All Forum Posts by: Kelly N.

@Jay Hinrichs- to be clear, his English is fine.  He (I am assuming it's a he) used words you would expect to hear, maybe a little hurried but if he were truly at a closing and typing this on his phone it could be plausible.  Here's the first e mail:

"I got an update from Title company concerning the balance closing funds, they want you to wire the balance funds of $XX,XXX today to enhance a smooth transaction and to avoid any form of delay at closing.

If there is cancellation of contract your funds will be wired back to you, This is just to enhance a smooth transaction and to avoid any form of delay at closing.

I'm presently at closing now please let me know if you can get the funds wired today so that I can forward you their company trust account details .

Please send me an email if you have any question am at closing.

Thank You!"

@Jeff S.- the first few e mails almost sounded legit.  Almost.  My realtor isn't the one who should be sending me wiring instructions, and I know my realtor well and the tone of the e mails just wasn't right.  He sent the wire instructions later in a separate e mail (I told him to hurry, I had to get to the bank before I picked my kids up from school), the company name associated with the account was pretty non specific- for example "XYZ Sales"- could MAYBE, possibly, by some stretch be a title company, or something else associated with real estate.  I googled the company name and came up with a company that charters, sells, and repairs semis, and from a google earth image of the address that appears accurate.

Some dude in California is currently awaiting his payday, which isn't coming.  I am hoping a knock on the door from the sheriff or the FBI comes first.  I am tempted to send him a picture of my middle finger next time he asks for a picture of the wire receipt.  After the last one, I told him to not contact me until the title company said they had the funds- I am on vacation.  

@Jeff S.- I was told to wire the funds to a trucking company in Cloverdale, CA.  The wire details he provided had the company/account holder name, address, routing and account numbers.  He said it was the title company.

We were closing on a refinance loan last week, and the agent at the title company had asked if we were expecting the funds in a check or if we were expecting a wire.  I said I expected a check, I hadn't realized wiring it was an option but I preferred a check anyways, and he said they don't deal with wires anymore- maybe he only meant for when clients are receiving funds from a refi?  I am not sure, I wasn't interested at the time so I didn't ask.  I am interested to see how the closing companies are handling things now- we haven't purchased since 2015, never used the same title company twice but they have always asked for Certified Funds and I have always brought a Cashier's check.  Maybe they call the bank to verify before they close?  

Every other closing I have been at, we have been told by the title company directly how much we owe and who to make the cashier's check out to.  I am not sure if they have ever offered to allow me to do a wire transfer instead, a cashiers check is easy, fast, and free.  I don't remember if they used secured e mails all the time, but I suppose that's likely, just not a detail I would recall.  I hope they still allow that, I wouldn't be comfortable hauling around a large amount of cash!

@Patricia Steiner- thanks, but it's not a done deal yet- we found a discrepancy in the square footage of the house so we will see if they are willing to reduce the price or not.  I reported it to the FBI online, so thanks, I had not thought to look up who wire fraud (or attempted wire fraud) should be reported to.

There are too many factors, both personal and location driven, and lots of previous threads on this.  What works for me might not work for someone else.

We use Quickbooks and send invoices via e mail, tenants pay via ACH.

There are three things you can do here-

1.  Get into that storage space and seal up any crack that might allow the smell to get through.  This may solve the problem, or at least show your tenant that you are trying.

2.  Call the owners and/or the police to report it.  Once again, showing your tenant you are trying, but there may be nothing either of them is able/willing to do.

3.  Tell them to talk with the neighbors.  Sometimes, adults have to be adults and put heir big boy pants on.  My neighbors smoke some pretty nasty smelling stuff, and when they do I have to shut up our house so the smell doesn't get in and explain to my kids what is going on (what a great life lesson).  Or, if it was that big a deal, I can go have a friendly chat with the neighbors about it.  So far, we've been going with option 1, saving option 2 for the vicious dogs and the bonfires too close to the houses.

