Buying a new home or property can be an exciting yet stressful experience. Between the hassle of narrowing down classified ads for homes, inspecting houses, managing finance, document closing, and shifting to a new place, the last thing you would want is to get scammed. Real Estate Scams are common as the business involves transactions of a large sum of money and personal details sharing. Being aware of the real estate scams and learning about their red flags, you can protect yourself from getting conned. Some of the warning signs to look out for are :
1) Absence of proper documentation.
Among numerous property listings, you finally found your dream home and want to close the deal; however, the seller doesn’t have the necessary paperwork. Some sellers may promise you that they will send the proper documentation after you make the payment to them. It is one of the major red flags, and you must not trust such sellers.
2) Pressure to close the deal.
Sometimes, it may happen that you visited a house after seeing their real estate ads, and within just one or two meetings, they may start pressuring you to pay for the house immediately. They may also throw an impression that the house has many real estate leads, and if you delay, you may lose the house to another buyer.
Anytime you feel pressured to buy a house, you should consider it a red flag. In the typical scenario of real estate marketing, a real estate agent makes an offer to the seller, and if they accept it, the buyer makes a small deposit as a down payment and closes the deal.
3) Too good to be true, guarantees.
If anytime you feel that a deal offered by a real estate seller is too good to be true, then your instinct may be right. It is one of the common tactics used to sell the house, especially in mortgage relief scams. When a homeowner is on the edge of delinquency, the scammers may promise to amend your loan paper in exchange for money.
4) Wire money.
This is one of the most common scams in real estate marketing. Often, a scammer may pretend to be a real estate agent, and ask you to wire the down payment into the fraudulent account. This scam may be tough to spot as the scammer may use special software that mimics your real estate agent’s email id and contact number. To protect yourself from this scam, you must understand how the closing process would look, and before you make any wire payment, call and confirm with your real estate agent.
Bottom Line.
Scammers often use technology to interact with their victims. With time it may become impossible to spot one. Thus, it is crucial that when you look through real estate advertising and add your listings, you must trust a safe and genuine platform. Puerto Rico And the World is a reliable and trustworthy real estate advertising tool that will only bring professional real estate sellers to you. If you are a real estate seller, you can advertise your business, and promote your listings to protect yourself from scammers who may pretend to be a buyer.