How to avoid a rental scam
July 15th, 2008 Categories: Real Estate News, San Diego County Fixer of the Week
SAN DIEGO– Two Orange County men were arrested over the weekend for renting vacant homes that did not belong to them. This is not the first time this has happened either.
Back in August of 2007 two men were essentially doing the same thing. The homes which were for sale at the time and vacant, would be placed on CRAIGSLIST and then the men would collect rent and a deposit, in some cases from multiple people on the same homes. The homes used were in La Jolla, Crown Point and pacific Beach. The men were set up by 10News I-team and were eventually caught, tried and convicted of one count of conspiracy and two counts of grand theft.
This time around, the only real difference in the scam were the homes were 
in foreclosure. Again, the men placed an ad in CRAIGSLIST. They then broke into the homes in order to have access.
It was a stroke of bad luck though that doomed these two.
When the first ‘tenant’ went to put the utilities in to their name they were told the home was in foreclosure. Realizing they had been burned, they posted an ‘alert’ in CRAIGSLIST and received a response from a couple that was to meet the ‘landlords’ on a different home, but same type ad. Carlsbad police were alerted and the men were apprehended at the home.
HOW TO AVOID THE RENTAL SCAM
Probably the only real way to be certain you know who owns the home is to to have a REALTOR, you can use me, look up the property in the MLS and in the tax rolls to see where the ownership resides at that time. You will then have a valuable unsolicited piece of information.
Additionally, ask for an ID from the ‘landlord’. In 2007, one of the potential tenants asked for ID from the landlord and was told he had forgotten it. While he did say it made him feel uncomfortable, he went through with the deal.
Another victim, Ben Taley, told 10News, “The guy was being kind of shady. Once I gave him the deposit, I asked for his license information. He said he didn’t have it on him and I said I didn’t feel comfortable. He got kind of awkward.” 10news.com, UPDATED: 10:47 am PDT August 24, 2007
I would also suggest, asking them for the name of the previous tenants and their rental and ownership history. If they struggle with this information, that should be another huge signal.
Lastly, if you are not feeling quite secure, go knock on a neighbor’s door. Neighbors are ALWAYS a great source of information. If the house is on foreclosure or the For Sale sign disappeared from the front yard a couple days ago,they’ll know and will gladly tell you.
[...] have written here about a couple different rental scams and ways to avoid them. One of these scams involve [...]
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