Agree with pre-approval but not sure about offering without physically seeing property…
I made offers sight unseen before during the craziness of late 2014/ early 15. I didn’t close on any though.
Generally the best deals are sight unseen…But those deals are for flippers and courthouse auction buyers…High risk, high return…But you have to be able to survive the mistakes…
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Wow, really? As always mentioned as probably one of the largest purchase(s) one would ever make in his/her life, I could never do that. I gotta at least look at the place and see if I like it to make the effort of a formal bid.
Photos, maps and your real estate agent’s views are sufficed to make decision 
Recall I told you I bought three SFHs in Austin suburbs without visiting them.
I recall you mentioning that @hanera. I guess with you big timers it ain’t no thang to spend millions on properties sight unseen. I gotta touch and smell the product…
Prices of Austin suburb is way cheaper than here. For example, bought one for $300k, zillow says is worth $403k 
and Redfin $406k 
, cap rate 4%, gross 8% (bulk of expenses go to the high property tax, PM doesn’t cost much).
Still, even at the lower price point, I gotta look at it myself. Things happen anyway but I gotta check things out for myself. If I can’t do that, don’t buy.
You like to control things. I’m the handoff guy.
That has a negative connotation to it. I just want to know what I am buying, that’s all. If I am nitpicking after the sale about this or that or calling the PM every hour yes that would be controlling.
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How about instead of “control”, delegate? As in delegate to the realtor and trust his/her view.
The last thing I will trust is a realtor. Come on, I thought you weren’t a rookie…
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elt1 is 100% right, deals are in court house, but again with very competitive full cash buyers !
Court house deals are experienced persons like builders, Archs, real estate professionals.
You need to have clear vision or knowledge or business proposal to make it profitable. It is a business by its own.
I always have my calculation/home work ready with my range and finance, then I choose the right person.
Once you choose a realtor for that purchase, you must trust him/her.
Realtor guides me,I trust him/her, but final decision is with me. I always look for my profitability and strategy. Every purchase is a project for me, review, review, and review.
Ok, time to throw in my fav quote:
A fool and his (her) money, is soon parted.
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“I’ve been selling for 14 years, I’ve dealt with homes with much bigger problems than this,” one realtor explained.
(Commenting on Millennium Towers SF no less)
I rest my case.
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The houses I was looking were at all fixers so I figure I would need 100k/150k+ in renovations anyways. With that “budget” in my mind, I can make my “best” offer. I was definitely caught up in the frenzy in 2013/14… . I made all kind of offers.
When I bought my primary in Hayward in 2014, I did see it for like 10m and made offer that night. I made like a 400k decision in less than an hour. For my TV, I spent days and weeks doing research…
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Guilty on some of those. I am still making hours of research on $400 camera 
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How about a realtor who has done property management, and building houses? Actually, many realtors do know their stuffs, and are honest.
When I bought my first primary, I did not know anything about real estate, except a blind belief with my Realtor and a hope to get a home ! We tried by giving $5000 less than list price with 25% down payment. Our offer was accepted in 1 hour surprisingly ! No regret till date buying that home and I am still lucky with that home.
Thereafter, every home is backed by good research and estimate, range with which we agree to purchase. If it goes beyond our max range, we walk away. We do not regret if we do not get it, move on to next one.
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I don’t have any issues when the property is local and you are doing the inspection yourself as well. It is just the crazy idea that one would be willing to pay upwards of hundreds of thousand dollars on an out of state property sight unseen and simply relying on a realtor whose objective it is to sell that property to you. If something goes wrong, you were just asking for it.