Questions to Ask When Buying a House Sight Unseen
For buyers who cannot visit before they offer: relocating for work, moving from another state or investing at a distance. The questions run in the order of the purchase: your agent, the live video walkthrough, what a camera misses, the records and the inspection, the offer, and closing from far away. Seller disclosure, cancellation periods and remote signing are set state by state, so those questions are worded to draw out the local answer.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
Your agent
How many buyers have you helped purchase a house they never walked through, and what went wrong on the hardest one?
Why ask it
A specific story, with what the agent changed afterward, shows they have done this and learned from it. If the answer is none, that need not rule them out, but you will be designing the process yourself. Either way, ask what they would do differently for a buyer who cannot fly in at all.
Will you walk the house yourself before I offer, and tell me what you would say to a friend about it?
Why ask it
An agent who has only seen the listing photos knows exactly what you know. You are asking for a visit in person and an opinion, not a pitch: the first thing they noticed at the door, and what bothered them. If they cannot get there in time, ask who from their office can.
Who do you represent in this sale, and are you connected to the listing agent or the seller in any way?
Why ask it
When you cannot visit, the person holding the camera is your only pair of eyes, so it matters whose side they are on. How agency works differs by state, so have them put their duty to you in writing as it applies where the house is. If the only agent involved is the seller's, hire your own before the tour.
Can someone I trust, or someone I pay, visit the house for me?
Why ask it
A friend, a relative, a colleague at the new office or a relocation consultant can stand in the rooms for an hour and tell you how the place felt. They need no expertise, only your list and a phone. Have the agent arrange access for them the same way they would for you.
Knowing I will not see this house before I own it, which things about it would you check twice?
Why ask it
The question gives the agent permission to raise doubts, which some hold back so as not to talk a client out of a sale. A short list (the slope of the yard, the age of the roof, the building behind) becomes your brief for the inspector. 'Nothing, it is a great house' is not an answer you can use.
What will you send me that is not in the listing: your own unedited photos, a rough floor plan, a video of the drive in?
Why ask it
Listing photos are shot wide, lit and edited to sell. Plain phone pictures taken at eye level, with a door or a person in frame for scale, are closer to what you would see standing in the doorway. A floor plan, even one sketched on paper, lets you follow the video tour room by room.
What have buyers who toured this house in person said to the listing agent, and why did they pass?
Why ask it
Local buyers have already made the visit you cannot, and listing agents often collect their reactions after showings. Have your agent phone and ask: 'smaller than the photos', 'the road noise' and 'the basement smell' are the kind of thing that comes back. If the house went under contract and returned to the market, a second call about what that buyer's inspection found is worth making.
How fast do houses like this sell here, and how much time does that leave me to check this one?
Why ask it
The answer sets the pace for everything after it. In a slow market you may be able to hold your offer until the tour and a few calls are done. In a fast one the checking may have to happen inside the contract, through contingencies, so ask what other out-of-town buyers did on recent sales.
Live walkthrough
Can we do the tour as a live call, with me telling you where to point the camera?
Why ask it
A recorded tour shows what its maker chose to film. On a live call you can say stop, go back, look down, open that. Ask permission to record it, so you can watch again the next day and share it with whoever is buying with you.
Can you start at the curb and walk in through the front door without cutting?
Why ask it
The approach is what listing photos skip: the slope of the driveway, the steps, the state of the path, how close the neighbor's wall is. An unbroken walk also gives you the layout in order, so you know which room opens onto which. Sketch it as they go.
Will you turn the camera around at each window and show me what the room looks out on?
Why ask it
Listing photos face into the room. The view out could be a garden, a parking lot, a neighbor's bathroom window or a wall six feet away, and it decides which blinds stay shut for good. Start with the main bedroom and the kitchen sink.
Can you show me the ceilings, the corners and the wall under each window up close?
