Real estate is one intriguing business that can be financially thriving. However, a lot of fraudsters are involved in the business, destroying the system and reducing the number of purchasers. Nothing is fascinating in losing a lot of money to a false property. Recently, quite a lot of people have reported being scammed by some real estate agents, which is why I’d share with you the top 5 common real estate scams in this blog post.
Below are the 5 real estate scams that you should know about.
Lease scams pop up
When trying to buy or rent a house, you have to reach out to the real estate agents through their website. Nowadays, you can find them on craigslist ads and the Facebook marketplace, but these are not legal arenas. This means you can meet up with those online fraudsters that post properties that are not within their reach.
Some of these swindlers post fake lease apartments on these social media sites, whilst they ask for a month’s deposit or security fees from the customer. If you fall victim, you would never get back your money or see the apartment you deposited for. However, there are some signs these swindlers exhibit unknowingly, and you can spot them with it.
They won’t give you the right information such as email address, phone number, official address, and other vital details. In fact, some of them won’t offer it to you at all. So, ensure you confirm any of the details given to you before you put your signature on the contract form. Also, make sure you ask for all of the agent’s details, including their company’s website and address.
Request for upfront payments consecutively by the owner of the property. Do not pay any upfront fees.
Global wire funds
This particular scam is the most common in real estate. Due to networking, you can easily invest in real estate internationally. This makes the real estate industry grow, likewise, giving more room for swindlers in action.
However, in this process, the genuine real estate company or agent’s email address will be hacked. Once their email address is hacked, all your details and other crucial information will be revealed to the swindler. Then, the swindlers would request that the payment be made into their account, rather than the agents’.
The red flags for this are as follows;
The terms and conditions of the house are altered immediately. So, make sure you go through the previous deals to cross-check the terms. Also, check the details given to you. Offering difficult or tight deadlines for decision-making.
No communication through phone calls. Make sure you request calls for a better discussion.
Disclosed damages
Presumably, you get to meet a real estate agent with a property. Most of them put properties with hidden damages on sale just to prevent spending money on repairs. This is why you should scrutinize and investigate everything about the property before signing the transaction.
If you ever purchase a property with damages, you’d lose more money than gain from it by repairing all of these damages. The damages could include plumbing issues, pests, remodeling, and so on. Investigate as much as you can to prevent these. Well, you can spot this scam with the following;
Examine the property’s pipes, cooling and heating machines, and other molds.
Ensure the electrical systems are in good condition.
Call professionals to check the roof, the doors, rooms, and other furniture.
Mortgages
In the real estate business, loans are allowed when you can’t pay for the whole property all at once. But this is used to swindle people recently, and they are common in private loan industries, including banks. However, they happen in different techniques that include convincing you about a package that they are sure would work well for you just to lure you into the whole deal, and not offer you what they promised.
They would insist you pay the money directly to them.
Asking for upfront payments to give you a discount.
Moving scams
This might seem rare to you, but I tell you that these are the real scammers. Usually, these moving companies would claim to give you a payment discount if you book their service immediately which is often not true. However, you can spot them with the following;
Costs would be very low at first only to make you book their service.
The company doesn’t have a physical address.
Though real estate is a good venture to invest in, you must be very cautious as there are many scammers in the business.