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Updated over 3 years ago, 07/15/2021
Beware of Rental Scams Orlando!
Recently I was contacted by a person in regards to one of my listings for sale. He said he is talking to someone else about the home and asked me if we also have it listed for rent with someone else. Because of my previous experiences in this industry I immediately understood that someone is trying to scam this person. He was rushing to move to Florida because he was starting a new job and his young family needed to find a place urgently. He was getting ready to send about $4,000 via Zelle to someone but luckily his gut feeling was telling him something is wrong. He sent me a Zillow link with my listing posted for rent and screenshots of the conversation. We reported the listing and saved this person a lot of money.
When
you’re looking to find a new rental property, it’s important to know
the signs of a possible scam. Recently, the high demand and lack of inventory has presented an opportunity for scam artists. They have been stealing
rental listings, lowering the price and posting those fake ads online,
especially on Craigslist, Facebook & Zillow, and posing as the landlord. They’ll
price it attractively, remove the address and contact information, and
wait for someone to message them through the site’s messaging portal.
The reality is that the rental market is very competitive. We are a property management company in Orlando and Central Florida and we get multiple rental applications on the majority of our properties even when pricing the homes high! The results is denied applications, disappointment and desperation from tenants to find a place where they can move in because they are being pressed by a deadline. We are getting tenants coming to showings with the move in funds and asking what they can do in order to have higher chances to get the house. This behavior is ideal for scammers!
Knowing the red flags of scams will decrease your chance of being a victim of a scam and possibly losing out on a lot of money.
Scammers can be identified a few different ways:
- - Using out of state numbers or Google Voice numbers. Scammers will hide behind a fake phone number. Google Voice numbers can be regenerated and once you’ve been scammed and catch on, the scammer will change their number and you won’t be able to contact them.
- - They won’t be local, familiar with the property or able to meet you at the property. They won’t know many specific details about the property and will sometimes just give you a code to enter the property yourself. Legitimate companies do use electronic lock boxes for convenient self-showing, but those systems often require you to register through a site and verify your identity before entering the property.
- - They
ask you to send, wire or transfer money-will say things like “Disregard
the Real Estate company information, we fired them and are leasing it
ourselves”. It is best to just to double check with the real estate
company before you get more involved. Try calling them to ask about the
property and get more information to confirm.
- Non traditional methods for payments could be requested like Zelle, Cashapp, Venmo etc.
Here are few tips which can help you prevent a scam:
- Check the public records of the property in your local county and see if the owner's name matches to the person you are talking to.
- Ask if they have office and look up the business.
- Check if the property is currently listed for rent or sale on multiple places by different people. If the answer is yes, try to identify who is a realtor because most likely, they have the real listing. Then contact this person and explain the situation. You can also look up their name and license in the public records of your state. Make sure the phone number you are texting or calling matches the one on the public records. Price differences in the different listings are a red flag.
- Question the lease and other documents you receive from them. Most of the time they don't look very professional, there is no company logo and some of the things you agreed on are not reflected there.
- Scammers never run a background check! If background or credit checks are not mentioned throughout the entire conversation, this is a big red flag.
Keep these things in mind and you won't fall prey to a scammer!
Have you or someone you know had any similar experiences? Share them here and help future tenants avoid the scams!