3 Types of Housing Scams and How to Spot Them | It is important to avoid house rental scams, but most people don’t understand just how common this problem is. In fact, almost half of all American renters have already encountered or fallen for some kind of rental scam.
Scammers spend decades figuring out how to fool people, so it can be hard to keep up with their latest housing scams. So how can you protect yourself from deception in the rental market?
Read on to learn all about how to recognize and avoid housing scams!
Duplicate Listings of Real Homes
This is one of the most convincing rental scams. Scammers find actual listings of actual homes and then copy them.
People put a lot of effort into making their listings as attractive to potential buyers as possible. They include detailed descriptions, attractive photos, and many little details to add their own touch to the listing.
All of that work gets copied over by scammers. Then, in order to attract potential victims, they lower the price of the listing by an absurd amount.
This ridiculously low price is both a way for them to attract potential victims and a way for you to detect this scam. If a home seems too cheap or how beautiful it is, then you might be looking at an example of this skin.
Sometimes, it’s not just a low price that’s cameras used to attract victims. They might also make the application process easier than a real seller or landlord would. This might include them not asking for credit of any kind, or not asking for a security deposit.
House Listings Fabricated From Thin Air
On the other hand, some scammers simply make up listings. These listings may include an address, but if you actually look up the address, it is not associated with an actual house.
That is one of the easiest ways to text this scam. Make sure to look up the addresses of listings you consider to make sure that they actually connect to real homes. If no address is provided at all, that can also indicate that a listing might be fabricated.
Moving Into an Empty Home
This can be one of the most painful scams to fall for. People go from owning a home, at least in their own minds, to being kicked out by the police and having to explain away a very difficult situation.
In this scam, the scammer might actually show up to show you around an empty property. Then, if you choose to buy it, they will give you a duplicate key they have had made for the house.
It can be hard to detect this scam, but it can help to check if this home has been on the market for a long time without check-ups from the owner. That is the kind of listing that scammers look for, since they don’t expect anyone to be on the premises.
Learning about all of these house rental scams can make buying a house seem like a difficult project. On the other hand, working with experts with integrity can make the process run much more smoothly.
Don’t Fall For the Most Common Housing Scams
We hope you were able to learn something helpful about how to avoid the most common housing scams out there. Falling for a scam while looking for a house can make a difficult project practically impossible.
To learn more about homeownership, the real estate market, and more, take a look through our other pages!
