Facebook Rental Listing

[Michelle Fenn]

Is it just my location or are a great majority of rental listings on Facebook Scams. A quick check of new listings results in many listing that seem well below market rates. Googling the address shows Zillow listings at market rent or MLS listings. The listing parties all seem to have 2024 accounts. I

[Kevin Sobilo]

@Michelle Fenn, yes! There are many fraud attempts on rentals on Facebook marketplace and through various Facebook groups.

A couple years ago, someone took the pics off my Zillow rental listing and made a fraudulent Facebook listing and was communicating with prospective tenants. Someone alerted me to this and I got Facebook to take the listing down. They were telling tenants that the Zillow listing was not valid and that I was just an agent that they had since fired and that they were the real owners.

Since then, I always post a Facebook marketplace listing myself as a placeholder for my rental so that nobody else can do the same thing. 

People often ask if getting a real estate license has value as an investor. Well, here is a scenario where it does. Being an agent gives you some immediate credibility when talking to knew people who are leery of being scammed. You are easily verifiable and people know you can't scam them and just disappear like these anonymous/fake Facebook profiles.