Buying a house by looking at pictures on computer
 

Has anyone really bought a house without literally looking at it in person. I see a house that I like, but afraid by the time I get there, it will be gone. My husband does not want to do that as pictures are deceiving. Like the burger that they advertise on TV but do not actually look like that when you buy it.

We did. Found our dream house online and put an offer in.

We did, too. Liked the pictures online and contacted a Village's salesperson, Tony Trussler. He went to the house and took about 20 more pictures inside and out and sent them to us. We replied back with the money to take it off the market and will be here 2 years this coming Sept. Have never had any doubts about our decision.

Besides the house you need a look @ the neighborhood and traffic patterns, also how close are the nearest houses: i.e.: kissing lanais--also the demographics IMHO are the further north an older community (people wise) further south younger (people wise)

My wife's nephew inherited a patio villa in Hialeah Villa's-he's 55 and he commented " wow this place is full of really old people"--he rents it 7months a year

My sis did.

Pretty hard to post deceiving pictures, it's not like the burger, which is NOT the picture of the actual burger you will buy. It is, like was mentioned, best to have someone, a friend or your real estate person (Tony Trussler is great) look at it and take additional pics and give you his/her lowdown on what they see. We bought our current house in Missouri based primarily on the pics we saw online, though being nearby, we of course verified our impressions with a walk through. I have heard numerous stories of people buying in TV sight unseen. If you have been here and gone to open houses, you have had a chance to see most home models and how they are laid out.

In late April we started shopping for a home. We picked out 3 CYVs form photos, 2 were sold from under us, we almost missed the 3rd but we were lucky since the pending sale fell thru. My wife could not be with me so I flew down and looked at the property liked it and we bought it. She still hasn’t seen in live she will in a few weeks when we head south. Bottom line I would have put a deposit with the contingency in place if it’s not what I wanted after seeing it I would not have to buy. I too am of the mindset you have to see it. There was also a 4th CYV my wife loved it, it was turnkey, when I arrived to look at it in person I realized why it had not sold, the roof was bowed over the garage and a golf cart path was just below the backyard.

After doing some research on The Villages, decided on what type of home and areas.
Found an interesting listing on Zillow after some searching,
the pics looked good, contacted a salesperson.
Got more information, and them made an offer.
We had a great salesperson which helped a lot.
It worked out better than we could have imagined.
It’s been just over 3 years and still happy as can be!

Anywhere but the villages, I would say you were a moron to do that. However, it is different in TV. First of all, there are only so many models - if you have been in one Begonia, it is much like another except finishes. Also, every house is built by the Villages, so you know what you are getting. You also pretty much know what was original and what was an add on. All this said, it then comes down to furnishings/decorations (which are the pictures in the listing), Location and Yard/View. The last 2 things you can see on Google Earth. If you have been in TV at all, you kind of know the personalities of the different areas, so you can make an informed decision.

I am saying all this assuming you have spent some time in TV and have been in the model of house you are buying. If not, I would not buy from Pictures. If you have, I would go for it.

If it is not a new house - I would have an inspection done - make the offer contingent to an inspection - and then use one of the inspectors with good reviews on this site.

My understanding is that TV will not sell new homes with any contingencies. You would have to put down earnest money on a contract and if you changed your mind the earnest money would be forfeited.

I could see doing it if you have spent some time here and are very familiar with the area and even the floor plans. After making many visits here over the past several years and going to open houses almost daily during our visits, we got very familiar with the floor plans and many of the areas. We did not buy a house by finding it online and looking at pictures but probably could have at that point. As other's have said, you need to also consider other things that might be important to you that won't be shown in pictures, like the surrounding homes, proximity to other things, the view (if any), etc. Looking at where the property sits on a map view can be helpful as well. Also, you can get good information by going to the county tax collector site and pull up information by the address, especially if it's a pre-owned home. Everyone here will share with you that the average villager buys 3 homes in their lifetime here. I suspect many buy their second home because they did not do enough research and consideration of their first home. I have talked to several who either did not even move furniture into their first home, or at least did not even bother to hang pictures on the wall, because they were not happy with their first choice and immediately moved on to a different home. One bought a lot and did a build in a new area where not much was standing at the time. By the time their home was finished and they moved in, they realized their lanai backed up to a street so busy they could not sit out and make a phone call for all of the noise outside. They promptly moved to a different home and sold the first one.

Growth is rapid and continuous. Yes the prices keep going up. But it's still worth spending the time to find the right home for you in the right location, location, location. They are not running out of homes or locations any time soon.

This is true and it's difficult to even find a pre-owned home that will take any sort of contingency. On a new home, first you can put it on a 3 hour hold. Before the 3 hours is up, you can hold it for like 7 days if you put $2500 (non-refundable) down. After that period, you have to pay the balance of 10% of the sales price, minus the $2500. At that point, you are scheduled to close in 30 days. Now, if you happen to change your mind because you see something you like better - will they work with you to move the deposit to the other home? I've heard of that but don't know if it's official policy. But I doubt seriously they just give your money back if you change your mind altogether. I talked to a couple, once, that put a deposit on a home one day and then woke up in the middle of the night that night and realized they would rather have a different home they saw, and they were allowed to make the change. However, that was less than 24 hours in and may have been an exception due to that.

We did, it was on a new 2 BR masonry CVY. When it comes to CYV's, you cannot have one built to specs or a lot of your choosing, you have to select from the inventory and the villa community that is currently under construction. So really it wasn't that big a gamble. At the time there were only six CYV models, and only two were 2 BR models. One had a 10' breakfast bar and the other had an eat-in kitchen. We wanted the 2 BR with the bar, masonry and the price was right. To me, there was no reason to drive 950 miles to see a place that was almost identical to what we had looked at 3 weeks earlier but in a different villa community.

Once you've added landscaping, paint the inside (light blue), add your window treatments (plantation shutters), backsplash, stainless steel appliances, wood floors, garage screen, lanai and patio furniture, you've made it your own. Plus they had reduced the price and then while talking with our salesman on the phone, they reduced it again. It suddenly was only $15K more than a patio villa.

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...pskbigljl4.jpg

Beautiful villa.

Additionally, some folks do not want to see high tension wires within close proximity of their home, while others prefer not to have a towering water tank near their backyard. These kinds of things most likely would not be apparent in online photos so if they are a deal-breaker for you, it may behoove you to inquire about them.