Beware of Rental Scams!!!
Rental scams are very common in our area and throughout the country. Be very careful not to get scammed.
Scammers use pictures from rental company websites, such as ours, and from other listing websites to create fake listings for available properties usually on Craig's List, Facebook Marketplace or similar sites.
If you see a property that you are interested in on one of these sites, we highly recommend that you do an internet search for that property address to see if it comes up on any property management company website and if it does, you should contact that management company directly using the contact information on their website - NOT the information from the ad.
If the property appears on a management company website, scammers may even tell you that they were using that company but that they have recently terminated the company's services. If someone tells you that, you should verify that with the management company before proceeding.
If you are in contact with anyone other than us about renting a property that is listed on our website, that is probably a SCAM! Our property owners do not deal directly with potential tenants, they refer all interested parties to our office.
What should I watch out for?
- Rent prices that are too good to be true!
- Low or no security deposit requirement.
- Minimal or no background screening required and easy approval process.
- Emails or texts from someone who does not live in your local area or claims to be out of town for some time.
- Refusal to meet face-to-face to complete the transaction.
- Requests to send money by wire transfer, Western Union, Money Gram, bitcoin, gift cards, PayPal, shipping, escrow service, or a “guarantee”.
- We will never ask you to wire money to us.
- We do NOT accept Venmo, Cash App or any similar service.
- We do accept money orders and cashier's checks BUT only at our office.
- Neither we, nor our property owners will EVER ask you to send money directly to the property owner.
This is not a complete list of all of the things that you should watch out for. Do your own research and be very cautious!
