Real estate is a huge market and quite potential as well, and huge sums circulate in the economy thanks to this industry. Still, there are always two sides to a picture and in this case, the scammers are always sitting at some corner with sharp knives to cut your pockets.
So, it is highly recommended to use authentic real estate agencies to rent or purchase a property. Because it not only involves you losing money but your time as well and the recovery of your funds can be a painful process. So, make sure you hire reliable local real estate agents to avoid complications. The following types of scams are quite common that can help you stay alert.
1#. Fake listing scam
This is one of its kind scam and everything starts with the fake advertisements of the real properties. Once you take a liking to property and contact the seller, he’d tell you stories and use shrewdness to hook you up. The problem starts when he asks you to transfer funds while he’s preparing the contract. A good way to avoid this is to never go for the wire transfer and don’t proceed unless you’ve verified everything about that agent.
2#. The famous out of country fraud
This is a classic fraud that people still use to cheat you. Losing money is probably doesn’t hurt that much but the breaking of trust can be put you through agony. The method is simple, the scammer promises you a wonderful property and sometimes take you to show the property as well without entering it because he says that the owner is out of the country, and you are told to deposit a minimum deposit if you want to hold it till the owner comes back. So, don’t proceed unless you are a hundred percent sure.
3#. Scam with personal details
This scam is in the market for quite some time now and still, there are people who do the mistake of sharing their personal details only to face ugly consequences. Here the scammer asks for your personal details such as credit card, social security details, etc. and later you discover that your hard-earned money is gone for good. It is recommended not to share any personal data until you’ve verified everything about the seller.
4#. The tile fraud
It wouldn’t be wrong to call it identity theft. The whole scheme is quite simple where the fraudster finds a clean property and makes the fake documents to transfer it on his fake profile. Once he’s done with it he gets a mortgage and leaves the real owner with loan payments and walks away with the money. Everything starts with your personal data, once you lose it you there’s no saying how much damage it can do.
5#. Loan based scams
This type of scam is popular among the elderly who are either misinformed or have overall less awareness about the loaning money. They are offered exceptional mortgage opportunities and make them sign contracts for high-interest rates and mortgage payments more than their income. Eventually, they end up losing their property. If you set a budget and don’t sign anything without discussing it with a reliable consultant you can easily avoid this fraud.
It’s quite painful to lose money and trust therefore you must prepare yourself with suitable precautionary measures. These days you can easily find a lot of information online and update your knowledge before you sign the wrong contract. A few efficient practices can be adopted to protect personal data as well. By doing this you can avoid the most common frauds easily. You can also consult an expert to avoid such frauds because the scammers will invent something new to come after your money.