Renting a house without seeing it

[Down_the_Rabbit_Hole]

Has anyone done this, rent a house in one state while still living in another. What I mean is renting the new house without traveling to see what its all about?

I hate the idea of spending more money with this move as well as leaving my children with my mother for 3 days. She is not up to the task mentally and I know the kids will pretty much be on their own.

So, has anyone moved into a new rental without visiting it first?

I am talking with the owners and she has sent many pics. What else should I ask her?

 

Help, this is all new to us and I feel like I am in over my head.

[MariannNOVA]

We did -- we rented in Virginia and we were still living in NJ. We were working with a realtor who KNEW what we were looking for. He went through a few properties with a video camera and sent us video tours.

 

It worked for us, but as I said, he knew absolutely what we were looking for AND we had met him in person some months prior so we knew that we were all on the same page.

 

HTH

[anneofalamo]

We did it this last move.

Found it from an on line ad on the local newspaper.

Talked and laughed with the landlords, we used google earth to look at it from the street and above! It really helped to "see" the neighborhood.

The landlords were very sweet and we have become great friends. We actually got to our little house on a Friday evening and our landlords left the door unlocked, had the key on the stove and a note that they would not be able to get here for our lease til Tuesday or Wednesday. We had sent the deposit, but had not as of yet paid the first months rent. She came that Wednesday, and said, we were just as she imagined. Her hubby brought a big bag of oranges and my kids fell in love with them both!

I am very pleased with the home, the neighborhood. We have been here 3 years now.

 

I have to admit, that I also searched court records for the landlord's name to make sure they were not in court with other tenants or things of that nature. :D

 

btw, this was moving from New Mexico to California!:auto:with 4 kids, a huge Penske truck and me behind in a mini-van! 1300 miles!

[mommaduck]

We did. We had someone that was looking and settled on a house for us. The best house we ever rented.

[Tabrett]

We have. When my dh and I moved to Florida many moons ago, our new employer found a house for us in our pice range. It worked out great!

[Giraffe]

Sort of - DH went ahead of us and found the house. It's cute, and we like it, but the street it's on is a bit noisy and busy. I suspected it was based on the price and Google Earth views, but it has worked out well. Been here a little over 6 months.

 

Good luck!

[Jamee]

Did it and wound up spending our first few days in a hotel. Although the pictures they sent were great, the place wasn't livable. It stunk of animals, the kitchen was a mess and there was no fridge!:cursing: I was wondering what the heck we had gotten ourselves into moving from CA to CO, it was not pretty. It did work out in the end though. We found a great apartment in a better neighborhood a few days later.

 

As far as questions to ask, make sure all appliances that are supposed to be there are actually there. I had an 18 month old and couldn't be without a fridge. Might want to ask about previous pets. I knew I was in trouble sitting in the drive way able to smell the animals while waiting in tears for DH to arrive with the U-Haul.

 

I'm glad everyone else had a positive experience, just beware they're not all positive.

[TravelingChris]

Not exactly but almost. Let say this= we have rented temporary accomodations without visiting= houses and apartments. One was in Maine, one in France, one in Germany, one in Britain, and another in Italy. We also choose hotels (not chains) without visiting. I have decided that I know how to do this right since I have never had a problem. Also, I have almost done this two times with long term rental houses and again, I had a good idea whether we wanted it before we got there. In the previous case, we chose our house in Florida from a computer in Belgium. Yes, we did visit it before we signed but we really could have done it with the help of a realtor too. For our next house, which we will buy if we do get stationed in the place we are thinking, I have also already chosen the house, if someone doesn't buy it first. So I know I have enough experience with choosing long distance that I am comfortable with it.

