Renters and Realtors beware: a new scam is in town.
The Coastal Carolinas Association of Realtors is warning renters, homeowners and Realtors about a new rental scam taking place along the Grand Strand and in the Charleston area.
Someone has been falsely advertising rental properties that are not actually for rent on hotpads.com, according to the association. The scammers appear to be mainly posting properties on hotpads.com that are listed for sale, said Lisa Verkuilen, a spokeswoman for the Realtor association.
When prospective renters email the scammers they say that they have already moved but that if the prospective renter sends a check they will mail them a key. The emails contain many typos and grammatical errors, which has been seen in other scams.
Hotpads.com warns users about potential scams, which often offer unreasonably low rent, have owners that are unable to show the property or live in a foreign country and include bad contact information, like phone numbers that don’t work. Potential renters should never wire funds to anyone, never give out personal financial information and should deal with someone locally in person, the website says.
It’s final piece of advice in avoiding scams is that if something appears to be too good to be true it probably is, according to the website.
Realtor Jewel Knight with Re/Max Southern Shores reported an incident of the scam earlier this week to the association, and other Realtors have also raised the alarm in other parts of the state.
Knight found out about the scam when she got a call from someone who had driven past a property listed on hotpads.com to check it out and had seen her real estate sign out front. The house that is listed on the website as a possible rental is for sale.
In email exchanges the scammers used the homeowner’s name, but when Knight called him, he said he absolutely was not interested in renting his home. He immediately wrote to hotpads.com and told them to remove the listing, Knight said.
“It shocked me, it really did,” she said. “I feel sure we’re not the only one this has happened to. I would be willing to bet they didn’t just single out this property.”
Home builders group has new officers
The Horry Georgetown Home Builders Association installed new board members at a meeting last week.
Berkley White, the owner of Classic Home Building & Design, is the new president. Some of the goals for the year ahead are old standbys - growing membership, hosting successful home shows, but others include starting a mentoring program.
The mentoring program would pair new and potential association members with board members to help them feel included in events and provide some guidance, White said.
“We’d like to continue to make great headway with the professional remodelers council,” he said. “We see that continuing in 2012 and our goal is certainly to grow that and make it a stronger part of the association.”
Berry Coggeshall, of BEC Construction, Inc. in Garden City Beach, is the new vice president. Ed Byrd, of Southeastern Insurance Consultants, is the new associate vice president and Ed Friend, of Excalibur Construction, Inc., is the secretary-treasurer.
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