Cleveland Real Estate News

I’ve posted about this before, but only as a potential problem here in NE Ohio. Now we have evidence that locally, at least one person is advertising homes for rent that are actually listed for sale not rent.  And more importantly, the person doing the rental listing is a scammer and not the owner of the home. It’s fair to say if you move into a house you want to make sure the money you are giving each month is actually going to the owners, yes? 

In other cases around the country, some of these listings on  Craigslist and elsewhere (rentals) are placed by people who do not even live in the United States.  Scamming is an equal opportunity, er, opportunity.

So what can you do to make sure the house you want to rent is actually for rent and the owner is really the person who says they are the landlord?

The first step is to check with The Cuyahoga County Auditors website. I’ve linked to the ‘real property’ information page where you can type in the address of the home you want to rent and see who is listed as the owner. 

When I have a house listed for rent, my landlords do a credit check. That means if you want to rent from them you have to provide your social security number and a drivers license or ID number.  That’s fair. But it’s also fair to say you could also ask the landlord for their driver’s license number or ID number.  That can be another check point. If someone says they are Tom Smith but if they are really John Doe then they aren’t going to show you their ID are they?

Luckily, most people are who they say they are. But what you don’t want to have happen is to get scammed by that one bad apple in the bunch.  Landlords want to be protected and I sometimes worry that renters don’t do enough leg work to protect themselves. Protection goes both ways!

Another point to restate from my last year’s posting.  When you are on the Auditor’s website you will either get the name of a person (hopefully the person whom you contacted) or a company (maybe the owner of the house has an LLC, or limited partnership, because this house is an investment property for them.  So they may be John Doe, but the company name is Deer’s Limited Partnership. They still may be legit, but further investigation with the County might put your mind at ease.

So please do some investigation before you hand over your security deposit, first month rent, and move in.  It’s impossible to beat every scam, but you will feel a whole lot better if you have done some legwork on your own before renting from someone.  And if you have any further questions please feel free to contact me.

Peace Out – 3C