Unpleasant Surprises for Online Real Estate Buyers

prostoalex writes "Buying expensive items online from the people you've never met without any guarantees on the seller's part might seem a bit risky even for an experienced Internet shopper. The 'hotness' of the real estate investment market apparently influences some cash-heavy investors to look for opportunities online. When the entire transaction is done via a click of the mouse, and the deed for newly bought real estate arrives in the mail, some unsuspecting buyers might discover that a cozy house near the bus line in the middle of a busy street might imply a criminalized neighborhood and proximity to crack house. The New York Times investigates negative experiences of people buying investment real estate online."

Comments

Re:In other news: water is wet.

[Technician]

I just bought a house. (not online) One word of advice.. even if you see the property, hire a property inspector. A good one will tell you about all kinds of things like leaking plumbing in the crawl space, dry rot in the roof sheeting, and wireing splices not up to code. I bought my place knowing ahead of time one of the underground sprinklers was broken, the hot tub didn't work, a bad splice in the attic (twisted and taped), and the sub panel for the shop didn't meet code (3 wire service without a seprate ground in a sub panel is not permitted). It is true the house had a few things needing fixing, but the inspection report got $8,000 knocked off due to the extra expenses needed to bring it up to code in addition to the seller having an electrician update the panel.

Use the online yellow pages and find a home inspector. They will provide photos of everyting from the condition of the gutters to the torn screen window, to the rotting bottem panel on the garage door. It was worth every cent of the $750 I paid for the inspection.

Get a licensed home inspector.