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If you’re in the market for a new apartment, beware of criminals acting as bogus landlords who may try to rent you a foreclosure.
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Here’s how this typically plays out, according to real estate attorney Gary M. Singer: A criminal will scout out a neighborhood and find the foreclosures. Then they call a locksmith out to the property and say they locked themselves out. Next they con the utility company into turning the utilities back on. When the coast is clear, they’ll put up a ‘for rent’ sign or list the property online.
Unsuspecting tenants go to look at the property and find it’s a steal of a deal. It won’t be offered at a ridiculous price, but it will typically be a real eye-catching price. Of course, the criminal masquerading as a landlord is only too happy to take a deposit and hand over the keys.
Once a tenant is in there, he or she may continue paying rent each month by sending it to a post office box. Then one day, out of the blue, someone comes around and says, ‘I’m with such-and-such bank and this is a foreclosure. Why are you living here??’
This post was last modified on March 22, 2017 2:19 pm
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