Would You Buy a House without an Inspection?

Birdseye on 11/04/2020 - 13:42
Last edited 11/04/2020 - 15:12 by 1 other user

Just in case they hadn't crippled real estate enough, Victoria has just banned any in-person inspections of residential properties (including private inspections), unless the house is already empty (and is then cleaned and disinfected after each viewing).

So the question is, would you buy (or even rent) a house without seeing it in person? My perspective its an effective ban on house sales for the majority of the market. Also think its going to end up making more tenants homeless - people won't want to renew leases if they then have no ability to sell before the lease is up.

Poll Options

  • 6
    Yes, the pictures and videos are enough for me.
  • 143
    No, of course not, have you gone mad?
Home & Garden

Comments

  • capslock on 11/04/2020 - 13:51
    -3

    It puts the market on pause so anyone waiting for a bargain can forget it. Once inspections are available again the economic crisis will be over and the market will just pick up where it left off. There goes everyone's predictions for a 20% price drop.

    • dcep on 11/04/2020 - 13:56
      +5

      nice, what about the 20% unemployment ?

      all businesses back as usual ?

      • capslock on 11/04/2020 - 14:38
        -1

        It's not possible. The government won't let that happen. They will keep throwing money at it until it goes away.

        • dcep on 11/04/2020 - 14:40
          +1

          Nice, can i get $20k to reopen my business ?

        • whooah1979 on 12/04/2020 - 10:49

          Unemployment will remain at a all time high for the next few years. No amount of QE can prevent that.

    • dingdong3000 on 11/04/2020 - 13:58

      Bunch of people won't be able to afford it let alone getting a mortgage…

    • chumlee on 11/04/2020 - 16:40
      +1

      If only it were that simple. You can't hit pause on an economy or your life.

      Lots of jobs have been lost. Lots of small businesses havr gone to the wall or will struggle to get their business back to "normal".

      Many medium and large businesses need to get supply chains back up and running but have no idea when to start this. Commercial tenants and landlords are taking a hit with revenue severely down.

      Plenty of people will need to dip into their savings, if they have any, to keep surviving. Consumer demand will be subdued for some time.

      Glad you think we can just unpause all of this

  • Hardlyworkin on 11/04/2020 - 14:53
    +1

    I would rent a place without inspection if it was a good deal, provided there was a floor plan provided. If they don't provide a floor plan there is probably a good reason.

    I can't foresee any situations where I would buy without myself or someone I trusted viewing the place.

    • salmon123 on 11/04/2020 - 17:44

      If they don't provide a floor plan there is probably a good reason.

      I've noticed the quality of rental listings in my area has gone up dramatically. Before the pandemic, it was like 2 photos if you're lucky. I guess this was probably because the property is occupied and full of the tenants things.

  • ssquid on 11/04/2020 - 15:17

    A few years ago someone bought the house I was renting without doing an inspection. Felt pretty bad for them because it was riddled with termites.

    • Debuting on 11/04/2020 - 16:07
      +1

      That's why you pay for building inspection. I think buying it first without viewing it is alright as long as you get a third party to do the building inspection.

  • Ocker on 11/04/2020 - 16:36

    This was announced by the Victorian Government about 5:00pm on Thursday. Smacks of another hysteric over-reaction to the COVID-19 virus situation and is going to have a profound impact on the real estate market. Gotta feel sorry for anyone that must sell during these tough economic times.

  • abc123z on 11/04/2020 - 17:34

    I wouldn't care much about renting without seeing it in person. Buying my own residence I would not buy without inspecting. Buying an investment without seeing it personally I would do but not without someone trusted inspecting it.

