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Original poster

Would you offer on a house that you haven't viewed?

52 replies

Champagneforeveryone · 29/12/2021 22:04

We've found the perfect house (on paper)

We've been looking since August, though have only had our mortgage agreed last week so have not been in a position to do more than look. However it's apparent there's very little that meets all our wishes and we will have to make some compromises.

A property has just come up which ticks more of the boxes than most and looks perfect. However the vendors have been unwell and viewing has been pushed back until mid January. We have to leave our rental property by Easter so don't really have the luxury of hanging on another couple of weeks.

I've bought cars without viewing but a house is something else. Part of me says it would be utter madness, the other part thinks what could realistically go wrong?

Any advice or experiences would be greatly appreciated before we make a possibly expensive mistake

OP posts:
Singinghollybob · 29/12/2021 23:28

My friend is currently doing this. He couldn't get out of work to view and the housing market here has been crazy with houses being snapped up and he's missed out each time.
My husband went to view it for him and my friend offered on it and in the process of buying it!

Singinghollybob · 29/12/2021 23:30

But he's desperate to move out of rented and buy his own place!

greenlynx · 29/12/2021 23:36

Do the photos show empty property or with furniture? Are there photos of ALL rooms, bathrooms, kitchen and back garden from different angles? Can you visit the street and have a look at the house from outside?

Original poster
Champagneforeveryone · 30/12/2021 00:20

Thank you Smile

To answer a couple of questions, we've seen photos of all rooms and a walk through.

We're not overly familiar with the area but (from a work capacity) I'm as sure as I can be there's no huge issues with neighbours, ASB etc. We are viewing another property tomorrow and are hoping to swing by on the way home just to see the area in the flesh.

Prices are cheaper as the schools are not so great (where most of the rest of the county are excellent) but DS is off to uni next year so not an issue for us.

In my real life I am quite reckless and on the balance of the details I have I would put the offer in. However I accept how wrong it could go, and what a maniac I might actually look Grin I'll call the EA tomorrow and see if they can suggest anything.

OP posts:
Enzbear · 30/12/2021 00:20

Never. You can't smell damp or see woodchip wallpaper or dodgy wiring or a million other things from a photo.

mumofEandE · 30/12/2021 00:27

Yes I have!
We were living rent free in a flat owned by DM (a year in total) but really wanted our own space
I saw a house for sale in the local paper (this was about 20 years ago so pre internet)
I went to 'see' it (peered through the window) - it was early evening - and I rang the estate agents there and then with an offer
Looking back I can't believe I did that - DH was a bit Shock but it turned out well!

Buddywoo · 30/12/2021 00:40

We did. We were living in Spain and returning to the Uk and had just had a house purchase fall through. We were desperate to find something within a 12 mile radius of a certain school and within the price range we could afford.
The house we are in now came on the market and it ticked all the boxes. We studied street view and google earth as we didn't know the area at all. I got my daughter to book a viewing and she went and had a look round for us. We then made an offer which was accepted.
We actually went round it for the first time just before exchange.
Luckily we have ended up in a beautiful village and are happy with the house. If we hadn't taken a chance we would have lost the house.
We have now been here 4 years and during that time only 3 houses in the village have come up for sale and they have all sold immediately.

Rubyupbeat · 30/12/2021 01:06

No, I viewed a perfect, to us, house and the smell from outside was horrific , it was neat an abbatoir.

Original poster
Champagneforeveryone · 30/12/2021 02:36

@Rubyupbeat

No, I viewed a perfect, to us, house and the smell from outside was horrific , it was neat an abbatoir.
I do at least know there are no abbatoirs locally Wink
OP posts:
Freddiefox · 30/12/2021 02:57

Even if you offered today, I doubt you’d be in by Easter. Moving house is a slow process

RedHot22 · 30/12/2021 03:05

My DBro did, worked out fine
Also, our neighbours did. They were moving here from the US.

Anordinarymum · 30/12/2021 03:32

No I would not.
I bought my council house many years ago so this house was the first one I bought from a vendor.
I was naive.
I should have checked so many things which I did not do because the place looked lovely and I wrongly assumed that because it was in a good area and three times as much money as my own house sold for that it would be as perfect as they said it was.
I found problems with windows, the roof, leaks that had been hidden, problems with the heating, the boiler needed replacing, the shower was fucked, massive problems with the electrics.. it needed rewiring and there was a problem over the land between our house and next door which we were not told about.
In retrospect we should have paid for the full survey and inspected the place with a fine toothcomb.

