash inside the
house there's likely pest issues in
there so there's all sorts of things
that that can be indicative of
another thing to look for does the house
look secure
does it look like the door may have
been kicked in at some point do windows
are windows open or broken are there
indications that there might not be full
security at that house that perhaps
there are squatters living in there
perhaps you know people have gone in and
stolen a bunch of stuff if you can see
the little electrical meter or if you
can see where the AC should be it's it's
a good sign if those things are still
there if you see where the AC should be
and there is no AC there it was probably
stolen if you see where the electrical
meter should be and there is no meter
there anymore it was likely stolen
those are are bad signs that means
probably a lot of stuff inside the house
has been stolen usually with that comes
a lot of damages to the house itself
and so that is another thing that you
can look for on the
outside is the house on a slab or a
crawl space or a Basement foundation
this is a really important one for me
because and and and also you know is a
try level that's another consideration
as well a home on a slab has so fewer
risks when you're purchasing it sight
unseen than a home that's on a crawl
space or particularly a home that's on a
basement you get you're increasing your
risks as that Foundation gets lower and
lower for moisture termite issues etc
etc I feel much more confident myself
purchasing a slab home site unseen than
I do purchasing a crawl space or
basement home site unseen that said
If you're looking at a house and it is
on a crawl space or a basement look for
indication that okay maybe there are
issues here look for indications that
there might be moisture issues if you're
able to drive by during the rain do
it that will tell you a lot about the
flow of the water what's happening is it
being diverted away from the foundation
or is it just being diverted straight to
the foundation you can also kind of
look at that a little bit just as you're
looking at the house from the street is
there a negative grade towards the
foundation
or is it properly graded all of that
those are all really important
considerations I would say if the home
is a basement home you should just
automatically assume there are issues
add that into your budget you will need
to do some sort of probably moisture
Remediation in in the basement that is
almost a universal for these types of
homes and often times the reason why
homes are being sold sight un scene
because they're in foreclosure or
whatever the case may be often times
it's because they ran out of money to
fix things like moisture flooding
whatever in the
basement automatically assume that that
you know add a good5 $10,000 to your
budget to account for that and last
but not least if you're able to talk to
any neighbors particularly right there
on that street see if they know anything
about the house they might have some
great insight for you they the nosy
neighbor you you know or the HOA
president whatever they may have been
inside the house at some point or
they might be able to get just give you
some really excellent Insight know
that they probably are frustrated with
the house frustrated that you know it's
gone into disrepair and foreclosure and
all of that so they may really paint
a very negative
picture and make it sound like just
everything is falling apart inside the
house so do take it with a grain of salt
but at the same time it can give you an
idea if you ask very specific questions
and keep them on track they might be
able to give you some more helpful
feedback than if you just let them just
keep it Broad and just say oh yeah this
house has tons of issues I mean it needs
everything done no don't don't ask
don't let them just go like that as some
specific questions is how are the
kitchen cabinets what type of
countertops are in there are you aware
did you ever see any broken windows in
the house are the windows
updated different things like that if
it's an older house has do you know
if the elect the electricity to the
house was updated at some point all
sorts of different things like that
specific questions that you can answer
that can help you get an idea of of
what's going on with that house from
someone who doesn't necessarily know
what they're looking for which would
typically be a neighbor
and and again you're putting all of
this together to kind of assess the risk
you're getting all of this information
to assess the risk to
determine what you're going to offer for
the house what you're going to bid for
the house and at the end of the day you
need to give yourself a ton of buffer a
ton of buffer if you're doing an an
auction or something like that a tax
sale there's going to be things wrong
with the house that there was just no
way to anticipate because you weren't
able to get inside of it so you have to
be extremely careful in those
situations but at the same time all
these different ways to assess the house
without going into it these are things
that even if you're just buying a normal
house that's on the market and you are
going to go inside the house and you are
going to have full inspections and all
of that some of these things are useful
for you to do anyway as you just
assess the house from the street start
thinking about what are the
possibilities here that could
indicate that there is deferred
maintenance inside the house that I
might not see at first
glance that's it I don't recommend
purchasing site unseen but there
occasionally are some opportunities like
that in the investor world and so now
you know now you know some some things
that you can do to help you to assess
the property without ever going into it
and I hope that's helpful for someone at
some point if not it was helpful for me
to to think it through to channel my
thoughts for the next time that I do
this which is by the way not my
preference I do not I very rarely buy
sight unseen the purchase price has to
be really really attractive for me to
even consider that so just so that
you know that is not at all my
preferred but
sometimes that's the only way to go
about it and sometimes it's worth
it but that's it for today's episode I
appreciate you guys listening if you
don't mind please leave a rating and or
a review if you haven't done that
already subscribe if you haven't done
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any future episodes and of course reach
out to me my contact information is in
the show notes as always hope you guys
have a wonderful rest of the week stay
safe stay warm enjoy the fall that we're
going into here
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