 

Here are some tips= do you know the area and are you sure about the neighborhood? I used the internet with newspapers and various census data and other data to make sure I was in a neighborhood I liked. In our case, that means high percentage of college educated, decent to high percentage of graduate school educated, at least fifty percent married couples. I also prefer places where the voters are at least halfway likely to hold the same political views as me. I have found neighborhoods with such characteristics to have many people similar to us and a friendly neighborhood atmosphere, very civic minded. Depending on who you are and what you want, you can look for your telltale signs. I am by no means saying everyone should look for my markers since many people don't like living in the kinds of neighborhoods I choose. But whatever it is that you like, there probably are data characteristics that you can use to help identify the correct neighborhoods.

[Cinder]

I'm glad to hear so many others had good experiences. We helped our friends avoid a bad experience. We've not rented a house without seeing it, but I was asked by some friends to check out some rentals. They would not be able to see any before they moved. (This was with the military; that's why we were moving to the same town.) Anyway, it was good that I was able to check these places out. One was in horrible condition and filthy. The other was nice but the way the house was set up . . . I was able to give them the little details, and they decided the house wasn't the best choice for them. They were in a bit of a pickle. The only other house available was one I wasn't allowed to see inside. As it turned out, they were diverted to a new assignment shortly before moving.

 

I hope yours is a good experience.

 

Cinder

[Down_the_Rabbit_Hole]

Thanks for all the replys. It is good to know a lot of you had great experiences and I am sorry for those who did not.

I am looking into the statistics of the area.

 

This move is so fast..a month to sell our house and find a new house and move everything. For a family that has been in the same house for over 18 yrs, this is all new and uncharted territory. Every bit of info the hive is giving me is greatly appreciated.

Thanks all.

[alpidarkomama]

We did! From craigslist. I made a new friend through our synagogue in our new city and she met with the landlord and took pictures and checked it out. Worked out great for us. It was nice to have a place to land after moving cross country with four kids! Worked out great.

[Brilliant]

We did, about 10 years ago. My dh had a job waiting for him, and when he talked to his boss on the phone, he mentioned the house we were planning to rent. The boss had his wife drive by and take a look at the house & neighborhood just to reassure us that it was decent. (and it was).

 

I saw that alpidarkomama had a synagogue friend check out their rental. So that would be my suggestion - if you know anyone in the new area, through work, church, etc., ask if they would mind doing at least a drive-by of properties you are seriously considering.

[Dayle in Guatemala]

Please DON'T!!!

 

We did this because we trusted a friend and it was a nightmare. It flooded (it was a basement walkout) every. single. time. it rained. Mud flowed into the house. We would get an electric shock every time we touched the bathroom mirror that hid the medicine cabinet.

 

Our bedroom was unlivable since there were actual mushrooms growing out of the carpet and black mold up the wall.

 

There are more things, but, suffice it to say that it was horrible. Our daughter had chronic eye infections and our doctor had threatened to alert dcf if we didn't move. We had already made plans to move and did so within 2 weeks.

 

If you can't look at it, please make sure that the person you send to look at it asks a LOT of questions.

[babysparkler]

A little different, but I did this with an apartment before I was married and moved to Texas... The apt turned out to be great... EXCEPT that it was infested with huge roaches! I vacuumed up as many as I could and did a bomb, but I was stuck sleeping in there for a few days with the little critters before the problem was resolved. I wrapped myself completely in blankets and somehow made it through those couple of days. I didn't have a car or I would have slept in that... and no friends' houses to sleep for a couple of days. I truly had to rough it out.

[missmoe]

Please do be aware that scams are out there. One craig's list scam is to try to list a house that is currently on the market for sale. The lister gets the pictures off the for sale listing. I ran into this when looking on craig's list for a home to rent. I actually saw a home for rent that we had physically looked at buying on an earlier trip. I thought how excellent. A home that I know I would love living in. Perhaps, we could rent it with an intent to buy at a later point. All kinds of bells were dinging after talking to the lister. I mentioned maybe renting to own--he said sure let me talk to my wife and call me back. Which he did call back. The terms set were outrageous and didn't make much sense. When I mentioned wanting to work through a real estate agent or lawyer to set up terms, the deal was done. He refused to talk to me anymore. Turns out the house was still listed for sale, and the listers knew nothing about the rental listing.