We had a problem tenant like this, in my opinion it will only get worse from here.  I opted to respond to actual needs quickly (ie heat not working, or when she removed a window sash and couldn't figure out how to put it back in) and others were given a LONG timeline of response.  When I had had enough, I informed her that I would be happy to let her out of her lease early without the early termination fee, and this became part of my standard  e mail response to her.

I agree, no more talking to this tenant- e mail and text only (download a copy of your texts so you have them for the record).  Send their calls to VM and get a transcript/recording done of those too.

Make sure you are applying the same policy with the payment to everyone else so that this tenant can't claim you were discriminating.  Never show up to the property without a witness present- for your safety and to protect you from what the tenant might say that you did/ didn't do.

You'll get through this, and maybe celebrate the anniversary of the day the problem tenant moved out.  Use this as a learning experience and hone your screening to weed out future problem tenants- were there warning signs that you ignored?  Make sure it doesn't happen again.

When I have one of two (or several) tenants not paying their portion of the rent, I send a new invoice via e mail (this is how all our invoices are sent) reflecting the late fee as soon as the rent is late.  I also mail a copy of the invoice along with the 7 day "Pay or Quit" notice addressed to ALL the tenants on the lease.  

In Michigan, we can evict if they don't pay the entire rent, so that is how I would proceed.  In some states, you might not be able to start an eviction if they have paid some of the rent.  

In my lease, tenants are "jointly and severally" liable- meaning if one of them flakes on rent both of them are going to be impacted by it, and you go after whoever you can for the amount due.  The first time the notice goes out usually scares them enough that they aren't late again- not only do they not want to be evicted, they usually don't want their roomies to know they are paying rent late.

This is the tenant's problem, and the tenant's paying roommate's problem, not yours.  Make sure that is clear to them too.

Hello BP-

We are currently under contract to buy a house, and I received an e mail Friday that appeared to come from my realtor stating that the Title Company needed me to wire funds that day to make sure the closing went smoothly.  My realtor shouldn't have anything to do with the deposit, and the wording didn't sound like my realtor, so I quickly confirmed that this was a scam.  He had hacked into my realtor's e mail where he was able to get information on our recent sales agreement and who knows what else.  He then created a similar e mail address to my realtor's and used that to contact me- I didn't even realize it wasn't one of his usual addresses until today.  He had reasons for everything- the wire transfer had to be early b/c the title company was undergoing an audit and wouldn't be able to clear a check for closings from April 15-May 1, not to call him since he was attending a closing, and he even gave a plausible answer when I asked him where the closing would be- he happened to pick the only title company we have used in that city, maybe by finding it in the e mails from past dealings or maybe since it is the closest one to my realtor's address.  The amount requested seemed off at first, then I realize it was the 25% down on the property less the earnest money I had dropped off that day at the realtor's office.  

I told him I wired the money Friday (of course, I didn't) and he has been bugging me for a picture of a receipt since then and wanting to know when the funds would be deposited.  I told him that it takes 24 hours, or one full business day, so he is on pins and needles likely stalking his account balance today, and I have so far ignored his requests for a receipt "for his records".

I have talked to the local police (here) who can't do anything since I didn't transfer funds.  I talked to the bank they are using, who may have flagged their account for fraud but of course can't tell me anything.  My realtor reported the security breach to google since it was a gmail account created to appear to be him, along with the service provided for the account that got hacked.  Lastly, I talked to the local county sheriff's department who is going to go talk to the business owner for the address given in the wiring instructions.   If anyone else has any ideas of who else this can be reported to, please let me know!

So, mainly a warning to all that if it doesn't seem right, it probably isn't.  We were just a a closing last week and that title company mentioned that they don't deal with wires anymore due to the vast amount or fraud going on.   

@Joshau Deleon- glad to help out, this community has been a great resource for me, I wish I had found it sooner!