    I don't see how realistically people are going to be able sell tenanted properties under these conditions unless they can find one of any remaining legal ways they might have to get them out. So not only do you probably have a non paying tenant in there who can't be evicted forcing you to sell because you can't afford it, no one can inspect it either. So who wants to buy a property with a non paying tenant in it that they can't evict that they also cannot inspect (and would probably just have to rely on a few photos that they might be able to get tenant to take)? If landlord can't or won't continue to pay to house non payer it will become the problem of the bank (and mortgage insurers) who will have difficulty selling it for enough to cover the mortgage and other costs under those circumstances. Banks I guess will put a lot of pressure on government to be able to turf out the tenants quickly to sell it which will defeat the purpose of the non eviction laws.

    Owner occupiers who want to sell, I guess at least they could move out somewhere if they can, in order for people to be able to inspect it.

  • salmon123 on 11/04/2020 - 17:45
    +5

    Only if I was buying a place to demolish and develop the land.

  • baldur on 11/04/2020 - 18:39

    hell no.
    i rented one without inspection in place. I would never do it again.

  • saltypete on 12/04/2020 - 08:27

    I would. We bought an old Victorian semi in Adelaides CBD 8 years ago that looked like a mess. It was really cheap, really cheap, really…
    We got an inspection and it read like a Stephen King story, but bought it anyway. Turns out most of the horror was ass covering by the inspector. It needed a bit of undersetting but no other real structural work, and lots of other work that we could do, mainly labour. Total spend was about $30 ish. Value has increased by over 50%.
    When we finally found one that we wanted for our family home, again CBD Adelaide we didn’t bother even with an inspection report and would have happily bought without inspection (need floor and site plans though). We have learned that old Victorian places all have problems. You either commit or you don’t,
    I wouldn’t rent without inspecting though…
    If I was in a position to I would be looking for another that was needing to sell and offer low without inspection for a really good price. Would definitely research the neighbourhood first though..

  • cmacno1 on 12/04/2020 - 10:42

    We bought our house in QLD while we lived in NSW. Lots of photos were sent to us, we had a building and pest inspection, and we asked lots and lots of questions.

    Based upon what we saw, we knew what to expect. The only thing we didn't realise was that it wasn't as big as we thought. Our house is definitely still liveable, but for thr size of our family we needed a bigger house. Yes, more bedrooms will help, which an inspection won't necessarily decide, but the overall living space seemed bigger to us via photos.

    Moral of the story? If you are buying something you should definitely have someone you trust go and inspect it, or insist on a video conference call of some kind with the agent, and that person you trust, so all opinions can be heard. The agent would need to be willing to "look" anywhere you ask them to, as you yourself would do if you were buying.

    If you're looking to rent - it's potentially less risky because your term of residence there is initially more finite, and you're not making a huge financial commitment which could be difficult to get out of if there is a significant problem (either via mortgage or spending hundreds of thousands of hard earned cash).

    Just my opinion, but as always with anything - Buyer Beware! Would we do it again? Yes, however we would be much more vigilant with asking more questions and making sure we were smarter about our calculations and choices.

  • TheBilly on 12/04/2020 - 11:43

    Bought a house without inspection. During cooling off I got a building and pest and it was riddled with termite damage. I pulled out of the sale as the damage was too extensive in the areas you could see and the owner was trying to negotiate a repair bill with me saying it was localised to that spot but not damaged elsewhere aka. they wanted to share the risk without having to open up walls - no thank you.

    Got a rental site unseen, turns out there was mouldy carpet around bathroom from an in wall water leak. The agent had put a Matt over it, when we moved in the house was empty besides the Matt, we picked it up and lo and behold.

    It's just too risky to buy without inspection. Unless you are cashed up and can afford the risk or price it into your offer up front - not alot of people can.

  • RonaldR on 12/04/2020 - 11:46

    When I read your question all I could think was Come In Spinner & Fools are easily parted from their money. Keep the Cash in your pocket and if you were thinking of a Mortgage you are employed today but not be tomorrow or in 6 months.

  • backpaqer on 12/04/2020 - 13:16

    If you're buying at land value only and it's not on an old tip site or burial ground. Sure.

    • ssquid on 12/04/2020 - 13:34

      Ripping down a house full of asbestos isn't cheap.

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