Why ask it
Stains, hairline cracks and swollen trim are small enough to vanish on video unless the camera goes to them. A brown ring on a ceiling or bubbled paint below a sill is a question for the seller and a note for the inspector. You are collecting places to look, not reaching a verdict.
Can you take the camera into the basement, the garage and every closet, with the lights on?
Why ask it
Tours tend to stay in the rooms that photograph well. A basement shows you damp, storage and the age of the equipment, and the closets show how much the house really holds. If a door stays shut, ask why during the call and again by email.
Can you read me the labels on the furnace, the water heater and the electrical panel?
Why ask it
A data plate usually carries a make, a model and a serial number, and often a date of manufacture, so a photo of each lets you look up the age yourself. Your inspector will do this properly later. Before the offer, it tells you whether a large replacement may be near, which belongs in the price you put forward.
Can you run a faucet upstairs, flush a toilet and turn the heat or the air on while I listen?
Why ask it
You will not feel the water pressure, but you can see the flow and hear how the pipes and the fan respond. Ask how long the hot water took to arrive and whether anything rattled or dripped. In a house someone is living in, the agent may need the seller's permission first.
How does the floor feel as you walk: any slope, bounce or soft spots?
Why ask it
This is one thing a camera cannot carry, so you are borrowing the agent's feet. A marble or a small ball set down on the floor shows a slope on video. A soft patch beside a tub or an outside door goes on your list for the inspector.
How high are the ceilings, and how wide are the stairs and the doorways my furniture has to get through?
Why ask it
Wide lenses stretch rooms, and nothing on screen tells you whether a ceiling is seven feet or nine. Have the agent stand in a doorway for scale and put a tape measure across the tightest turn on the stairs. Learning now that the sofa will not make the corner costs nothing.
Can you walk the yard to each edge and show me the outside of the house on all four sides?
Why ask it
The back and the sides rarely make the listing. Watch how the ground slopes toward or away from the walls, where the downspouts end, what state the fences are in and which windows overlook the yard. Ask where the property line is thought to run and how they know.
Now that you have stood in every room, which listing photos flatter the house most?
Why ask it
Save this for the end of the tour, with the listing open in front of both of you. The agent can compare each picture with what they just saw: the bedroom that is smaller, the lawn photographed in spring, the power line cropped from the front shot. Ask too whether any image was digitally furnished or retouched.
Off camera
What does the house smell like when you first open the door, and again in the basement?
Why ask it
Smoke, pets, damp and heavy air freshener are obvious in person and absent from video. Ask for an honest word and not a polite one, and put the same question to a second visitor if you have one. A musty basement is a reason to ask the inspector about moisture, not proof of a problem.
Can you stand in the main bedroom, then in the backyard, for a minute in silence and tell me what you hear?
Why ask it
Phone microphones filter out steady background sound, so the agent's ears are better than your speakers. Ask what time it is there and how the answer might change at rush hour or on a Friday night. A highway, a flight path or a barking dog will not be in the listing.
Can you step outside and film slowly up and down the street?
Why ask it
The houses on either side and opposite are part of what you are buying into. Look at how they are kept, how many cars are parked, and whether anything nearby is boarded up, under construction or run as a business. Then follow the same stretch on a street-level map and check the date of the imagery, which can be years old.
What is behind the back fence and just past the end of the block?
Why ask it
A map gives you a shape and a name. Someone standing there can say what it is like: a quiet school field, a loading dock with trucks reversing at dawn, a rail line, a bar with a patio. Use the satellite view to write the question, and a person to answer it.
What can you tell me about the properties next door, and has the seller had any dispute with a neighbor?
Why ask it
Agents are often careful about describing the people in an area, so ask about things instead: a shared driveway, a fence nobody agrees on, dogs, a rental with frequent turnover. Put the question about disputes to the seller in writing through the agents. What a seller has to tell you varies by state.
How long does it really take to reach my work, the school and a grocery store from this door at the hours I would be going?
