[vkvidal]

Has anyone bought a home while still out of state? Im just wondering how this works. My hubby and I are tossing around the idea of purchasing ( still undecided on resale or new construction) while we are still in NJ. We know we want to move to NV, so this might not be a bad idea.
any thoughts / advice ????

[Basiliximab]

Wouldn't you want to live in the city for awhile and see which neighborhoods/parts of town you like best first? (Even if you visited before, things are quite different once you actually live here on a daily basis for months to years at a time). Unless you actually lived out here for some time in the past, would it be too inconvienient to rent for a few months before you buy? That's the only things I can come up with at the moment. If you're determined to buy before you move here though, I would definitely be able to come out here to physically check out a few places before you buy. Good luck with whatever you decide.

[Muonic]

I've done it, but not in Nevada. I was transferring to Texas for my job, and thus needed to find a home. While it certainly can be done, it is, of course, more difficult than if you actually lived there. The search for a new house can be very time consuming, especially if you are not very familiar with the area. In my case, my realtor was a friend of many years, and knew the area well. She had a very good idea of what I was looking for, and we were able to find the right house for me, in just a few days. Without that help, it is likely I would have rented for a while, first, so I could become acquainted with the entire area. A lot of it just depends on how sure you are about the part of Nevada you want to live in. It would not be fun to find out you made the wrong choice of a house/area six months after you moved in.

Good luck!

[bledsoe3]

I bought from out of state in NV. Just find a good realtor. Tell him what you want and he can find you what you need. Make an offer contingent on viewing the property and fly in to see it. Or, what we did was fly in to look at the properties, and then made an offer.

I'll send you my Realtors info.

[Swigchow]

Originally Posted by vkvidal

Has anyone bought a home while still out of state? Im just wondering how this works. My hubby and I are tossing around the idea of purchasing ( still undecided on resale or new construction) while we are still in NJ. We know we want to move to NV, so this might not be a bad idea.
any thoughts / advice ????

Yes, it is possible. you will need either a trusted realtor or someone who can view properties for you if you are unable.

[MadManofBethesda]

I did it myself at the end of last year, although I disagree with other poster(s) who suggest making a contingent offer sight unseen and/or having a realtor find you a property. I began seriously searching for properties last summer by reviewing on line every listing that came up with the criteria that we were looking for. We then flew out to Vegas for a week at the beginning of September, with a list of properties that we were interested in. We also had our agent show us homes that she thought we might be interested in.

Although we found a house and made an offer, we were not able to come to a meeting of the minds with the owners/investors and had to start anew in October. Once again, I began researching listings on the Internet and told my agent that we would return in December. When I found a property that I liked, I asked our agent to preview it. We returned in December and found another house that we loved and made an offer on it that was accepted.

The closing was accomplished by mail and finalized on February 5th. We then flew out on Valentine's Day and my wife moved into the house at that time. (I had to return to the east coast to finish out the month at work before retiring.)

The only drawback to handling this out of state was not being able to be present for the inspections or the final walk-through, but my agent handled those for us. She also arranged to have the house cleaned before we move in.

So bottom line: yes, it can be done. However, if you are not familiar with Vegas, then it might be better to rent for awhile to familiarize yourself with the neighborhoods before making a decision on where to buy.

[yellowsnow]

I did it and it all worked out. It took a while and there were a lot of false starts and stops but when we finally found a home owned by people rather than a bank, it all went well. We did it all from Minnesota.

Unless you know Vegas VERY well, I would also encourage you to rent for a while first. If you get here and hate it, you are going to lose a LOT of money selling that home you just bought.

[bledsoe3]

Some of it depends on your price point. If you are the MadMan your properties will not sell before you can fly in to see them. In my case (much lower price) the properties were selling in a day.

I did give my realtor a list of properties I wanted to see. He did show me them and some that he thought were good too. We ended up buying one that he picked out. Maybe the market has slowed some since we bought last Nov.

[vkvidal]

Thank you for the input !
My hubby and I really liked the Coronado Ranch and Mountain's Edge area.... we were there for about 10 days and looked at alot of new construction mostly. We have decided that we WANT to move to Vegas, only question is WHEN????
I guess we will know when the time is right, but we are afraid that prices will go and that is why we thought about buying now while we are in NJ. I am thinking that our combined income is very good right to buy a house, specially since we have no real debt. If nothing else it can be our vacation home until we get ready to pack things up here.
I have been surfing the MLS and I basically match up properties with our wish list, if I find something we like I print out the fact sheet. We are thinking of flying out in September and have some appts set up. I have a good college friend that moved there about 13 yrs ago and her brother is a realtor so I guess he will be our connection there and I totally trust her opinion as well.
Anyway, thank you all again and please wish us luck on our journey !!!!!!

[ceylona]

Long reply:

We will be moving to Vegas the end of this summer, and this will be our SECOND time purchasing from out of state. I do recommend the option of renting for a bit to get to know the area, for more than one reason, but that has never been an option for us as we have 3 cats and 2 dogs, and no one will rent to us .

Thanks to the fact that realtors are now often adding pictures to internet listings, we found it easier to do our house shopping from out of state. Once we compiled a list of homes we might be interested in, we arranged a visit to the area to see as many listings as we could fit in (including some that had no photos with leftover time). I had a weekend last time, and luckily I fell in love with one of the homes I had seen on my computer, made an offer and it was accepted shortly thereafter. The rest of the process our realtor helped us accomplish from home. It can be much more stressful if you are not thrilled with any once you fly in. Wasted airfare and you have to do it again, or you feel pressured to buy one you wouldn't have if the pressure were not so high. This is my fear this time as I have not fallen in love with any...

We still love this house, but had we lived here a while ahead of time we may not have chosen it, as the location is a bit inconvenient. I wish I had more time to spend driving from the home to various places I commonly need to be. Instead all of it was used just being shown the homes.

The other issues we've encountered are occupancy issues if you are getting financing. Last time we had to get a second home mortgage (even though we did not own another property) simply because we purchased that home we loved a few months before we were going to be ready to move in. A different set of occupancy issues are plaguing us this time even though we are ready to move within 30 days of closing: we have to actually begin work there before the banks will close, and we have no place to live while we are there. Again, renting is not possible for us as a family. My husband will have to go in ahead of us, rent by himself and start work so we can close and all move in! Ugh! None of this would be an issue for you if you can rent first.

Hope our experience helps!