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The "Two-story house"

Real estate scams roaming in the industry

By Akhil G NairPublished about a year ago 3 min read
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Imagine that you are looking for a house, what will be the first thing that will come to your mind? A real estate agent, right?

A real estate agent plays a crucial role in your quest of finding you a dream home. An agent makes our home-buying process much easier compared to doing it by yourself.

Now what the question arises is, is your agent trustworthy or not?

You probably have heard about "The two-story house" humor floating around the real estate market. The humor serves as a precaution for home buyers who are newly into the industry of real estate market. The humor spells out the scams that revolve around the real estate industry. Even if you are buying, renting, or refinancing the contract on a home, the last thing you want to worry about is being scammed.

Some of the real estate agents in the industry are well-known for the scams that they commit on behalf of serving you as an agent. let's take the two-story house scam, here the offer that we get from the beginning of the offer provided by your agent at the time of the house-buying period may be much different when we see the house with our own eyes. It's like a story before the offer and another after the offer. That's why it is called a two-story house, presented humorously.

now, let's see some of the common scams in the real estate industry that you should keep on your radar during the period of home buying.

  • Escrow wire fraud

In escrow wire fraud, you will get a phone call or email from someone who impersonating an escrow company or an individual. They set up a similar website to whom they impersonate on, to wire your escrow fraud. Here they trick you into sending money via wire transfer.

These wire frauds include, imposter calls, debt clearance schemes or identity theft. But real estate transaction is one of the major targets for wire transfer fraud.

  • Mortgage relief scam

Some scammers target home buyers who are desperately looking for relief from foreclosure. The scammers will claim that they can solve your debt problems and stop foreclosure.

Mortgage relief scams are on the rise in the wake of financial challenges caused by the pandemic. These scams includes, offering to help you by negotiating with your lender for a fee or may as you to pay the debt amount to them directly and they work to sort out your situation.

  • Fake listing and rental scam

The scammers who have no connection to the property or owner, post rental ads on fake websites or social media to lure you using fake listings. The scammers will as for payments to see the property on the listings or hold it as a deposit.

Fake rental scams are dreadfully common. So, it is crucial to stay away from these scams and to be educated on such frauds.

  • Fake move-in scams

Consider that you found a new home, and you have to deal with getting all the stuff in. That's where the moving scam plays its part.

Say you fill up a form for moving your home furniture, appliances and all your belongings, the team who will help you move in, holding your belonging on ransom and say to pay an estimate deposit for the move-in process. They may just took your deposit and won't even bother to show up.

Real estate scams can be scary. So, it is important to be educated on the real estate scams that are included in part of this industry and are widespread nowadays. You should know how to deal with real estate scams while being a home buyer.

If something feels off, listen to your instincts and never rush into a transaction with anybody. Always keep a record of all your transactions, it will be useful in case you need to go file a complaint.

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About the Creator

Akhil G Nair

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  • James davidabout a year ago

    amazing

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