Why ask it
Map apps will estimate a trip for a chosen day and time, which gets you most of the way from another state. What they miss is the school pickup line, the left turn with no light, the bridge that backs up every afternoon. Someone who lives nearby can name those in a sentence.
Which rooms were dim when you walked in, before anyone turned on a light?
Why ask it
The photographer brightened every frame, and an agent giving a tour switches everything on out of habit. Find out which way the back of the house faces and what time it is there, then picture the same rooms at the hour you would be home. Some people like a living room with no direct sun; you just want to know before you own one.
Where does water sit in the yard and along the street after heavy rain?
Why ask it
You will see the house on one day in one kind of weather, if that. When the timing allows, have someone send a short video of the yard and the curb after the next downpour. Puddles against the foundation or a street that floods at the corner say more than any description of the drainage.
How many bars does your phone show in the kitchen and the basement, and who supplies internet to this exact address?
Why ask it
The video call is itself a test: if it freezes in the back bedroom, you have learned something. Provider websites will check an address for you, and the result can differ from a house two doors down. Anyone who will work from home should do this before the offer, not after.
What would I notice in my first week here that nobody thought to mention?
Why ask it
It is a catch-all, so put it to the agent, to your stand-in visitor and, through the agents, to the seller. Typical answers are small: a streetlight outside the bedroom, a train horn at night, trash trucks at five in the morning, a driveway that ices over. Those are exactly what a buyer from out of town finds out on moving day.
Records and inspection
Has the seller filled in a disclosure form, and can I read it before I offer?
Why ask it
What a seller must disclose, on which form and at what point you receive it all differ by state, so have your agent say what applies where the house is. Read it with the tour recording beside you and mark anything that does not match. Send the inspector a copy too: a past leak the seller mentions is a place to look hard.
What do the permit records, the flood map and an insurance quote say about this address?
Why ask it
All three can be checked from another state. Many building departments will say which permits are on file, flood maps are generally public, and an insurance agent can quote the address and tell you whether insurers are wary of the area. A quote far above what you expected is a finding in its own right.
Is there a homeowners association, and do its rules or the city's limit renting the house out?
Why ask it
An investor needs this before anything else, and a relocating buyer needs it for the day the job moves again. Request the association's rules, fees and recent meeting minutes by email, and call the city about short-term rentals yourself. Minutes are the nearest thing to overhearing the neighbors: they show what the owners argue about and which repairs are coming.
How do you work with a buyer who cannot be at the inspection?
Why ask it
Some inspectors will video call from the house when they finish, and some send only the report. Ask for the call: an hour of being shown the findings on camera is the nearest thing to walking the house with them. Choose the inspector yourself, and check how inspectors are licensed in that state.
Will you take more photos and video than usual, including the parts that are fine?
Why ask it
A standard report pictures the defects. A buyer who has never been inside also wants the ordinary: each room, the roof from above, the attic, the space under the sinks. Some inspectors include that and some charge extra, so settle it when you book.
Given the age and location of this house, which extra inspections would you add if you were buying it without a visit?
Why ask it
A sewer camera, radon, pests, a well or septic test, a roof or chimney specialist: which of these matter depends on the house and the region, and a local inspector knows what tends to fail there. You have less of your own judgment to fall back on than a buyer who stood in the basement. When in doubt, order the test.
Which parts of the house were locked, covered or out of reach on the day?
Why ask it
Snow on the roof, a packed garage, a sealed attic hatch or utilities switched off all leave gaps in a report. In person you would have seen that the garage was full. From a distance it is easy to assume it was checked, so get the list and decide which gaps need a second visit before your deadline.
If you had to sum up the condition of this house in two sentences for someone who has never seen it, what would you say?
Why ask it
Reports list dozens of items at the same volume, and a reader far away cannot tell a loose handrail from a failing roof by the page count. The summary gives the context: well kept for its age, say, or neglected under fresh paint. Do not push the inspector to tell you whether to buy, which is not their call.
If the seller agrees to repairs, who will confirm they were done before I close?
