Avoid Home Rental Scammers
Moving to a new city can be a life changing moment for most people. It is important to know how to avoid scams when looking for a new apartment, in an area that you are unfamiliar with. Here are something’s to be aware of in order to help you avoid those scams.
There are a lot of scammers that take and use a real listing from, a real home rental or real estates and claim it as their own, they will take these already written listings and make a few modification, by changing the email address or other contact information to include their own information. They might even use the same name as the original poster and only change the picture and contact information, just to confuse you.
The best sign that the listing is a scam is if they request you to wire money over. There is no reason for you to wire money over, not matter what the reason may be. Some reasons could be paying a security deposit, vacation rental, or application fee, there is never a good enough reason to wire money, because once the money is wired there is no way for you to get that back. So beware if a listing for a rental home is asking you to wire some money for a security deposit, or application fee it is most likely a scam.
Another thing to always remember is, if the deal is too good to be true then it probably is. Most scammers will take all of the real information for a home rental listing, but list the price below the average rental rate in the market, that is an easy sign tell whether or not the listing could be a possible scam.
These are some of the basic things that you must look out for when looking for to a home rental, the best way to avoid these kinds of mishap is to hire a real estate agent, and discuss your concerns with them. If you choose to continue the search by your self always be aware that if they ask you to wire money, that is a safe assumption that the listing is a scam, and remember that if they deal is too good to be true, then it probably is.
