Have You Rented An Apartment Without Seeing It In Person?

October 26, 2024 12:55 AM

I've been overseas for a few years, am returning Friday to my last US city, and need to find an apartment. My plan was to book an airbnb and look at some rentals, but there's stress here because if I don't find a place, my airbnb costs will increase, so I'm considering trying to arrange an apt now, just from photos online (already knowing the area). I wouldn't normally do this, but it'd make my life a *lot* easier if I knew I had a place lined up: am I crazy to consider this?

The way I see it is that $600 for an airbnb for a week is fine, but if this goes to 2, 3, 4+ weeks this cost will become significant. Also, Thankgiving's coming up, so I'm sure that's going to hit airbnb availability and also increase prices. And on top of that, I've been tracking the rental market for the past few months and there's loads of OK-but-not-great places, but nice ones only pop up now and then, so there's a degree of roulette here: I can't predict whether waiting weeks (months?) will increase the likelihood of nice places coming available.
I'm pretty sure I've toured apartments before which haven't looked like the pics/ I've been glad that I looked in person first, but on the other hand, I've stayed in a lot of airbnb's in the past few years in Asia and haven't had any issues booking those sight-unseen (which might be related to the possibly excessive level of research I do).
So: there's a couple of apartments available online now which look real nice, and I'm wondering if a bird in the hand (admittedly from a distance) might be worth two in the bush - and I'm also wondering how contacting a property owner and saying "hey - I'm in Asia RN but I'll be back Fri, will you rent me your apt please?" will go over (I'm assuming those folks have to filter through all sorts of potential applicants, and maybe that'll sound like a red flag to them?)?
(I should also explain here that I suffer from chronic Scrooge McDuckism, so although I'm sure some folks might not think ratcheting up $600/ week airbnb costs is that big a deal, the Scrooge McDuck in me absolutely will, and will definitely make me suffer so, and more as those costs mount).

posted by 7 Minutes of Madness to Home & Garden (26 answers total)

I’d try to arrange as many showings as possible, fill out applications ahead of time if possible, and simply be willing to rent the first decent apartment you see. I absolutely wouldn’t rent sight unseen for two reasons.

First, as you noted, pictures don’t tell the whole story. I looked at one fantastic place that was surrounded by horrible loud traffic—no way to see that in pictures but it literally smelled badly of car exhaust. Another place was boiling hot despite it being a 75 degree day. You get the idea.

Second, responsible landlords (or their agents) will want to meet you and will be extremely cautious about renting to someone from overseas who has not seen the apartment, for a variety of reasons. Some landlords specialize in this kind of tenant (typically, furnished places for rent for 3-6 months for traveling professionals). But other landlords will be wary unless they are naive, a bit desperate, or know that they will have a much easier time if you don’t see the place first.
posted by knobknosher at 1:22 AM on October 26, 2024 [4 favorites]

We rented a flat in Scotland when we were moving back from overseas, sight unseen, and it went fine- I don't think it's crazy. Two caveats though:
- this was during COVID, so everything was a bit different and I suspect a lot of agencies/landlords wouldn't allow this now because, as someone mentioned above, they want to see you in person. May be worth asking around in the area you're moving to, to see if it's even likely that places will do remote viewings.
- Scotland has favourable renting terms for tenants - you only need to give a month's notice, no matter how long you've been in a property. So the stakes were quite low as we knew we wouldn't be locked in for a long term lease. As it happened, the flat was absolutely fine and true to pictures, we ended up staying six months (moved to buy a house in the same neighbourhood) and broke the lease with no issue. So it all worked out but your rental market terms may vary...
posted by cpatterson at 2:11 AM on October 26, 2024

I rented an apartment in Chicago when I moved from NY without seeing it in person. I only saw a floor plan. Worked out great. Lived there for 3 years. The key to me was that the apartment was in what I thought was the right neighborhood for me. No pictures or video, just a floor plan and a description. I do think it was a risk or a bet that worked out, but I can see it now how it could suck. But, even if it sucks it is only for a year.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 2:38 AM on October 26, 2024 [1 favorite]

My parents did this, but they did send me to a viewing in their stead. (Also, it was temporary.)

Is there anyone in the new city who could go have a look for you?
posted by demi-octopus at 2:53 AM on October 26, 2024 [15 favorites]

I’ve bought two apartments without seeing them before I moved in. It was fine. But everyone’s apartment is different.
posted by Iteki at 2:58 AM on October 26, 2024

Aside from the risk of a place potentially not looking like the pictures/having issues that you don't know about, there is the bigger risk of getting entangled with a scammer who does not actually have any apartment to rent you. Scammers have gotten quite wise about this, often lifting text from one ad and pictures from another, and then reposting that elsewhere. So the ad sounds and looks real because it is...sort of.