Why ask it
A local buyer checks at the final walk-through, and you need a named person instead: the inspector on a paid return visit, or your agent with a camera and the contractor's receipts. A credit or a lower price avoids the problem, because the work is then yours to arrange once you arrive.
The offer
Which recent sales support this price, and have you been inside any of them?
Why ask it
You cannot judge value by walking three other houses that weekend, so the comparison falls to the agent. One who toured the comparables can say why this house deserves more or less than they fetched. Get the addresses and look each one up yourself.
Which contingencies would protect me if the house is not what the video showed, and how long does each one run?
Why ask it
Inspection, financing and appraisal are the usual three, and how they work and how long they last depends on the state and the contract. Have the agent or an attorney explain each in plain words, with the day it expires. Put those days in your calendar in the house's time zone, not yours.
Can the offer depend on my seeing the house in person, or on someone I name seeing it?
Why ask it
Some sellers will accept a short window for a visit after acceptance, and in a competitive market some will not. Your agent can tell you how such a clause is usually written there and how sellers tend to take it. Even three days can cover a one-night trip.
Will an appraiser go inside the house for my loan, or will the value be set without a visit?
Why ask it
Lenders sometimes accept a desk valuation or waive the appraisal, which leaves one fewer independent person who has stood in the rooms. Your loan officer can say which applies to your loan and whether you may order a full appraisal anyway. A cash buyer gets none unless they arrange it.
Is there a review or cancellation period after signing in this state, and who can use it?
Why ask it
Some states give a short window in which an attorney can review or cancel the contract, some have an option period paid for with a fee, and others have nothing unless the offer creates it. This is a question about the state the house is in, not the one you live in. Ask before you sign, because the clock may start that day.
If I walk away, in which situations do I get my deposit back, and in which do I lose it?
Why ask it
Ask for the answer as a list: backing out during inspection, a loan denied, a low appraisal, a change of heart after the deadlines. It comes from your contract and from local practice, so have it confirmed by whoever is advising you there. Knowing the worst case in dollars makes it easier to sign from a distance.
If the seller wants an offer with no inspection contingency, what are my other options?
Why ask it
A buyer who walked the house has their own eyes to go on, and you have a video. Possibilities to raise include an inspection before the offer, a shorter inspection window, or an inspection for information only, and you need to hear what each still lets you do. If none is available, letting this house go is a reasonable answer.
If the house disappoints me when I finally walk in, what could I live with, change or resell?
Why ask it
This one is for you, and it should be answered before you sign. Layout, light and location are hard to change, while paint, floors and a tired kitchen are not. Ask the agent how quickly a house like this would sell or rent again, and what selling would cost, so you know the price of being wrong.
Remote closing
Can I close without being there, and which ways of signing do this state and my lender allow?
Why ask it
Mail-away closings, a mobile notary, online notarization and signing through a power of attorney all exist, but not everywhere and not with every lender. Put the question to the closing office and to the lender separately, because both have to agree. A power of attorney is a serious document, so ask an attorney what it does and how it ends before you give one.
Who runs the closing where the house is: an attorney, a title company or an escrow office, and who chooses them?
Why ask it
The custom changes from state to state, and it may be nothing like the place you live now. Find out who it will be, get a named contact, and have them email you the steps and the dates. Whether the buyer, the seller or the contract picks the office also varies, so ask that too.
Which documents need to be signed by hand, and how many days should I allow for shipping them back?
Why ask it
Even where most of the file is signed electronically, a lender may want certain pages signed in ink before a notary and returned by overnight courier. Ask for the package a few days early and line up a notary near you. A closing that slips over a courier can run into your rate lock, so find out what a delay would cost.
What phone number should I call to read the wire details back before I send anything?
Why ask it
Fake emails with altered bank details are a known fraud in home sales, and a buyer who does everything by email is an easy target. Get the closing office's number at the start, from its own website or the first call, and use only that one. Treat any message that changes the instructions as false until you have phoned.
