Someone listed MY condo for rent on Craigslist!

[fromage]

Ugh...my tenant just called to say that two people have come by their condo today for the open house that's supposed to be going on today. What?? At first I thought they must have been lost within the building and gone to the wrong apartment. Nope. One of them had a print out of the ad on craigslist with our address and unit number.

Then I thought, maybe someone mis-typed the unit number. Doubtful. The have in the description that it's a corner unit. There are obviously a limited number of corner units, and we know most of the other corner unit owners. 

Also, the craigslist ad has the unit listed for $1500 less than what the unit goes for. All signs point to scam. I emailed whoever posted the listing and asked that it be removed immediately. Then emailed craigslist about a possible scam. Is there anything else you would do? Watch out for? Ugh...I don't really think there's anything they can do (other than scam the poor people who actually think that condo price is too good to be true and give them a wired deposit up front), but I still feel violated. Bleh. 

[catbus]

Yep, this happens. You flagged the listing, right? It does suck a lot. I'd consider filing a police report, too. Print out the listing before it's pulled.

[fromage]

Feb 3, 2013 16:58:33 GMT -5 catbus said:

Yep, this happens. You flagged the listing, right? It does suck a lot. I'd consider filing a police report, too. Print out the listing before it's pulled.

A police report is a good idea. I have a screen shot of the listing so I can print it out. 

[catbus]

Feb 3, 2013 17:00:20 GMT -5 operagirl said:

I'm sorry, fromage. I thought this usually happens when your unit is actually for rent and they try to scam out of towners.

It's really crappy. When we were looking for a rental a few years back, I responded to two promising CL ads that turned out to be scams... and they were here in our neighborhood. The prices were good, but not unbelievable. Luckily I'm savvy enough to know they were scams. People suck.

[Deleted]

The quickest way to get something taken off CL is to flag it. This is a common scam and there's not really much else they can do.

[fromage]

Feb 3, 2013 17:17:10 GMT -5 papiercherri said:

The quickest way to get something taken off CL is to flag it. This is a common scam and there's not really much else they can do.

Yea, I flagged them (there were 3 of the same listing). I know scams on craigslist are par for the course, but it just makes me feel dirty. They knew it was a corner unit. (But didn't do enough research to list it for only slightly lower than what it normally rents for). 

[DarcyLongfellow]

This happened to us last summer. Our house was for sale, not rent, and someone pulled the description and pictures off of the MLS listing and listed the house for rent on Craig's List for *way* below what market rent would have been. They even created a yahoo address with our actual realtor's name.

We flagged the ads on CL. Be diligent -- we had new ones several times a week. And there's a limit to how many you can flag in a set time period, so we had our parents and friends flag them for us too.

I reported it to the local police and the FBI (just online both times).

[rubytue]

There is a real estate investing board that I read sometimes. I see people talking about posting a "feeler" ad on craigslist to see what kind of responses they get to the price. As in, they don't own a property but are thinking of buying one nearby, so they post one for rent to see if people bite at their price. Then they crunch the numbers based on the price.

I just sit there and think WTF?!?

I hope its that kind of scam rather than a scam to get money out of people. Both suck, but even ookier to have someone taking money for your apt.

[fromage]

Feb 3, 2013 17:31:23 GMT -5 DarcyLongfellow said:

This happened to us last summer. Our house was for sale, not rent, and someone pulled the description and pictures off of the MLS listing and listed the house for rent on Craig's List for *way* below what market rent would have been. They even created a yahoo address with our actual realtor's name.

We flagged the ads on CL. Be diligent -- we had new ones several times a week. And there's a limit to how many you can flag in a set time period, so we had our parents and friends flag them for us too.

I reported it to the local police and the FBI (just online both times).

Thanks for sharing your experience. And good thought about continuing to check on CL. I hadn't considered reporting to the FBI. If it gets posted again, I will. 

[fromage]

Feb 3, 2013 17:34:48 GMT -5 rubytue said:

There is a real estate investing board that I read sometimes. I see people talking about posting a "feeler" ad on craigslist to see what kind of responses they get to the price. As in, they don't own a property but are thinking of buying one nearby, so they post one for rent to see if people bite at their price. Then they crunch the numbers based on the price.

I just sit there and think WTF?!?

I hope its that kind of scam rather than a scam to get money out of people. Both suck, but even ookier to have someone taking money for your apt.

That is crazy! I doubt this is that kind of scam, unfortunately. $1500 under fair market value is just too low. I could see if the range was +/- $200 what the condo normally rents for, but such a low number screams "Oh I was on my way to show you the condo when I found out my dad had a heart attack and I had to go directly to the airport and fly to _____ location. You can wire me a deposit and I will send you the keys" kind of scam.