 

I would say--research as much as you can. Know as much about the area as you can and ask, ask, ask questions.

 

Good luck on the move---I know they can be stressful.

[newlifemom]

We had an amazing experience that I would not have done willingly. On may 18 we left Long Island, bound for Oregon with no where to live. One week later my dsil had found a place for us, and we rented it sight unseen. As far as we were concerned, it was the hand of God. Of course, dsil was friends with the owner, and knew the house.

 

While it was not the I would have wanted, God provided a wonderful little house for a season when no one would rent to us. Dh did not have a job at the time.

 

PPs had some great advice. Good luck.

[Paige]

We haven't. Usually, you can move in very quickly if something is vacant. What we did when we moved about 17 hours away was to stay in a hotel for a few days with the kids and then spent one day looking at our options and we decided that day which we would take and we moved in a day later. So, we came in on a Sun., looked for houses on Mon., and moved in on Tues. Our stuff wasn't delivered until at least 2-3 days later but we just camped out in the house. We had stuffed our cars full with as much as we could- even the baby swings!- and preferred it over another night in a hotel night. We took our dogs to a kennel until we moved in to the new place.

 

I wouldn't rent sight unseen unless I had a very trusted friend or a realtor that came highly recommended from people we respected. Or, could you include a clause in the rental contract that specifies that you have 24-48hrs to back out with all of your deposit returned? It isn't just the house you are looking at, but the neighborhood too. We found it hard enough to get a feel for the neighborhood just driving around and looking at places in one day. I actually just saw on the news last week a story about a woman who rented someplace that looked to be nice online but by the time she got there, all of the appliances and fixtures had been removed including the toilets and vent covers! The place had bugs all over and was covered in filth but she could not get her money back.

 

We are moving in the spring and we will probably stay in a hotel while we look for homes again.

[lisabelle]

Sort of. The dh went on a rental house hunting trip without me (ds was 6 months old at the time) before we moved from FL to WA.

 

At the time we had 5 cats and 2 dogs and didn't want to lie to any potential landlords about it. How awkward if the landlord happened to live next door or something! It was an incredibly frustrating weekend for dh. Even though we are very responsible people so many potential landlords just laughed and refused to deal with dh. I can't blame them--it is a lot of pets. He finally found *one* place that would take us, with a HUGE deposit. It was much bigger and more expensive than what we needed or were looking for (it was a lakefront house). Basically dh looked at it and signed the lease. After the weekend he had, he would have taken pretty much anything if the landlord had said they'd take us and all our animals.

 

I hated the place. It was cheaply made and when we moved in during the middle of September it was outrageously HOT. It's amazing what the sun reflecting on the water can do to heat up a place. But we knew it was only temporary, so we dealt with it. We didn't use the lower level at all for anything but storing the boxes we didn't need to open and lived on the upper level. Our house in FL sold within two months after we left (with all the animals, we knew it wouldn't sell while we lived there) and since we had signed a one year lease we stayed in the rental until the following summer when we bought the house we live in now.

[Garga]

My old next door neighbors did this. It was a disaster for them. I don't know the exact details, but once they arrived, the living room carpet was moldy, there was water in the basement and the bathroom floor leaked into the dining room ceiling.

 

We were shocked. We had no idea that the house next door was in such poor shape.

 

The landlord gave our new neighbors a hard time about fixing all the problems. I guess since the previous tenants were ok living in all the mess, they assumed everyone would be.

[KatieJ]

My daughter told me that her brother in law and family recently moved and rented a house without seeing it. It was awful. They cleaned for days and days. sounds like they should have just checked into a hotel and demanded the landlord hire someone to clean it and get rid of the excess junk before they even attempted to move in.

FTR it was a very expensive executive type home.

[simka2]

Has anyone done this, rent a house in one state while still living in another. What I mean is renting the new house without traveling to see what its all about?