I think if I were doing this I'd try to stick to rental agencies that have an online presence, or brokers if brokers are a thing in that area (broker fees are annoying especially compared to the small amount of work the brokers tend to put in but at this point when I see listings from brokers I'm like--at least I know this is a real apartment that is available.)

Another option is booking an airbnb for a month straight up instead of a week. Often you can get a decent discount for month booking (search specifically for monthly airbnbs), and that would take the pressure off you.
posted by needs more cowbell at 3:23 AM on October 26, 2024 [14 favorites]

I have done this in COVID times (London) - I knew the neighborhood, and the real estate agent filmed the inside of the apartment pretty thoroughly. Incidentally it was the best apartment I've ever lived in... It was also relatively new, with a straightforward construction & layout.

I've also lived in serviced apartments and Airbnbs for months so I guess I am used to the unknown factor.
posted by socky_puppy at 3:37 AM on October 26, 2024 [1 favorite]

I did this during the first Omicron wave, although a big caveat is that it was not an apartment I intended to live in full time, so the fact that it was old and imperfectly maintained wasn’t a dealbreaker. You may find you want better info than I had to go on.

I avoided scams by renting from one of the town’s large and well-known landlords and calling their number directly to ask about vacancies rather than looking to an ad. I did briefly consider an ad-listed apartment, though, and I sent a local to check that one out for me first to make sure it was legit (glad I did, I wound up deciding it was too small).
posted by eirias at 4:34 AM on October 26, 2024 [1 favorite]

I once went to see about renting a flat above a betting shop, just renovated to a high spec, looked nice in the online pics, went for a look and all was well until the 4.15 at Chepstow, when it became apparent that we wouldn't need a radio to follow the racing in our living room.
posted by biffa at 4:48 AM on October 26, 2024 [1 favorite]

Yup 5 times. And 4 of them worked out just fine. 5th was just OK. And most of these were before modern video calling etc. I'm willing to bet you can get a video tour these days...
posted by chasles at 5:29 AM on October 26, 2024

So this is going to depend on the particular locale, as real estate practices seem to differ wildly from city to city in the U.S., at least in my experience.

We did rent a house sight unseen when we first moved to our current city. We found out that there were realtors willing to search out and look at rentals for you. It wouldn’t cost us any money, as they would be paid by the landlord or property management company we eventually rented from. Based on online listing information and pictures, we narrowed it down to two properties and asked the realtor to look at them. She sent us pictures, as well as descriptions of the properties and the locations. Based on that we gave her the go-ahead on one property, and she served as our local agent for the rental process, which proceeded painlessly. We arrived from out of state, got the keys from the property management representative at the agreed upon time, and happily lived there for two years.

You might consider investigating whether getting a local realtor to look at rentals for you and help with the rental process is a possibility at your destination city.
posted by research monkey at 5:30 AM on October 26, 2024 [1 favorite]

So…reading your post you want to hold out for a nice apartment, and paying extra $$ for an airbnb will bother you. None of this indicates to me that you’ll cheerfully accept flaws in an apartment if you miss them b/c it’s long distance. So I say, calm Mr. McDuck and find the right place.
posted by warriorqueen at 5:46 AM on October 26, 2024 [4 favorites]

Having had a few acquaintances scammed I would have to be very very sure I was dealing with someone who had legal ownership and access to the property. Letting me in and showing me around would go a long way towards calming my nerves.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 5:52 AM on October 26, 2024

I did this through a realtor in 2016. She walked around on a video call using the back camera. That way, the video tour was interactive and involved a third party.
posted by Snijglau at 5:57 AM on October 26, 2024 [1 favorite]

I remotely rented a small apt in a largish complex based on floor plan, price, and location, when I moved there in 200X. This was also due to financial constraints.

The unit was fine, on the inside. What I didn't know was it was inconveniently located with a lot of car traffic and pedestrians walking right past my best room window. Which might not have been terrible except it was also known as a huge party complex. They definitely intentionally screwed us with it knowing we were remote, it would have been much harder to sell in person.

It sucked but we survived and moved out. I think a lot of this is down to how well you can ride out an annoying year Vs how bad you need/don't want to spend the extra money. I was young and didn't feel like I had much real choice.
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:23 AM on October 26, 2024 [3 favorites]

Done this a couple times in cross country moves. They ended up being fine, but I had the privilege/ability to be very careful about it by dealing with buildings' rental offices directly or doing a lot of googling and verifying that people who said they were when renting out single units.

