What is included
- Airport pickup and transfer to your hotel, and transport throughout the viewing days.
- Hotel booking in a location that makes the viewing route practical, at your cost and with your approval of the choice.
- One to three days of viewings built around your shortlist, in an order that makes geographic sense and leaves time for a second look.
- The district around each property: the metro or the main road, the school, the market, the park, the construction site next door.
- Access to the common parts of each building where possible: entrance, stairwell, lifts, roof or courtyard.
- Written notes every evening on each property seen, including the ones you disliked and why.
- A debrief at the end of the trip and, if you choose a property, a reservation drafted under the rules in our guides, with a refund clause.
Who this service is for
The trip is for buyers who want to stand in the apartment before they decide, which we recommend for anyone buying a home to live in, and for buyers who want to understand a city they do not know before choosing between its districts. It is also useful for a buyer who has already decided on a new-build project and wants to see the site, the developer's completed buildings and the sales office before signing. A buyer who cannot travel does not need the trip: the search is built from our visits and the viewings are done by live video, and the remote purchase service takes it from there. A trip without a shortlist is a sightseeing tour; we ask that the search, or at least the brief, comes first.
Timeline
Dates and shortlist
You tell us your travel dates and we confirm the shortlist that will be viewed, adding properties that have come up since it was sent and removing ones that have gone.
Hotel and route
We propose a hotel near the viewing route and book it at your cost once you approve; we plan each day's route and send it to you with the properties in order.
Arrival
The property adviser meets you at the airport and takes you to the hotel. If you arrive early in the day, the first viewings can start the same afternoon.
Viewing days
Three to five properties a day, each with its building and district, with a second look at anything that interests you. Notes every evening.
Debrief
On the last day we go through the notes together, rank the properties against your brief, and decide what happens next: a reservation, a second trip, a changed brief or a pause.
After the trip
If you reserved a property, the legal due diligence starts; if not, the search continues with what the trip taught us about your preferences.
What a viewing day actually looks like
A day begins at the hotel at a time you set and follows the route we sent. Every property gets the same order of inspection. Outside comes first: the street, looked at in both directions, and the front door you would pass twice a day as an owner. Then the shared parts, stairs, lift and landings, which say more about the building's management than any brochure. Only then the flat itself, starting at the windows and working back into the rooms, with the measurements checked against the plan, the water run, the sockets tried, the noise listened to with the windows open and closed. Between properties the adviser shows the district on foot or from the car, and says what they would say to a friend: where the market is, how long the walk to the metro really takes, which corner is loud at night. Lunch is in the district you are looking at, because a café tells you about a neighbourhood. The day ends when the route ends, and the notes arrive in the evening so that you can sleep on them.
Tbilisi, Batumi and the resorts
A Tbilisi trip is a trip between districts, and the route is planned so that you see the character of two or three in a day rather than ten apartments in one. A Batumi trip adds the coast: the boulevard zones, the quieter residential streets behind them, and, if your brief includes it, Kobuleti or the villages towards Gonio and Kvariati, with time to see what a tower looks like in the season you visit and a plain statement of what it looks like in the other season. A resort trip to Gudauri or Bakuriani is usually a day from Tbilisi, with the road itself part of the information, and we recommend seeing a resort apartment in the off-season as well as in the season before deciding, because the building's winter and summer are different places. Trips can combine cities; three days is enough for Tbilisi and Batumi with a flight between them, and the quote states the travel costs that are yours.
What we need from you
- Your travel dates, flight details and passport details for the hotel booking.
- Approval of the hotel we propose, or your own choice if you prefer to book yourself.
- A shortlist, or at least an approved brief, so that the days are spent on properties that fit.
- A list of anything you want to see beyond the shortlist: a school, a clinic, a particular project, a district you read about.
- A decision each evening on which properties deserve a second look, so that the next day's route can be adjusted.
Price basis
The trip is quoted in writing on the basis described on the prices and fees page, normally as a daily rate stated in the quote with the number of days. Your flights, hotel and meals are third-party costs paid by you, and the quote lists the expected amounts so that the total is known in advance. Transport during the viewing days is included in our fee. A trip that is cut short because you found the right property on the first day is charged for the days used, as the quote states.
To be added by the team: the daily rate for the viewing trip and the cancellation terms, to be provided by the owner and set out in the standard quote.
Preparing for the trip
A trip is more useful when the reading is done before the flight. The pages we point every client to are the Places section for the districts on the route, the New builds section if any shortlisted property is under construction, because the finishing levels and the construction stages are easier to recognise on site when the words are already familiar, and the five stages of a purchase in Buying & law, so that a reservation agreement offered on day two is met with the right questions. Bring the brief and the shortlist on your phone, a tape measure if you like to check for yourself, comfortable shoes, and a list of the things that would make you walk away from an apartment, written before you have seen any. The adviser will ask for that list on the first morning and use it on the route.
Viewing a new build and viewing a resale
The two kinds of viewing are different and the trip treats them differently. A resale viewing is about the apartment and the building as they are: measurements, water, sockets, the stairwell, the neighbours, the view, the noise. A new-build viewing is about the site, the developer and the paper: the stage the building has reached against the delivery date promised, the permit's number of floors against the floors going up, the sales office's answers to the twenty questions in the developer checklist, a completed building by the same developer visited for its entrance and lifts, and a show flat read as a promise rather than as the apartment you will receive. For a new build the adviser photographs the site from fixed positions so that a later visit can be compared, and the notes record what the sales office said about the delivery date so that it can be checked against what they say next time. Both kinds of viewing end with the same question in the notes: what is wrong with it.
What the trip is not
A viewing trip with us is not a sales tour. The adviser does not steer you towards one property, does not arrange "surprise" viewings of projects that are not on the shortlist unless you ask, and does not press you to reserve before you leave. If a seller or a developer offers a discount that expires when your flight leaves, the adviser's advice will usually be to let it expire, and that advice is in the notes. A reservation made during a trip is made under a reservation agreement with a refund clause tied to the legal check, never with cash in an office, and the Buying & law section explains why. The trip's purpose is that you see the property, the building and the street as they are; what you decide afterwards is yours.
After the trip
You leave with the notes, the photographs and a ranked view of what you saw. If you reserved a property, the legal due diligence starts the next working day and the purchase can be completed in person on a later visit or remotely under a power of attorney. If you did not, the search continues with a brief that the trip has sharpened; many clients discover on a trip that their brief was right about the city and wrong about the district, and the second shortlist reflects it. Either way, everything from the trip stays in your file.
Frequently asked questions
How many days do I need?
One day is enough for a short shortlist in one district; two days for a city; three for two cities or a city and a resort. The quote proposes a length based on your shortlist and you decide.
Can I bring my family?
Yes, and we encourage it when the property is a home. Say how many people will join so that transport and the pace of the days are planned for them; children's patience is a real constraint on a viewing route.
Will I be shown properties that are not on my shortlist?
Only if you ask, or if something that fits your brief has come up since the shortlist was sent, in which case we tell you before the viewing why it is there.
Can I reserve a property during the trip?
Yes, under a reservation agreement with a refund clause tied to the legal check, drafted or reviewed by our partner lawyer. We do not recommend paying anything in cash in a sales office.
Do I pay for the hotel through you?
No. We book it with your approval and you pay the hotel directly, or you book it yourself. Hotel, flights and meals are your third-party costs and are listed in the quote as estimates.
What if I cannot travel after all?
The viewings are done by live video instead, from the same properties, with the same notes, and the purchase can continue remotely. The quote states what is owed if a trip is cancelled.
Change log
- - Service page created with the full description of a viewing trip; price basis to be supplied by the owner.