
Keys to avoiding home rental scams - hhs
https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/2019/06/keys-avoiding-home-rental-scams
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gnarlysasquatch
Some areas to improve upon:

1) Signs at the rental property are forgeable, esp. for single-family homes.
Don't trust them.

2) A good price might be a sign of a scam... or just the compromise you're
looking for. (I currently rent at nearly 50% under market in exchange for
taking care of maintenance/upkeep myself on an older property -- a deal I'm
more than happy to accept, but admittedly not for everyone.)

3) Often government records are publicly available (although in California you
have to go look them up on public access terminals in person; privacy laws
prevent full disclosure online). Since many scams involve unaffiliated people
representing themselves as the landlord and trying to collect background check
fees, security deposits, etc., it's wise to find out who the property owner of
record is with the gov't, and confirm that the person you're talking to is
either that owner, or an authorized representative of the owner. If the owner
is a company, you want to be able to corroborate through gov't info who's
authorized to enter contracts on behalf of the company. And then don't be
ashamed to ask the representative for photo ID. If they're legit, they'll
respect that you're authenticating them; if they're not, they probably get
upset or try to convince you it's not necessary, and you can walk away happy
knowing you just avoided a scam.

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bowlich
I've almost never done a house rental through an agent. Seems to me like
almost the entire market that I've seen has been for rent directly by an
owner.

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hsksbr
I love that the FTC uses the word "legit". So legit.

