Safeload Coverage
While the digital age has helped people find more and more apartments and house rentals available, it also has increased the number of rental scams. This can be a daunting hurdle for anyone looking for their perfect home.
In this article, the Moving Help® Marketplace will explore 23 rental scam red flags that could indicate a scam or place to avoid. From suspicious detail listings to unprofessional or poor communication, these warning signs will help you avoid time, money, and stress.
Whether you’re looking for your first apartment or finding your 10th apartment for the short term or the long term, being aware of these potential pitfalls will help you make informed decisions and protect yourself throughout the process.
10 Key Red Flags to Identify Rental Scams Prior to Visiting
Some apartment scams happen before you ever visit a potential place. We’ll discuss 10 of the more common rental scams you might encounter when searching for a new place.
1. Listing Details Are Vague
If you see a place available to rent, but the details are ambiguous, this could be an apartment scam. The place shouldn’t be short on details such as apartment square footage, type of flooring, or apartment amenities. Details shouldn’t be unclear from the get-go.
2. Listing Has Multiple Misspellings and Grammar Mistakes
Speaking of the listing, a good landlord, leasing agent, or apartment complex will make sure the descriptions don’t have misspelled words or multiple grammatical mistakes. If you see a description with many mistakes, it’s not a good sign.
3. The Address Isn’t Verified
Location is everything whether you rent or buy a house. If you can’t find an address on the listing, it’s not a good thing. Additionally, a quick Google Maps or Apple Maps can help you find out whether the location and place is accurate.
4. MLS Watermarks on the Photos
Realtors will upload photos to Multiple Listing Services. “The primary purpose is to help protect the listing data from unauthorized use,” according to Canopy MLS. A website that uses photos with MLS watermarks probably stole them.
These are signs of rental scams since the scammers will try to hope you don’t know about MLS, or you think the watermark makes the photos more official.
5. Contact Information Is Incorrect
All contact information should be correct. If the contact information is incorrect, or you get into contact with someone else, this is another common rental scam.
6. Landlord Is Unavailable
When contacting the landlord, they should be available to meet you in person. Typically, apartment scams will have the person say they had an “unexpected emergency,” “they’re out of the country,” or “they’re unavailable.”
The scammer will try to have you wire money while they’re unavailable. The scammer also might put you into contact with someone else who can accept your wire payment, which is just another scammer.
7. Don’t Want to Show the Listing in-person
You should always view an apartment or house rental. While virtual apartment tours are great, you should try to see it in person. One of the signs of rental scams is not seeing the place in person before paying someone to live there. The scammer will use every excuse in the book to not let you see the place.
8. Pressure You to Sign Quickly
You should never rush into making a housing/living decision. You can — and should — take your time in deciding your perfect home. A landlord who pressures you to sign quickly isn’t a good sign.
A landlord should allow a potential tenant to take their time. If they want you to submit an application, pay them rent money, or making a decision on the spot, this isn’t a great landlord.
9. Wanting Money Wired or Paid Upfront
Your payment for a security deposit, rent, or application fees should go through a secure payment system. Money being wired isn’t a secure method, and it’s considered rental scam red flags. Plus, you can’t get your money back once you’ve wired the money. You also shouldn’t pay anything upfront without getting something in writing or signing a lease.
10. No Background Checks
A landlord and a tenant should want background checks. It protects both parties. It shows your tenant that the landlord is serious about who they select to rent in their apartment complex. It also shows the landlord that tenant doesn’t mind having their information getting verified.
12 Main Rental Scam Red Flags to Watch out for in-person
Now that you know 10 red flags to look for before seeing a house rental or apartment complex. We’ll explain 12 red flags for you to keep in mind while you’re seeing a place in person.
1. Floors, Walls, and Ceilings Have Cracks
When touring an apartment, the floors, walls, and ceilings should be in great condition. If they have cracks, holes, or other issues, it could be foundation issues, or the landlord doesn’t take great care in the property. Proceed with caution and ask the landlord questions about the issues to see how they respond.
2. Doors and Windows Issues
You should make sure all doors and windows all open and close easily. Additionally, you should make sure all doors lock correctly and unlock painlessly. If they don’t work, this could a future problem not worth the headache.
3. HVAC System Check
Depending on when you’re viewing your apartment, you should check the HVAC system. You should try to turn on the A/C and the heater to make sure: A. It works, and B. It doesn’t sound bad when you turn them on.
4. Plumbing Questions
While you can’t see all the plumbing, you certainly can test most of the plumbing. Some of the plumbing you can check is the faucets and toilets. The kitchen and bathroom sinks should pour water without any water leaking. You also should flush the toilets to make sure they flush properly, and the toilet doesn’t leak water.
5. Lighting and Electricity Problems
When you tour apartments in the late morning, afternoons, or late afternoons, you’ll probably have plenty of natural lighting to see the whole apartment. With that said, you should check all the lighting and electricity in the home. This means turning on and off all the light switches. You also should make sure all electric outlets have covers and work.
