Buying land, without actually seeing it. Stupid?

Question

Obvisouly the answer to that is yes, but I'm wondering if there are any agencies that will survey land so that the buyer can get a really good idea of how valuable of an investment a piece of land or property would be without having to visit. I know I could get a house appraised but is there anyway to do it without the sellers knowledge? Also what if I'm interested in a plot of land. How can I get the most accurate non-biased information? I'm interested in purchasing some land in Hawaii and it would be more cost effective to just pay someone a couple hundred dollars to review several lots then for me to fly out there.
Any Thoughs?

Additional question. Would I need to be as worried about whether a property can be developed on if it is literally a few lots down the street (it is in a subdivision) from other homes in the subdivision?

Answer 1

Your best bet is to get a full narrative appraisal on the property not a basic appraisal. In this appraisal they will look into the probability of development, zoning regulations and assign a value. A good appraiser will speak to a representative of the planning/building to verify if it could be built on. There are many factors that will affect the likelyhood of development such as the prescence of containments in the soil (test hole data will most likely need to be done if it is in Hawaii in a rural area), if it's located in a flood zone, wetlands, lot size, easements etc. You should find out about all these things before you purchase. It would be a complete disaster if you purchased the property and found out it is not capable of supporting development and you purchased it for 100k. If you don't want to see the property I would at minimum get a full narrative appraisal (will cost you more) and make an offer contigent upon getting permits (hire an expiditer). I appraise vacant land all the time and we look into easements on the property (look at prior deeds), prescence of wetlands etc.), and zoning regs before we can state if we feel the property could support development.

Answer 2

If you worried about the property and what may be in or around it. Than get a Natural Hazard Report and contact a Title Company to get the Report on the Property. Also try to pinpoint the property use Google Earth and see what is around the property. Many different ways to see if a land is worth anything without acutally being there.