Jake, a friend’s son called us for some real estate advice. He was moving to Los Angeles for a six month internship and needed to find a short term rental. He found a great efficiency apartment in Santa Monica for $1500 on Facebook Marketplace. He just needed to send the landlord a $500 security deposit. It sounded “too good to be true”, but he was really hoping it was true.
We don’t know the LA market, but we do have colleagues who do. We called our contact and they shouted, “SCAM” as soon as we finished our first sentence. She connected with Jake, and found him a great place to call home for the next six months.
Just a week later, we got another phone call. This time on a property we listed for sale just a couple of days earlier. A young woman called and asked if we had a two bedroom condo listed for rent. She told us the address and sent us the pictures. It was our listing and it was NOT for rent!! She found it on Craigs List. Again, the price was “too good to be true”, the first red flag. The “agent” asked her to wire the security deposit to his account to secure the property. That was the second red flag. She got suspicious, searched the address on the internet and found our listing and called us. It diverted her from losing a couple thousand dollars to a scammer.
Be careful out there! This is happening to a lot of folks. If you find yourself in a questionable real estate predicament. Call us and we will help figure it out. These scammers are crafty and they are out there looking for a way to make a buck from honest people.