6. Appliances Function Properly
This is your opportunity to make sure the fridge is running smoothly, the freezer stays cold, and you can open the washing machine and dryer without any handles breaking. Appliances are critical for any home, so they need to work from the beginning.
7. Smoke Detectors Have Batteries
You’re obviously not going to start a fire or create smoke next to a smoke detector to make sure it’ll beep loudly at you.
You should ask, however, when was the last time the batteries were changed in the smoke detector and how often the management team replaces the batteries.
8. Signs of Pests and Pest Traps
If you schedule an in-person apartment tour, the first things you shouldn’t see are cockroaches and other pests. If so, that’s a horrible sign.
You should be on the lookout for pest traps, especially inside of cabinets. This could be a sign of pest problems.
9. Number of Parking Spaces
If you own a car, you should see whether the apartment complex provides a parking spot — assigned or otherwise. You also should find out whether you have to pay for the parking spot as a part of your monthly rent.
Additionally, if you’re going to live with roommates, you should find out how many parking spaces each unit can have because it won’t be a fun time if you have two cars but only one parking space.
10. Exterior Property Complications
While the inside of the apartment is a priority to make sure everything works great for you, you should care about the outside of the apartment and how the community looks. If the gates can’t open, cracked sidewalks, poor lighting, trash on the ground, and other issues of the community not being well maintained, this could be a sign of poor management.
11. Incomplete Lease Agreements
You always should read every word and every page in your lease agreement. If your lease agreement is incomplete, has unfinished sections, or confusing language, this is a red flag. A lease agreement should be complete before you start signing, and the management team should give you a clear answer for any questions you have about the lease agreement.
12. Unresponsive Landlord, Maintenance Team, or Safety Concerns
You should ask questions about how quickly the landlord, the landlord’s team, or maintenance team responds to tenant questions. Your landlord and maintenance team should respond pretty quickly to you, but if they tell you it takes a while to respond back to tenants, this is a red flag. Communication is extremely important, especially when it comes to safety concerns.
The No. 1 Red Flag for Rental Scams
In our opinion, the No. 1 red flag for rental scams is pricing. If a property seems too good to be true when it comes to pricing, it’s probably too good to be true.
If an apartment unit’s price is extremely low, especially when comparing other units nearby in the same area, this is a red flag.
Scammers will try a bait and switch tactic with low prices.
They also could be hiding other facts about the unit — such as incomplete amenities, structural problems with the unit, or major pest problems — which is why the unit is priced so low.
Our advice? ALWAYS follow your gut feeling. If your instincts make you feel like something is off, stick with your instincts. It’s better to take your time and spend more time researching for a new place than following victim to rental scams.
How to Protect Yourself From Rental Scams
You can protect yourself from rental scams by staying vigilant, keeping yourself informed, researching listings thoroughly, looking for properties with high-detailed descriptions and multiple high-quality images.
You also should read online reviews and checking the social media presence on your potential landlord while they conduct a background check on you. You also should visit the place in person.
You also can help protect yourself by utilizing trusted platforms for rentals. These trusted platforms have checks and balances in place in making sure they protect users by only having verified listing on the company’s website that you can learn more about before seeing in person.
Steps to Take If You Encounter a Rental Scam
Encountering rental scams can be a distressing experience, but by taking the proper steps quickly, you can recover and help other people avoid becoming victims. You can first start by reporting the scam to your local authorities or police department. They can provide guidance and might be able to investigate further.
You also can report the fraudulent website on the appropriate platforms. By notifying Google, Bing, or another search platform, you can notify them in taking down the website.
Another way to report the website is by reporting the incident to the Internet Crime Complaint Center, also known as IC3, which collaborates with law enforcement agencies to track and combat online scams.
Another method that is a valuable resource is the Federal Trade Commission. You can help them address the situation, and you can file a complaint through the FTC’s website.
Documentation will always be extremely critical in these situations. Keep records of all communications, photos of the listings, and any payments made.
This documentation will create a timeline, which could be vital if you choose to pursue via the legal route. Consult with an attorney who specializes in consumer protection who can help you understand your options and rights if you experience financial loss or significant distress.
Protect Yourself From Rental Scam Red Flags
Finding the perfect home —whether that’s an apartment or a house rental — is an exciting and daunting task at the same time. We get it. You want to find the perfect home without falling into rental scams.
By using Moving Help’s 23 red flags to look out for article as guidance, you can avoid rental scam red flags. If a listing’s price is too good to be true, they pressure for upfront payment, give incomplete lease agreements, or use unauthorized photos online, this could be some common rental scams. All communication needs to be professional and timely between a potential landlord and tenant.
When you’re ready to move, consider hiring moving labor from the Moving Help Marketplace.
Our Marketplace connects you with local Service Providers in your area in all 50 U.S. states and the 10 Canadian provinces. By trusting Moving Help, you can focus on finding and living in your ideal rental unit while our moving labor providers assist with all the heavy lifting.