PissedOffNeighbour22 · 30/12/2021 04:33

@Anordinarymum We paid for the full survey and the house is still a bag of shit. There's so many things that could be wrong with a house that you'll never know until you move in and start poking around.

Going over the house with a fine tooth comb is good advice and is what we said we would do. But estate agents or vendors usually put paid to that. We were made to feel uncomfortable asking any questions or the EA 'didn't know' and never got back to us with any answers.

We recently found out that the bastards lied to us about a flood. They swore blind that only a little bit of water got in and was gone in an hour or so, definitely no sewerage etc. Neighbour brought it up in conversation about how horrendous the flood was and how all the sewerage had backed up etc. He was a bit Confused when we told him what we'd been told by the vendor.

I absolutely would not buy a house unseen. On the other side of it, when we sold my DP's house we turned down several offers from people who had not viewed and also turned down several where only one partner had viewed it as we didn't trust them not to pull out or cause delays.

TheTeenageYears · 30/12/2021 04:41

We offered without viewing but we were buying with a long term view of renting it out first and then gutting for us to live in. We already live in the village so know the road and area well. I'm not sure I would do it if I was expecting to live in it as is without a large contingency fund/if I didn't know the area very well.

Amammai · 30/12/2021 04:58

We saw an amazing house online, tucked all our boxes and more. When we went to view it the smell of cigarette smoke in every room, including upstairs bedrooms was so intense! You can’t know things like that until a viewing.

RobinHumphries · 30/12/2021 07:19

Just google Ridgemont house Torquay and you’ll understand why I never would

Original poster
Champagneforeveryone · 30/12/2021 07:24

Bahaha robin, even my laissez faire attitude would balk at that. Thankfully this property is many miles away from the sea.

Though that article begs the question, what exactly was she thinking when she bought it?!

OP posts:
Fifthtimelucky · 30/12/2021 10:04

I might, but only if I had seen the outside and was happy with that, the road and the general area.

Bluntness100 · 30/12/2021 10:08

On two conditions I would. If I could see a video tour, and if I could view before exchange.

In my experience pictures can be very misleading but video tours are generally not doctored and reveal more of the truth.

EmmaGrundyForPM · 30/12/2021 10:12

We once sold a house to a buyer in Hong Kong who was moving to.the UK and who hadn't seen it. This was 30 years ago so no Internet - she had a copy of the particulars faxed over to her! It was a tiny terraced house but in a great location.

I cleaned the house from top to bottom, and the day after she moved in she rang to thank us as the house was "perfect" and she couldn't get over how clean it was, as apparently all the flats she'd bought before in HK were left in a dreadful mess. So it worked out for her. I have to say I was very dubious about the whole thing, as she insisted on exchange and completion on the same day which was also to day she arrived in the UK. But it all worked out.

AlanThePig · 30/12/2021 10:12

We did, but it was a house we had been trying to buy for a few years.
It was 15 years old so we knew the chances of anything major were small and we had seen many photos and done a walk through. It was detached so no neighbours to scope out and at the end of a quiet cul de sac.
We'd stood outside admiring it many times and tbh the house for us was very much secondary to the land it stood on.

MrsSkylerWhite · 30/12/2021 10:13

No.

And very few houses are “perfect”.

DerAlteMann · 30/12/2021 10:51

No x 1,000!

Solongtoshort · 30/12/2021 10:52

Why no speak to the estate agent tell him about the rental issue and do some research in to the area, schools local shops, maybe knock on the neighbours and get a feel for the street, we visited our house 4 times and came to the area both day time and night time to make sure it felt ok. I even got my husband to drop me off at the house so l could walk to the train station.

What’s the saying about is it buy in haste and repent in leisure , my Nan used to say it to me every time l bought new shoes.

Kite22 · 30/12/2021 12:01

Those telling stories of going to view on behalf of their dc is different, as the person buying has had someone they trust implicitly go inside the property. My DSis has viewed many a property with either her ds or her ds's partner as they can't get the time off work together at a time the EA will show the properties, so they have bought without one of them seeing it inside 'in the flesh' as it were , BUT that is very different from nobody having been inside it.

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