What Is Rental Scam?

This is my last article about real estate fraud for now. Its main topic is rental scam. Have you ever heard about that before? I really think you have. But even if you haven't, the name is pretty telling itself.

You might simply be lied to a lose money to rental scammers. Want to know how to be careful? Here I am offering you some tips how to recognize a rental scammer.

Most importantly, if the price is a really low for a specific location, watch out. If something is too good to be true then it usually is not. In case you really have no clue about the approximate prices, search for the common prices in the area. Internet should help you. Browse the web a little.

Internet can actually help you in quite a few ways. Remember how did you discover the rental possibility? Online? If so, just try and copy the text of the advert to a search box and you will see whether there are many almost same ones. Name, some contact info or pictures of the home can be changed, for example. If there are, then it is even more likely you have found a rental scammer.

You should also be careful with the style of the offer - sometimes even the wording can tell a lot. A text just somehow quickly put together makes rental scam more likely. Another thing is the contact info. If the person does not leave their phone number, it is not a good sign. Of course, it does not necessarily have to mean anything, it just seems safer with a number there. Another bad thing is if the tenant says their are a reverend or something similar to look more credible.

Still, if you decide to contact the person even after some of these signs, be careful if they seem to too eager. Beware of their words that they have little time, etc. And if you have questions, always wait for a reply. The tenant should answer all your questions, if they hesitate, that is another bad sign. You should not just say yes to a thing in case you still have questions and doubts. If you do, you are making it very easy for the scammers to cheat on you.