Welmoed Sisson
06-22-2013, 05:30 PM
Yesterday afternoon's inspection was on a cute little 3BR house on a slab. Completely renovated (properly done, with permits and everything), and looked in pretty good shape. I'm going around with the client while her agent was off trying to reach the seller's agent to ask a question (and the house was in a cellular dead spot), when there's a knock at the door. At the door is a man and his girlfriend, who asked, "Are you the leasing agent?" "Um, no, I'm the home inspector, and this is my client, who has is purchasing this home."
"What?" the lady says. "Well, we just signed a lease on this place this morning and were coming by to take a look at it."
My client started to panic a little, and there was a little tense back-and-forthing. The couple produced the lease, and the name of the owner was correct. But something was hinky... According to my clients, the property owner lives in Maryland. This couple's paperwork stated she lived in Dallas, TX. They were told they would get the keys overnighted to them upon receipt of their deposit.
*Ding*Ding*Ding* go the alarm bells in my head. "Did you find this rental on Craigslist?" I asked. Yes, they did.
I warned them that this could very well be a scam. The buyer's agent had returned by this time and they compared paperwork; the signatures on the two documents were nothing alike. "But the owner's name is right," my client said. "That's part of the public record," I answered. "Anyone can look it up." The agent agreed with me; he said it tends to happen more with properties that have been vacant for a long time (this one was empty for 2 years).
The couple was skeptical, but they left and I continued the inspection. When we were wrapping up the report review, the agent got a message from the would-be renters. They had investigated and, indeed, it was a scam. They had decided to come see the property before sending the deposit money, and if we had not been there doing the inspection, they would have lost quite a bit of money.
So in the end, everything worked out just fine, due to extremely fortunate timing.
"What?" the lady says. "Well, we just signed a lease on this place this morning and were coming by to take a look at it."
My client started to panic a little, and there was a little tense back-and-forthing. The couple produced the lease, and the name of the owner was correct. But something was hinky... According to my clients, the property owner lives in Maryland. This couple's paperwork stated she lived in Dallas, TX. They were told they would get the keys overnighted to them upon receipt of their deposit.
*Ding*Ding*Ding* go the alarm bells in my head. "Did you find this rental on Craigslist?" I asked. Yes, they did.
I warned them that this could very well be a scam. The buyer's agent had returned by this time and they compared paperwork; the signatures on the two documents were nothing alike. "But the owner's name is right," my client said. "That's part of the public record," I answered. "Anyone can look it up." The agent agreed with me; he said it tends to happen more with properties that have been vacant for a long time (this one was empty for 2 years).
The couple was skeptical, but they left and I continued the inspection. When we were wrapping up the report review, the agent got a message from the would-be renters. They had investigated and, indeed, it was a scam. They had decided to come see the property before sending the deposit money, and if we had not been there doing the inspection, they would have lost quite a bit of money.
So in the end, everything worked out just fine, due to extremely fortunate timing.