Viewing a confidential property without being there: what to have filmed, and in what order

On the advertised market a buyer compares twenty listings, with photographs made to sell and a dimensioned plan. On a property that is not advertised there is often none of that: an address, two phone snapshots, and an appointment possible on Tuesday. That is good news for the price, and a problem for the decision.

Why the viewing changes in nature

Because it is no longer a moment of seduction but a survey. Nobody prepared the property, nobody tidied, nobody chose the hour for the light. You see the reality, which is precisely the advantage, provided you look at it methodically.

And because it is rare. On a confidential property a second viewing is not a given, and a third is unlikely. What you did not see the first time, you may never see.

The shots to insist on, in this order

A successful filmed viewing is not a commentated stroll. It is a list, announced before going in.

The approach, from the street: the facade, the immediate neighbours, what you can hear, the parking.

One continuous take, uncut, from the entrance to the last room, then back. A continuous take can be reconstructed mentally; a series of short clips says nothing about circulation or real volumes.

The fixed points, next, and they are what decide: the consumer unit opened, the boiler or heat pump with its data plate, the water meter, the windows seen close up, ceiling corners and the bottom of walls, the bathroom under the units, and the view from each window, slowly.

The common parts, lastly, for a flat: stairwell, lift, basement, bin store. A building is judged faster than a flat, and it is paid for longer.

What to ask during, and not after

Three questions to put live, while the person is on site.

“Can you open it”: a cupboard, a shutter box, a hatch. Whatever stays closed during a viewing stays unknown.

“Can you stand still for thirty seconds” in the main room, without commentary. The ambient noise of a home is measured by silence, never by a description.

“What is the exact orientation”, with a compass on screen. It is verifiable in two seconds and it avoids a lasting misunderstanding.

The technical follow-up visit

It comes once the property is shortlisted, and it is entrusted to someone who does that for a living. It does not seek to charm you or to show you round: it checks the building’s management, the apparent state of the structure, the installations, and puts figures on the gap between what you saw and what will have to be put right.

That is exactly what an inspection visit with a written report does, and this is the moment to ask for one. On a confidential property it has a further merit: it turns your interest into a serious approach in the seller’s eyes, which counts as much as the content of the report.

What a viewing will never tell you

No camera shows a dispute among co-owners, an easement, a planning project a hundred metres away, or what the property is really worth. The first belongs to the notaire and the documents; the second is the subject of valuing a property with no public comparable, which is the genuinely hard exercise of off-market buying.

A filmed viewing therefore serves one purpose, and it does it very well: ruling things out quickly, at little cost, and concentrating your time and your travel on the two or three properties that deserve it. It is a shortlisting method, and a buyer living abroad has no better one.