The biggest things that can be missing in just photos/video is: Overall level of cleanliness, convenience/safety of ancillaries (laundry, parking, garbage, etc), and noise level. If you think you can deal with these uncertainties, you should be fine.
posted by dede at 6:54 AM on October 26, 2024

I've done this twice - you generally can arrange for a video walk through. During that you'll get a sense of the the landlord or the rental company - take note if they seem professional.

I've never been that surprised by the what I end up with - little things might not be noticeable in a video walk through, but I'm not terribly picky.
posted by coffeecat at 7:39 AM on October 26, 2024 [1 favorite]

I do have a friend who arranged to rent a place in my neighborhood with someone from a Craig's List ad, put down a security deposit. It turned out the person had posted pictures of the apartment from Zillow and it was a scam. So I'd just be careful and try to verify everything before exchanging any money.
posted by knownfossils at 9:08 AM on October 26, 2024 [1 favorite]

I have done it. I am still in the place 8 years later. The place was still under construction though I was familiar with the neighbourhood.

I‘d just look for a short-term rental, probably furnished like 1-3 months. You know it’s temporary and you get time to search locally for a nice place.
posted by koahiatamadl at 9:53 AM on October 26, 2024 [3 favorites]

I'm not really sure what the question here is, but I've done this. We had a friend go to the open house and send us video (and their opinion of the agent and landlord). We wouldn't do it with only the agent's photo. It went fine. We still live there. The main difficulty was convincing the landlord we were real.

One possibility to make this simpler and reduce the risk is to focus on large, professionally-managed recently-built apartment buildings with amenities. They may not be your cup of tea as homes, but they're used to people moving for work who may not be able to visit.
posted by caek at 10:02 AM on October 26, 2024 [3 favorites]

The condo next door to mine is rented out by the owner, who is someone I know. She recently had to find a new tenant, and was telling me that most all of the prospective renters were not local and they all were asking her for video tours. She was walking around doing video calls using the back camera for people, and she did more than just a tour of the apartment itself, but also did the outside setting, entrance, parking lot, etc. etc.. She said this was very common. She was advertising the apartment herself, but she also had it up on some of the local real estate company websites.

If I were trying to find a place from a distance, I would definitely want to go through a realtor, and also ask for an on site tour, not just rely on photos or prerecorded videos online. You would not be the only one to ask for this type of thing, is what I am saying.
posted by gudrun at 1:10 PM on October 26, 2024

Scams are a real risk in this context. If you do this, I strongly recommend sticking to big complexes with their own rental offices.
posted by praemunire at 2:33 PM on October 26, 2024 [3 favorites]

I've done this a couple of times but only when working with a rental agent, who checked out the apartment for ne and also vouched for my bona fides to responsible landlords. Those cases worked out fine for me but I would not take the risk without an agent for all the good reasons mentioned above.
posted by rpfields at 2:57 PM on October 26, 2024 [2 favorites]

I've done this three times. The first time, the apartment was okay, but I ended up not liking the neighborhood or the property management company very much and moved out about 6 months later. The second time, the house was really run-down with numerous issues and the owners were not great landlords, despite being friends of my mother. Getting problems fixed was very difficult and many issues stayed unresolved for my entire tenancy. I did stay for two years because I had too much going on (my dad died from a brain tumor that was diagnosed four months after I arrived and I took over his care and handled the estate issues) to move again. The third time, I moved into a suite owned by the friend of a friend who I'd never met. The suite and the landlady exceeded my expectations in every way and I'm still here five years later. All of these moves were cross-country and very nerve-wracking, not knowing exactly what awaited me on arrival. If you can manage a few weeks or a month in a temporary rental, it would be worth it to minimize your stress and avoid unpleasant surprises, in my opinion.
posted by alltomorrowsparties at 11:48 PM on October 26, 2024 [1 favorite]

Watch out for scams. The place we lived had been rented out to hapless students money up front (scammers just reposting photos and asking for deposits).
posted by ovvl at 9:08 PM on October 27, 2024

I considered doing this when I moved from overseas to my current city. One landlord wouldn't rent to us sight unseen. I had an appointment for the day after I arrived (landed Thursday evening, say the place Friday morning) to view the place that I then rented right away. I had been in regular contact with the landlord before, and he understood the situation. I was in a hotel and only ended up staying 2 or 3 nights before I was able to move into my place.

I am now helping my kid look at rental apartments. Photos are super exaggerated now. I don't think you should rent sight unseen, unless you've had a friend go buy and video the inside (maybe you could pay someone to do this for you?), or preferably facetime live with you.

So, either have someone representing you look in advance, or have appointments for the day after you arrive.
posted by bluedaisy at 11:36 AM on October 29, 2024