Beware of that Great Looking Lehigh Valley Rental on Craigslist! It May Be A Scam or Fraud!
DO NOT SEND MONEY to anyone without reading this article First!
If you've been looking for a Rental in the Lehigh Valley area including Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton you may be getting desperate? The rental inventory is very low and many require a credit check or other application specific items that may make it more difficult to rent a place in a competitive market.
Searching on every website out there FINALLY RESULTS in finding THE PERFECT RENTAL on Craigslist. A 3 bedroom 2 bath single home.
Wow It IS ONLY $1100/month!
Unbelievable!
Yes it is unbelievable!
Red Flags To Detect Lehigh Valley Rental Scams or Fraud
The rental may be legitimate but you should do your due diligence or you may lose thousands of dollars.
The following items should raise a red flag.
- Unrealistic Price
- Rental is available immediately
- The Landlord/Owner is out of state or country
- The Home is LISTED FOR SALE (but there is a problem or conflict with the real estate agent so owner doesn't want them involved)
- The Home is Usually VACANT (Of course, so you can't physically verify anything with the property. No one is there.)
- Make it critical for you to sign a lease and send money now! You don't want to lose the place! You can wire the money this afternoon!
- They will claim to be the owner and use his/her name (available from public tax records)
- Give you a phone number so you actually talk to the "owner" (that out-of-state phone number may actually transfer you to another country...who knows?)
- They Text Messaged you. Yep, with the same bogus number they used to talk to you.
- They will ship you the lease, keys, garage remotes...etc so you will have everything needed to occupy the home and WILL EVEN SEND YOU THE TRACKING NUMBER
- Earlier scams had you send a $500.00 deposit to them and they would send you the key to view the property. You will never get the key!
Wire the Money. No! No! No!
Mail Us a Check. No! No! No!
How To Avoid These Lehigh Valley Rental SCAMS
Insist on Going to the property to view it with the landlord or real estate agent. If they "claim" they aren't local but if you Send Them Money they will send you keys...etc...then BEWARE.
If it is listed Anywhere as being for sale CALL any number you find to get more information.
Drive by the property, if there is a real estate sign CALL THE NUMBER! No matter what someone on the phone told you Knock on the door or ask a neighbor.
Use a personal check (versus certified or wiring money). You might be able to do a stop payment if Fraud is detected.
Summary
I wrote this article because of Craiglists Scams/Frauds that I have seen recently and in the past. Even so, any listing out there on a website may be suspect.
Do your due diligence and don't send money to an unverified source!
For more information about Real Estate in the Lehigh Valley visit www.searchlehighvalleyrealestate.com or www.lehighvalleyhomesonline.com
