Your uncle listed his house and it sold in three days. Your old roommate made six offers before finally paying $10,000 over the asking price on a house he’d never seen before. You’ve got a promotion that moves you across the country, and you want to get the homebuying process started before you move.
Whether you’re facing a time crunch or an overheated market where homes are sold within days, you may feel pressured to buy a home without seeing it in person. The rush to buy a home before you’re completely priced out of the market might push you into a house-buying situation filled with regret. It can be difficult to gain an accurate picture of what a house is really like from a handful of listing pictures, but homebuyers have been purchasing homes sight unseen for years.
You can feel confident about purchasing a home you’ve never visited when you follow these tips for buying a house sight unseen.
New Home Must-Haves
Many potential buyers, in a fit of frustration, may find themselves saying something like, “I just want a house with a ________”.
Whether it’s a yard, a garage, a pool, or enough bedrooms for all of the children, focusing on one must-have feature in a new home may mean ignoring the busy street in front of the house or the 65-minute commute that you’re now facing every morning. Shopping for a home online can make it easier for you to put a neighborhood into the context of the city, and understand how that particular home will affect your quality of life.
Rather than focusing on a single must-have home feature, homebuyers should consider some of the other quality of life factors that aren’t included in the house listing.
Work Commute
Your frame of reference for rush hour traffic can lead you to under- or overestimate the commute time in your new city. On a map, you can easily pinpoint that your drive is only 10 miles. Unbeknownst to you, that 10 miles may be along the only major thoroughfare for an entire city of 200,000 people. A more expensive home within the city limits could save you eight hours in the car each week. Balancing the cost of a home, time spent with family, and commute time should factor into your homebuying decision.
Pro-tip: Watch the local TV channel during rush hour. News stations frequently include commuter times in the morning and evening news. You can also note which areas of the city are usually congested with traffic.
School Districts
Will your children be able to play sports year-round? What are the class sizes? Is there a STEM program in the new school district? Since education funding changes from state to state, buying a home can also mean a significant change in your children’s education. You can start your search for the perfect school district here. In some states, because local funding is specific to a school district, you may find that your tax burden is significantly higher or lower depending on the school district in which your new home is located.
Pro-tip: Join local Facebook groups or the Nextdoor community to ask local parents about the school districts. You can ask about the quality of education, extracurricular activities, or taxes.
Property Taxes
Communities with explosive growth may need to increase property taxes to catch up on infrastructures like new roads, schools, and public services. Cities that have had a population exodus may still be trying to collect the same amount of taxes from a smaller tax base. Growth, mismanaged cities, and large capital projects are some of the hidden costs that can affect your cost of living. You want to avoid receiving a property tax bill that leaves you stunned.
Pro-tip: Your Realtor® can help you sort through information like upcoming property tax hikes or which city has planned appropriately for growth. They can be a real asset for finding out about future costs in a home or city.
While it is unlikely that you’ll find the perfect home in the exact neighborhood you want and at a price point you can afford, you can sit down and prioritize which amenities are must-haves in your new home.
Virtual House-Hunting Tools
As you begin to narrow down your options, you can turn to virtual tools like Google Earth or 3D home tours to get a better feel for the neighborhood or home. Google Earth street views can help you visualize where the nearest grocery store is to the home, or how close is the closest freeway. A 3D home tour can help you orient yourself within a room and provide “location intelligence”.
The Perfect Local Partner
A local Realtor® is in the perfect position to help you find your new out-of-state home. A Realtor® with deep local knowledge will be able to help you understand area growth trends, plus they’ll have their finger on the pulse of which neighborhoods have the best local coffee shops or restaurants within walking distance.
Your local Realtor® can walk through a home and report back to you on all of the nuances that you can’t see from a set of online pictures. You might want to ask about:
- Cell service in the home
- Types of internet available
- Cigarette, pet, or other unpleasant odors
- Noisy neighbors
- Availability of street parking
- The area around the neighborhood
Your real estate agent can also take a tour of your potential home so that they can point out interesting features or potential problems. You can use the walkthrough as an opportunity to ask questions about the neighborhood or the home.
Closing on a Home Long-Distance
There are some risks when you buy a home without ever setting foot in it. That’s why you need a trusted home inspector on your real estate team. In a hot market, you might feel tempted to waive all of the homebuying contingencies to make your offer more attractive. However, this could be a gamble that lands you in a house with a hidden mold or foundation problem.
Instead, you should rely on your home inspector’s expertise to help you uncover any issues that pictures or a 3D tour might have missed. You can ask the home inspector questions such as:
- How soon will the HVAC system, roof, or water heater need to be replaced?
- Are there any signs of mold in the attic, bathrooms, or basement?
- What kind of condition is the foundation in?
- Are there common maintenance issues in homes like this one?
- Which home improvements must be made immediately?
You can also ask the home inspector to recommend local tradesmen for any issues identified that you’ll want to have repaired right away.
The Bottom Line
Go beyond the listing pictures and really dig into the data available to you. You’ll be able to get a better picture of what the home is really like, including factors that aren’t included in the real estate listing. By using a local Realtor®, virtual tools, and a trusted home inspector, you can feel confident about buying a home without visiting it first.
