Has anyone bought an IP without inspected it in person??

Get a building and pest inspection. Approach a company directly, don't ask the Real Estate Agent for a referal.

Cheers,

Jamie

I don't bother with building and pest inspections for units. 

If there are any issues they will be in the strata report.

I think getting all building, pest and strata is a bit of overkill.

Hello

I would suggest always building/ pest report and strata and totally disagree with not doing it. You are putting your neck on the line for loans and hoping to make money. I have bought and sold and renovated units for 18 years and some of the problems I have seena dn found have been amazing. Water and pipe issues, termites concealed, floors not laid correctly and needing to be ripped up as cracking underneath, body corp issues and all landlords about to be hit with a $10k – 20 k maintenance/ repair levy, pending insurance claims and legal claims on strata, Main Roads  resumption and owners trying to sell quick before DMR offers them and forces a sale at a figure they wish to pay.

Horrid neighbours in blocks and tenants leaving continuosly, noise issues, domestic violence, break ins

You really need to check it out, ring a few property managers in the area and ask them to do you a rent appraisal and do they know the block, what will it rent for, what sort of tenant will you get? how long to get a good tenant? do tenants stay long in this area?

I have seen one recently for sale all checked out well, and when I had a builder through he realised the balcony was structurally not sound and would cost about 10k to fix, and body corp did not have the funds to fix it and didnt seem to care, so it would have been a long battle and legal fees etc and enforced strata levies to raise funds to fix it- Timeline to do all this- probably about 4 months, and a tenant is not going to want to rent your unit if they cant use the balcony or it is unsafe- so loss of rent there also.

BUYER BEWARE- Do your homework thoroughly!! and read all reports and ask as many questions as you can as too late when you settle and stuck with a problem.

Hi, I often buy properties site unseen. And sometimes that has worked, sometimes it hasn't. What I would recommend is as per what TerryW said, try and get someone who you know to drive around and check out the property.

We were recently looking at buying one and all the reports looked good. Except when we had a friend go check it out, we found out that the property overlooked a very ugly shed, which would have hampered rental ability. So we pulled the plug.

If you can't get someone to go and visit, perhaps get the agent to send you some photos of the external surroundings. And always get the relevant reports done. It's too easy to go wrong otherwise.

Hope that helps

Hi, We bought our 1st  sight unseen IP in regional Victoria  while being mentored by Destiny .  Did all due diligence, had pest & building inspections done , read reports thoroughly – building inspector reported no significant problems.  Soon after completion air conditioning installer noticed missing beams in roof structure and refused to send his workmen into roofspace due to danger of roof collapse – our solicitor contacted building inspector  – no reply , our options of chasing him for reimbursement were so expensive, we elected to have  another building inspection done which confirmed a  major problem needing urgent repair  which we then paid for so we could then tenant the property.   Had we known extent of repairs needed would not have proceeded with purchase at all. Frustrating thing was the initial building inspector was recommended by another investor , and he continues to work in the area.

Hi Buymore,

You can also use Nearmap, a new mapping tool in addition to Google maps.

http://www.nearmap.com/

It is a relatively new tool developed by an Australian company.

I think, it is a handy tool for all property investors.
The image resolution is nice. Google maps is good for directions, distance calculations, finding places of interest etc.

Great suggestions everyone.
I think, getting a very "Independent & un-biased" advice is sensible approach + all due diligence.

I am thinking of following the approach of remote purchase without physically seen the IP.
But I am not sure.

I would prefer to use an "Independent and good quality buyers agent" if I have time limitations.
The buyers agent fees can be justifiable considering amount of money you are likely to make if the deal turns
alright.

Hope this helps.

WC

Nearmap is excellent. Thanks for the recommendation.