By BECKY RUTHERFORD
Los Alamos
In today’s housing market, it can be a challenge to find an affordable place to live, so what do you do if you see an offer that seems too good to be true?
What a deal, right? Looks like a gorgeous place (images included below), historic casita in the Santa Fe plaza, $800 a month, sign me up! But… your spidey sense should be tingling because something isn’t right here.
Aside from the ridiculously low rental price, what other signs are there that this is too good to be true?
Right off the bat, this is a rental listing, and it’s listed in a group for used vehicle sales, seems kinda odd.
Looking at the profile for the person, I can see they updated their profile picture to a picture of the rental listing a day ago. There are no other posts on their page, which is suspicious.
The person helpfully lists the address in the listing, so I was able to Google the address and find it was recently listed for sale by a Santa Fe real estate agency for $620,000. If they hadn’t been helpful enough to list the address, I probably could have found this information via a Google image search.
What are other signs a rental listing is a scam?
- The listing looks copied or the description is vague.
- Listing is duplicated in multiple Facebook groups, even in groups where it wouldn’t make sense to advertise a rental.
- If an address is listed, you can’t verify it online, or it is listed somewhere else.
- The listing agent requests money up front before signing a lease, or asks that you send money in an odd way such as by wiring.
- Listing agent won’t let you tour the property.
- The rent is suspiciously low.
If something seems off in a rental listing, it probably is a scam. If it’s on Facebook or another social media platform you can report the listing either to the group it is posted in, or to Facebook as a scam.
Stay safe online, be suspicious, and if something seems off- it probably is!
Image of Facebook rental listing
Image of Facebook profile picture
Image of actual real estate listing for Facebook scam rental ad