Making offers sight unseen

I do not make offers sight unseen. I want to see a house in person before I make an offer so I can see anything that needs work, smell if there is any bad odor that would tell me of problems (pet urine, anyone?), and hear if there is anything I should be worried about (mice scurrying about, running water, etc.)

So I went to a property today which was described as a 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom single family home with a 2 car garage. It was listed at $20,000 as a short sale. When I got there the listing agent was there and he said he already had 6 offers on the property from people who hadn't yet seen it (at least on the inside).

Really? I don't know how they do it.

When I walked the property, I could immediately see that the roof needed to be replaced. Okay, so maybe these other people accounted for that.

I also saw that the property did not have a 2 car garage as listed, it was only for 1 car and there was a carport. Okay, so maybe these other people accounted for that too.

There was some soffits that needed work. Maybe they saw all this as well.

But what did the inside look like?

- Windows on the house were all older. Several were covered in plastic which tells me they are old and drafty. $$$

- The floors on the lower level are all hardwoods, but they need to be refinished. $$

- The carpeting on the upper level was dirty and old; it would definitely need to be replaced. $$

- I walk into the kitchen -- key, there are like no kitchen cabinets -- someone ripped most of them out! And so no counter tops either! $$$

- And there is water actively running in the kitchen, spilling all down to the floor. Just running and running. So I head down to the basement. Yep, water is leaking down to the basement, running all over the floor and eventually into the drain. I look over at the laundry tub and there is ice inside of it. Polar vortex = pipes burst; this means plumbing issues. $$$$

- So if there's water coming from the kitchen, how does the water heater look? Well it looks invisible, because guess what? It was stolen! $$

- Hey, look at that -- someone stole the furnace as well. That's why the pipes froze and burst, there was no heat and the property had not been winterized. $$$

- I go back upstairs and head to the bathroom. There is what appears to be ice in the toilet. Wait, what's this? I walk around the toilet and it feels kind of funny. I think perhaps the bathroom floor might need to get replaced too! $$

Quite a bit of stuff wrong with the house that I would have not known about had I not seen it in person.