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House Listed For Sale? Watch out for Rental Scams.
When the owners of an Indiana home recently listed it for sale, they got an unexpected surprise: a rental scam targeting their address.
“People were getting out of their cars. They were coming up to our front door, ringing our doorbell, looking into our windows,” homeowner Amy Hagans told ABC News after an ABC News reporter noticed a story about her plight that originally appeared in The Star Press.
The people were responding to a Craigslist post advertising a three-bedroom, two-bath house, with a big backyard that was available to rent for just $750 a month.
“I fell in love with the house. The yard was humongous,” said Patty Costa, who came to see the house in Muncie, Indiana.
Costa said the home was “perfect” for her grandchildren. After exchanging texts with the person who posted the ad, she wired the person a $275 deposit and then came to see the house herself.
When Costa approached the home, she learned that the deal was too good to be true. The Hagans’ had posted a sign saying, “Our house is not for rent” to alert people to the scam.
“I opened the door to see a lady standing on my porch, reading the sign on our front door,” Hagans said. “I felt terrible about the whole situation.”
It’s a scam being played out in housing markets across the country.
“It’s very, very simple to do these types of Internet scams. It’s very easy to hijack an existing listing,” said Austin Berglas, the head of U.S. Cyber Investigations for K2 Intelligence, an investigative consulting firm.
The process is called “scraping.”
Scammers create fraudulent rental listings using photos and details from legitimate postings already online.
In the Hagans’ case, the scammer may have used images from the real estate company’s website where the Hagans’ had posted their home for sale.
According to the FBI, scams like these cost Americans nearly $20 million in 2014. And the bureau estimates the actual number of cases could be 10 times higher because many aren’t reported.
These types of scenarios also exist in the vacation rental market.
When Cherry McCaffrey used a rental website to book a vacation house in South Lake Tahoe for her extended family, they found the door unlocked when they arrived.
After they settled in, the owner showed up, not knowing his house had been rented out.
Experts say there are ways renters can protect themselves. First, never wire money. Second, try a “reverse image search” for the listing photos on a site like Google.
If images from that listing appear on multiple websites, renter beware. And third, use common sense.
“I think the best tip, is really, if it looks too good to be true, it most likely is,” Berglas said
(Courtesy of ABC News)
Julia Roberts selling Hawaii Beachfront Home
I’m not licensed to sell real estate in Hawaii, but if you would like to purchase this home, I will be! – Patrick Thier
Oscar-winning actress Julia Roberts is putting her beachfront estate in Hawaii on the market for nearly $30 million, Pacific Business News has learned.
The two-acre property in Hanalei on Kauai’s North Shore, which has seven bedrooms and four full bathrooms in a 3,792-square-foot home, was once owned by Hans Peter Faye, a prominent Garden Isle sugar plantation manager.
The property, which has about 200 feet of beach frontage on world-famous Hanalei Bay, is permitted to include an expanded building up to 9,000 square feet, allowing for more structures and even a pool, according to the sales listing.
Roberts, who rose to fame starring with Richard Gere in the 1989 movie “Pretty Woman,” reportedly purchased the “Faye Estate” several years ago for nearly $14 million.
Kauai’s North Shore, which saw its median price eclipse the $1 million mark in February, has been quite a draw for celebrities.
Celebrity martial artist actor Chuck Norris, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Oakley founder James Jannard are the latest celebrities to buy property in the area.
Additionally, a partner in a hedge fund recently purchased several Hanalei properties for close to $50 million.
Other celebrities with ties to Kauai’s North Shore include Honolulu-born Bette Midler, Pierce Brosnan and Ben Stiller.
Source: http://www.bizjournals.com/pacific/blog/2015/04/julia-roberts-lists-hawaii-beachfrontestate-on-the.html?s=image_gallery
5 Reasons to use a Local Pro when Selling Real Estate
1. To save you money. Isn’t it ironic? The biggest reason one does NOT hire a full-service broker to represent them when selling a home, is money. Sellers think that they save big in these circumstances; sometimes paying only a small flat fee to an internet company or a limited service brokerage just to be put into the Multiple Listing Service.