Who will do the final walk-through for me, and what will they check?
Why ask it
Your agent can do it on video shortly before closing: the house empty and clean, the agreed items still there, the repairs done, nothing damaged in the move-out. Have them run the taps, the heat and the appliances on camera. Say in advance what you want done if something is wrong, since you may have only hours to decide.
How do I get the keys, and who looks after the house between closing and the day I arrive?
Why ask it
An empty house needs someone to look in, keep the heat or the air on and deal with a delivery or a leak. Ask the agent about a lockbox, a handover to a named person, and local help for the gap. Tell your insurer the house will stand vacant and ask whether that changes the coverage.
Buying a house you have not walked through
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Getting eyes on the house
Send someone if you can
A friend, a relative or a future colleague who spends forty minutes in the house will tell you things no tour does: how it felt, what the street was like, whether they would live there. Give them the Off camera questions and have them call you from the driveway afterward, while it is fresh.
Direct the tour yourself
Ask for a live call and run it. Keep the listing photos and a floor plan open, go room by room, and say 'stop' and 'closer' as often as you need. Record it with permission, then watch it once more the next day with the sound up.
Ask for senses, not opinions
'Is it a nice street' gets you a yes. 'What can you hear right now' and 'what did it smell like when you opened the door' get you information. Phrase the Off camera questions so the answer has to be something the person noticed.
Do the desk research the same day
Street-level imagery, the satellite view, the flood map, the permit office, an insurance quote and an internet provider's address check can all be done from your kitchen table. Note the date on any imagery. What you find becomes questions for the tour, not a replacement for it.
What to settle at each stage
Before the tour
The Your agent group. You need to know whose side the person with the camera is on, whether they have bought for an absent client before, what local buyers said after walking through, and how many days the market will give you.
Before the offer
Live walkthrough and Off camera, then the first three under Records and inspection (the seller's disclosure, the public records, any association rules) and the comparable sales. If one answer is going to stop you, this is the place to find it, when stopping costs nothing.
Inside the contingency period
The inspector's questions under Records and inspection. Book the inspector the day the offer is accepted, ask for the video call at the end, and count the days in the house's time zone. Every extra test has to fit inside the same window.
From acceptance to keys
The Remote closing group. Raise how you will sign in the first week, because a notary, a courier and a lender's approval each take time. Arrange the video walk-through and the key handover as soon as the closing date is set.
Ask about the state the house is in
Your home state's habits may not travel
Who runs the closing, whether attorneys are involved, what a seller must disclose and whether a contract can be canceled in its first days all differ from state to state. A buyer in Texas purchasing in New Jersey needs New Jersey's answers. Ask each professional how it is done there, and assume nothing from your last purchase.
Get every deadline on one page
Have the agent or attorney send a single page with each date in the contract and what you can still do before it passes. From far away a deadline is easier to miss and harder to repair, and nobody will knock on your door to remind you.
Pay for an hour of local legal advice when it matters
An agent can explain how things are usually done. For what a clause, a power of attorney or a title question means for you, a real estate attorney licensed where the house is can answer, and the fee is small next to the price of the house.
When to slow down or let it go
A tour that keeps skipping one room
A door that stays closed, a basement 'too dark to film' or a camera that never tilts up is a small thing once. The second time, ask directly and in writing. If the room still cannot be shown, send your stand-in or the inspector there first.
Pressure to drop every protection
Being asked to give up the inspection, the financing condition and any visit, on a house you know from a screen, is being asked to carry all the risk. Some buyers accept that with their eyes open. Do it only after you have put a dollar figure on the worst case.
Money requested outside the closing office
A deposit to be sent to an individual, bank details that change by email, or a seller the agents cannot reach are reasons to stop. Phone the closing office on a number you found yourself before a cent moves.
Falling for the photos
The longer you study a listing from far away, the more finished the picture in your head becomes. Before you offer, write down three things you still do not know about the house. If you cannot name three, you have stopped looking.