To offer without viewing?!

[ThatsNotMyMuffin]

Bit of a complicated one, I found a house I really, really like. It's a very good price and I don't think it will be around for long. We cannot view it for another few weeks (it's a long distance move) by when it would have been probably sold. I've asked the EA for a virtual viewing which they will ask the vendor about.

The house seems ok, good condition etc. Am I crazy to consider offering on it without visiting it physically? Anything I should ask/consider before doing so?

as far as I know, many overseas buyers make offer without physical viewing. do more research on the area, consider schooling (if that's a factor to be considered), commuting, proximity to groceries and leisure spots availability. of course in person viewing is the best imo. I will check the above as well as facing.

As a vendor I wouldn’t be happy accepting an offer from you, especially if you wanted to view before you exchanged contracts. In a hot market I would only accept from someone who has actually been inside.

I don't believe a vendor would be keen to sell to you without physically viewing incase down the line when you did view, you decide there's issues with it. One of the places we did offer on, one of their terms of offer, was all people buying must have viewed the property.

We sold our flat to a couple who didn’t view it, they were supposed to come one evening but didn’t turn up. The estate agent rang me next morning to say the couple wanted the flat at the asking price. She was surprised that they never came around, as they were renting around the corner. It all went well, but they still didn’t come round till the week before they moved in. Apparently they had viewed other flats in our block of 9, but ours wasn’t the same. We also have friends who were working abroad who bought a home just from online viewing, they were happy with this.

We did this early on in lockdown. We just asked for a few extra photos and a virtual viewing, we did also do a drive last though to take a look from the street. Also, check the dimensions carefully and measure them out in one of your current rooms or garden so you get a more accurate idea of size. We also had the full survey. The sellers didn't seem to mind, but obviously the circumstances were a little different at that point.

By 'we' I'm guessing it is you and your partner?
Can one of you travel down and view it sooner?
Assuming you and the house are both in the UK, you could probably drive there and back In a day? It isn't a big country. Or stay overnight if you don't fancy leaving Early and back late.

As others have said, they won't be keen to accept an offer from you, so if they get offers from those who have viewed it, they will go down that route

We did it during one of the lockdowns, put an offer in and proceeded. We’re now living here. We’re very happy. We did view prior to exchange but very much treated as a “second viewing”.

I had an offer on a house from someone who hadn’t viewed. I turned it down as I didn’t believe they’d follow through on it.

But if you’re happy that it’s a great house, with no hidden nasties (downwind of a something smelly, earshot of something particularly noisy, dreadful parking on road, awful unavoidable traffic nearby, etc) then go for it!

@TinHatters

By 'we' I'm guessing it is you and your partner? Can one of you travel down and view it sooner? Assuming you and the house are both in the UK, you could probably drive there and back In a day? It isn't a big country. Or stay overnight if you don't fancy leaving Early and back late.

We will be able to come up in 2 weeks but I'm worried it will have an offer on it by then.

It's a 7 hour drive each way, last time it took us just over 10 so not really doable in a day. For various work related reasons it's impossible for one/both of us to do this journey in the next couple of weeks.

The owner was happy for the EA to give me his number so I now have spoken to him directly and he's happy to arrange a virtual viewing, he was sympathetic to our situation so I hope he would accept our offer if we were to make one!

We tried to buy a house without viewing, we had been in load’s which were exactly the same.
Vendor refused even though we offered the asking price

I did it for my parents. We offered before seeing it and I eventually went to see it a few weeks later.

My parents never saw it till they arrived with the removal van from abroad!

We did something similar, but it was a house on our current estate so we were very familiar with it. Good luck!

It's quite common OP, I'd be more concerned about the outlook than the house as that's the thing you can't see. Pics can sometimes be misleading about condition though. How well do you know the area? Do you know the lie of the land around it?

Not the same but my buyer walked straight in and out of my flat in about 3 minutes. The EA was a bit WTF. Offered above asking and the sale completed in a few weeks. She barely looked at anything but wrote me a letter after viewing saying she had spotted the flat a year previously and just knew it was the perfect one for her. Honestly I found it all a bit..unusual but she seemed very happy with her choice.

OP, you are crazy.

And I thought buying without a survey was risky

www.businessleader.co.uk/one-five-buyers-regret-not-getting-survey-purchasing-home/

I sold an apartment to an overseas buyer who had never physically seen the place with no issues at all.
As the seller, I would need to be assured you are not putting in an offer purely to remove it from the market and then, visit in two weeks and change your mind over some trivial issue.

Is there anyone who could look for you? Could you fly down? I would offer. Maybe with a letter attached outlining why you want it. They can only say no but then if you don’t offer you’ve lost out anyway.

In the vendor's position I would consider it if you put down a 10% non-refundable deposit, otherwise your offer has the negative effect of stopping me selling it to someone else and you may well withdraw or lower your offer once you can view it.

In this crazy market at the moment, if you’re genuinely really keen, I would do it (in fact, we recently did, and our offer was accepted).

We did this. Living a king way away. I had viewed a house two doors down and know the area well. A relative viewed it and we offered. I didn’t set foot inside it until moving day. It’s an OK house but I’ve never really liked it to be honest. At the time we were desperate to get out of rental.

Long way

@AnastasiaRomanov

Long way

Have you had a virtual viewing then @ThatsNotMyMuffin

We did this. House was put on the market and the owners immediately went on holiday. We wanted to get ahead of anyone else. All worked out fine but we did know the area and had “viewed” it externally.
We also sold a house to someone who never saw it. All went through with no problems.