April 6th, 2011 at 11:19 pm
We have received a number of calls recently about scams related to lease listings. Apparently, it is not uncommon for our agents to advertise their leases in both the MLS and on Craigslist. The Craigslist entry often results in a phone call from an alleged tenant, stating that he wants to rent the property and oftentimes purchase the furniture or other personal property in the home. Unfortunately, when the check for the tenant’s deposit, etc., arrives it is often a fraud. In one particular instance, the “tenant” claimed he wanted to buy furniture and sent us a check for $12,500. We called the bank to confirm and learned that while the routing number was real, the account number was not. The Federal Express package we received apparently came from Berkeley, California, despite the fact that the tenant told us he was coming from Wisconsin. It is our understanding that these people are trying to accomplish a few things: 1) Some of these criminals want to move into the property and live for free; and 2) Others hope to get control of the property, rent it out and collect rent while paying nothing to our landlord. Regardless, without extra due diligence on our part, our landlord has given possession of her property to a “tenant” but received nothing in return. As a result, please make sure to be extra careful in lease transactions. Be skeptical of your proposed tenant, and make sure to recommend that your landlord double check everything they are told by the tenant. Most importantly, make sure the landlord takes nothing at face value. After all, a little extra investigation up front can save you months of hassle and expense on the back end. As always, feel free to contact us with any questions you may have.
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