Buying a Sacramento House You Have Not Seen

Elizabeth Weintraub poses in dilapidated entrance to a home in Cienfuegos, Cuba

Buying a Sacramento house you have not seen is not for everybody. Oh, sure, we’ve done it a few times, like when friends and family picked out a home for a person who had not seen it, and that worked out fine. Heck, my husband and I even bought a house in Hawaii, and he still hasn’t seen it. But other times, when nobody, not even your agent has seen the house, there is inherent risk. Especially when it’s sold AS IS.

An investor from the Bay area called a few days ago to say she wanted me to sell a home in south Sacramento for her, but first we needed to deal with the tenants. The tenants, it turns out, are former owners who were foreclosed upon. We talked about cash for keys, and I let her know that I am not a property manager, so I could not approach the owners to discuss it. Not only that, but I do not have the listing in writing, so I have no fiduciary relationship with her.

She was ready to sign a listing so I could go over there to inspect the property but that still was not a good idea. The occupants might not be receptive to a visit. She has had no contact with the occupants. Her best course of action was to evict the tenants, and I know the best eviction lawyer in Sacramento to refer. It seemed like that idea had not occurred to her. I don’t know how one goes about buying property at a trustee’s sale, buying a Sacramento house you have not seen, without a plan for the next step. Perhaps the price was just too good to pass by?

As a top producer Sacramento Realtor, I always check the lockbox readings from my Supra when I receive a purchase offer because you might be astonished at how many agents think it’s perfectly OK to entertain buying a Sacramento house you have not seen. The reason agents hold that belief is because the buyer can always cancel without penalty during escrow, pursuant to paragraph 14B1 of the RPA. It’s no skin off their nose. But it leaves the seller raw.

In fact, I engaged in such a discussion recently when an agent indicated that he planned to send an offer exceeding list price and show his client next week. Yeah, except it’s all hunky-dory for the buyer who may later tear out of the harbor, leaving in his wake a poor seller with a back-on-market rejected house. Then we end up scrambling to reconstruct a different plan in an attempt to regain lost momentum. All because of buying a Sacramento house you have not seen.