A large share of Jerusalem renovations are commissioned by people who live in New York, London, or Toronto and won't set foot in the apartment until the work is finished.
What makes it possible isn't luck — it's structure. Three things need to be true: someone you trust is physically checking the work against the agreed scope before any payment goes out; you're getting real, dated documentation (photos, written updates) rather than a verbal "it's going well"; and someone with authority on the ground can make small decisions quickly, because renovations generate dozens of minor questions per week that can't wait for a 9-hour time difference to resolve.
Without that structure, remote renovation is genuinely risky — you're trusting a contractor to grade their own work, with no one checking. With it, distance stops being the obstacle people assume it is.
The practical version of this looks like: weekly (sometimes daily) photo and written updates, a single point of contact who speaks your language, and — most importantly — an independent person, not the contractor themselves, confirming each phase is done correctly before you release payment for it. That last point is the one most owners skip, and it's the one that causes the most regret afterward.
If you're early in deciding whether to go ahead with a renovation you can't personally oversee, the honest answer is: it's very doable, but only with the right person checking on your behalf. Owners who try to manage it purely by phone calls and trust tend to discover problems only once they arrive for the final walkthrough — by which point it's expensive to fix.