Winter is the perfect time to shop for an island dream home on St Croix. With clear skies, beautiful weather and plenty of homes to tour, it is one of the best seasons to explore the US Virgin Island real estate market. Sometimes off island Buyers with cancelled or delayed flights, tight timetables, or inconvenient free time for traveling may make it difficult to look at a listing in person. We can help.
As Accredited Buyer’s Representatives (ABR) and Seller Representative Specialists (SRS), we are delighted to share our experience & local knowledge on St Croix’s real estate sales process and how to mitigate risk when buying a home from afar. Here are some common questions we receive from off island Buyers:
“What is your approach to helping Buyers who can’t be on St. Croix in person to look at properties?”
Our answer: We have sold several properties to off island Buyers sight unseen and we are carefully cautious every time.
If the listing has photos with poor lighting or no walkthrough videos available, we take our own onsite photos or videos showing the Buyers just what they want shown.
If there’s something our Buyers particularly want to see, like a video of the drive to the property, or a video of the neighborhood, we are happy to provide those.
We have also done FaceTime calls with our clients walking through the property answering their questions as we walk along.
“What are ways to mitigate risk of buying sight unseen?”
Our answer: Buying a property is a big financial decision. We always remind our clients to:
- Carefully watch all listing videos which show the property. And look at the photos.
- Read any available documents such as maps, surveys or plot maps, list of improvements, rules and regulations, and floor plans from the listing.
- Hire a licensed home inspector to do a thorough inspection of the property.
- Include in the contract a contingency clause that may provide you with an out should inspections reveal any issues with the property.
- Ask questions!
If buying property on St. Croix is a goal for you this year, contact us and we will work with you! Every sale is personal to us. We are the experienced real estate professionals on island who can help you every step of the process.
For more information about condo features, visit our recent newsletter on the topic here.
Watch our YouTube video for off-island Buyers.