With the New Orleans real estate market getting hotter and hotter, investors and homebuyers have become more and more aggressive in their acquisition of properties. It’s becoming more common for potentially buyers, specifically investors, to make an offer on a home before they’ve ever set foot in it, or even seen the outside in person.
Because it’s so easy to back out of a purchase agreement during the inspection period, investors are using this tactic to get an accepted offer on a property before other more discerning buyers even have the opportunity to see inside. There are advantages to being the first one under contract, namely that you now have the option to buy a property that nobody else has even had the chance to properly view.
While this is a valid tactic for investors, it often leads to a waste of time for both the listing agent and the property’s current owner. Contracts initiated without a viewing are more likely to fall apart, and those that make the offer are more likely to ask for substantial concessions during the inspection period. A typical buyer can go through a house with the listing agent and their own Realtor and get a good idea of what the owner is willing to fix and what they aren’t, whereas an absentee buyer really has no idea what they are getting into prior to the physical inspection.
At Satsuma we encourage our buyers to view properties prior to making any offer. This is, generally speaking, in the best interest of all parties involved. However, we do acknowledge that there are times when a property comes on the market and there is simply no time to view the property in the first day or two (when a well priced property can expect to see an offer). As a result we are absolutely willing to make offers on properties that our buyers haven’t seen.
For our sellers we highly recommend and prefer to present offers that are from parties that have actually seen the property. This is to protect our sellers from dealing with difficult buyers, and to ensure that any offer we present to them is more than likely to go through. That said, there are many investors who regularly make offers sight unseen, and we won’t ever turn away a quality offer simply because someone hasn’t had the opportunity to physically inspect the property prior to submitting the offer.
This is obviously a nuanced issue, and each and every case is unique in its own way. That said, you can rest assured that when we present an offer to a seller, we considered all factors when making our recommendation as to whether to accept, counter, or decline.
If you have any questions about making an offer on properties, contact a Satsuma Realtor TODAY, and we’ll be happy to help with anything you need.