I hate the idea of spending more money with this move as well as leaving my children with my mother for 3 days. She is not up to the task mentally and I know the kids will pretty much be on their own.

So, has anyone moved into a new rental without visiting it first?

I am talking with the owners and she has sent many pics. What else should I ask her?

 

Help, this is all new to us and I feel like I am in over my head.

 

It's not just about the crime rates. How far is shopping, churches, library, hospitals. Does your dh have to commute?

 

Where we moved the commute varies by 10 min just on what road dh takes out of the devlopment.

 

How busy is the street? What about on the weekends? What are the neighbors like? If the'yr trash addicts you could have some serious infestation issues. HOW DOES IT SMELL!!!!!!!?

 

My advice...load up the kids and spend some time in an Extended Stay hotel/suites. We just did this. It was hard, and sometimes I wish I had someone to keep the kids...but seeing in person is a MUST...unless your moving overseas ;)!

[The Girls' Mom]

I highly recommend getting a realtor to look for you. When we were looking, there were several houses that LOOKED nice, but smelled AWFUL. It varied from the smell of urine, to cigarettes and pets. You just can't tell that sort of thing from photos.

[Little Nyssa]

We thought about this before we moved, but it turns out in our new state it is illegal to rent a place without seeing it in person. Who knew?

[kilo90]

We rented our current house without seeing it. We were living overseas at the time and found this one on the military rental site. We actually KNOW the couple who owns the house, so we thought it was a relatively safe plan. We asked some friends who lived here to drive by so the husband did one afternoon. I'm pretty sure if the wife had driven by we would not be in the house. The house is good, but the neighborhood is not. Also, the pictures the owners sent us were from 3 years ago when they lived here and it is not in the same condition as it was then. I'm sure renting without seeing has worked for numerous families, but since it didn't work for this time, we would not do it again. We feel like we learned our lesson. Best wishes for whatever y'all do! I know it's a tough decision to make.

[Crimson Wife]

We rented a place that we hadn't seen but only after my cousin and his wife (whom I knew to be *SUPER* picky) checked it out for us. When she said it was okay then we went ahead and signed the lease paperwork. It worked out great.

[Hannah]

I have friends who bought a house by just looking at online pictures and sending friend. The friend is a bachelor and they're a family. They were on another continent at the time. The house has a very strange layout, but was in a good street. They lived in it for 3 years before continent hopping again. This time into a rented place they found online.

[sleepymommy]

We did two years ago off of Craigslist. We moved from NY to VA. We had been told from someone at the job my dh was taking that it was a good neighborhood. We only saw one pic of it from the front. I spoke with the landlord and told him I had 2 young boys and wanted to know if there was any outdoor space for them to play. He said there was a patio and since we were coming from an apartment without even a porch, I was thrilled.

 

BUT, he failed to tell us that right at the edge of the patio, which had no railing or fence, was a cliff!!!! Not a huge cliff that dropped into the abyss, but a very sharp drop down do the next road (it was a mountainous area).

[6packofun]

We moved into our last rental house based on one visit and video taken by dh. I didn't get to see the house firsthand and we ended up living there for 8 years. :) You never know what's going to happen when you rent, but we were blessed for 8 years there until our landlady went a little nutso. LOL!!! I do have to say that most places are never as nice as photos or video, though. So keep a realistic attitude and give time for extra cleaning because that's a real possibility. I think that if you can stay in a hotel for the first night or two, that's a great option.

[Down_the_Rabbit_Hole]

Thank you everyone! I am going to ask my husbands future boss's wife to help me. She seems real friendly...offered us the finished basement of her house while we house hunted (if we did this) and has insisted we have dinner with them once we all get up there. I am also talking with a Realtor about rental homes. If I can get the Realtor or the boss's wife to help out I will feel much better about it...at least someone other then the landlord will be giving me info.

[Ravin]

We did this with an apartment when we moved back here from TX. It came with a 30 day no-penalty clause to back out of the lease if we didn't like it once we got there.