But oh contraire! The old adage, “you get what you pay for” could not be truer than it is in a real estate transaction. The company taking your money to throw it on line does not care about your bottom line. They want your sale, your money, and nothing else. Below are 4 more reasons to hire that local pro, and how they all come back around to saving you money.
2. Negotiations. Unless you are a full-time real estate broker, you aren’t involved with selling real estate very often. So let’s face it; that means you aren’t an experienced real estate negotiator. It may look easy from the outside, but there are an unlimited amount of circumstances that can affect the sales price that is initially negotiated. What if the buyer wants you to pay closing costs? Or wants a long close or isn’t pre-approved as opposed to being pre-qualified? Have they been through underwriting, yet? How much earnest money is enough?
When you, a home-owner NOT fully represented, negotiates directly with a buyer’s agent, it’s unfair. It’s like going through a wicked divorce while having a huge estate, and hiring an attorney to represent ONLY your ex-spouse! Sound like a smart move?
And there’s more to negotiate than just the initial sales price. Should you pay for the buyer’s upgraded title insurance policy? Are you going to let your buyer move stuff into the garage before closing after they threaten to back out at the last minute if you don’t? Who’s paying for the propane left in the tank, or paying to get the hot water heater out of the lease?
Mis-negotiating the initial sales price could easily cost you thousands.
3. Contractual Expertise. An experienced real estate broker is an experienced negotiator, but they are also experts in the minutia of a real estate contract, particularly in those facets of a transaction that can keep you out of hot water. When is a disclosure required? Who should hold the earnest money… escrow or the buyer’s agency? And when do you keep that earnest money when the deal goes bad? Which of your utility bills are lienable against your house? So what if the detached garage actually sits on a vacated alley owned by the city?
If you don’t know all the answers, who are you going to ask? Your attorney for a fee? Google? A full-time broker is constantly involved with these questions and answers. Rely on the local expert who does this for a living; not your cousin who used to be an agent in California 20 years ago, or the faceless customer service rep who stuck your house on line.
Buying that refrigerator or hot tub that you didn’t know was on the contract, could cost you big.
4. Referrals and Resources. You just found out that your septic tank has a crack in it, and you are in the middle of a sale and need it repaired yesterday. Will the local authorities even allow it? The limited-service company out of Spokane is of no help. Are you going to let your fingers do the walking and trust strangers? Even if I don’t happen to represent you, I would suggest NO!
Sadly, there are local companies that are notorious for over-charging their customers. Do you know who they are? True story: I once witnessed a single mom charged over $200 for a “plumber” to spend less than 3 minutes under a sink, and who THEN tried to sell her a secret enzyme for the drain field. She had her checkbook out when I intervened. Before the words “take advantage” came out of my mouth, the salesman scampered and said it was on the house.
A local, full-service real estate broker knows who to know. At any given point, your agent should be able to list several inspectors and contractors, a few title officers, surveyors, site planners, and perhaps the department heads to talk to at the city and county.
Let’s say you need a roof certification; what are they and do you know which local company offers them? And which ones have the cleanest verbiage in their warranties?
Being sued for a roof because the 5-year roof cert was inadequate, could cost you thousands.
5. Peace of Mind. Ok, POM is a good thing, but it really won’t save you money, right? Well, consider this: the absence of peace of mind is stress. Stress causes physical illness and mental anguish. With that added stress and the added time it takes to perform full-time duties of a professional, are you performing your own job efficiently? Are you missing hours or even days of work? I was just involved in a transaction with a seller using a limited service brokerage, and on several occasions, she had to leave work to accommodate showings, negotiations, and inspections. She was worried about who was in her home, and had no agent that could put her mind at ease. Stress can manifest itself into every aspect of your life, and can have quantifiable consequences.
If you are contemplating selling your home this year and want to save money, make a smart move and talk to a full-time, local real estate broker. It just may be the best investment you make in 2015.
