Warning about Craigslist

[Todd Norris]

Everyone loves a good disaster story, right? Well, here's one for you. 

Someone I know owns an out-of-town rental which he purchased when his daughter was in college (cheaper than the dorms!). He kept the house after she graduated and had a couple renters. Last November he decided to fix it up and sell it. The owner recently got a call from a guy who identified himself as the "buyer" of this house and was hoping to set up a closing date. So the story goes, someone had listed this vacant house on Craigslist and had met with the "buyer" at the property to collect some earnest money ($2,000). Of course, this "someone" was not the true owner of the house. The "buyer" didn't hear from the "seller" for quite some time so he found the owner's information through the county and gave him a call. The true owner then drove to his property to find it stripped bare. Everything was gone (tools, appliances, fixtures, furnace, water heater, everything). He filed a police report. During the investigation, it was discovered that a suspicious neighbor had taken a picture of the two guys at the property when the earnest money was changing hands. Turns out, the "seller" who collected the earnest money was a former tenant! The police were able to run a search on the "seller" based on the true owner's tenant records, and it was discovered that the guy had done this before.

Lesson: Do your homework before you buy something from Craigslist! A quick trip to the county clerk's office can get you the name of the owner. Match up the ID of the person collecting your earnest money with the name on the county records. If they don't match, do further investigation or just walk away from the deal. Isn't life interesting? :)

[Jim Keller]

@Todd norms the advise you give about Craigslist is very good advise and frankly part of what every investor should do as part of the do dillagents.  

Because to write off cragslist as nothing but scammed will limit you from great deals like this........ I found a 3/2 1456 Sq ft home built in 1957 with a pool that was in very poor shape the seller wanted $149,000 because of some other buyers I paid $154,000.  We expect $40,000 in rehab and last week the home 3 doors down sold for $286,000.

The moral of the story is you just never know.... do your homework and deal can and do just fall out of Craigslist.  

I mean what a country we live in.....something I didn't mention after doing many flips in the last year I showed my 23 year old daughter how to find this type of properties and She found this Craigslist deal that I'm going to make up words of $60,000 on.  Never give up people the deals/money is laying in the streets it's up to us to pick them up.