Campbell & West San Jose Real Estate, brought to you by the Zanger Team at Referral Realty

Here is the latest scam I have to warn you about – homes for rent at a “too good to be true” prices. The most common location for these scams are on Craigslist, but they can happen anywhere.

    Here is how it works. You are looking for a home to rent, and you come across one that looks great, and the price is even better. It can be listed by a real estate agent, or the owner themselves. When you contact them, they tell you the owner has to leave the country unexpectedly, or got a sudden job transfer. They are willing to rent it for less than market rent just to get it over with. They will send you multiple interior photos, but make some excuses why they can’t show it to you in person. When you express interest in renting the property, they will send you an application and an official-looking rental agreement. Once you give them your deposit and first month’s rent, they will send you a house key.

    Here is the problem: They may not even own the property, so when you show up, your key doesn’t work. The real owner may meet you at the door and ask what you are doing on his front porch. When you try to reach the “owner” or “agent” you dealt with, they are long gone and so is your money.

    These scam artists are “scraping” info and pictures of legitimate homes for rent from the Internet, then substituting their contact info to pretend to be either the owner or the owner’s agent. Some of them even target vacant bank-owned homes. They have the locks changed to make the scam look even more real by opening the home up for you in person.

    You’ll want to verify three things – 1. Is the property real? Be sure to drive by. 2. Is the owner real? Check the public records for who really owns the property. 3. Is the agent real? Go to www.dre.ca.gov to verify their license. But even these 3 items won’t 100% protect you if the scammer is sophisticated enough.

~Realty Times

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT CHRIS ZANGER WITH THE ZANGER TEAM AT REFERRAL REALTY. 

CALL [408] 914-5046, OR VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT WWW.THEZANGERTEAM.COM