Real estate transactions are large, sometimes confusing and not something that normal folks do every day. That’s the perfect storm for scammers to swoop in and steal YOUR money or even YOUR property! Not only are buyers targeted by these dirtbags but so are property owners.
Yes, it really happens even in Idaho!
Last week my friend Gregg Davis wrote about a first-hand experience he had where the dirtbag was posing as the property owner and wanted help to find an all-cash buyer fast. Gregg is a commercial real estate agent here in the Treasure Valley with years of experience… and when something didn’t feel right about the sale, Gregg dug deeper to find out why.
Gregg’s article goes through the steps of what happened… what seemed like a real seller wanting to sell his property. With another agent, the dirtbag’s plan might have worked… but not with Gregg. To jump to the end, the sale did not happen and the real owner was seriously thankful and Gregg dropped off his super-hero cape at the dry cleaners. Okay, I might have made that last part up… but you can check out the complete story HERE.
My friend saw another story about fraud in a real estate transaction and sent it in. In this case, it’s the more typical buyer who falls victim to a bogus email. During the process of buying a home, there are times when the buyer transfers money… and dirtbags know this and will swoop in and try to fool you into sending the money to them. This even happens to super smart people well adept with technology.
In this article from CNBC, the buyer was expecting and prepared to wire $400,000 to the title company and the dirtbag sent an email to the buyer that looked exactly right so she wired the money to the dirtbag. Then she got another email… the real email… asking her to send the money. Can you imagine that sinking feeling in your gut? Be sure to click HERE to check out the whole story.
The victim did say that “Her real estate agent should’ve explained that wire directions would be coming directly from the title company…”. If you are in a real estate transaction, you’ll be sending money for the Earnest Money deposit at the beginning of the process, probably paying a home inspector to check things out, and you’ll be sending the downpayment to arrive at the title and escrow company just before the closing date. At every point, be vigilant. You can talk with the escrow team to confirm what you’re about to do. For your home inspector, it’s a smaller amount involved and maybe you could use a credit card where you could dispute the charge if anything goes wrong.
Treasure Valley Dave's Thoughts
Real estate is a big draw to dirtbags… you must remain aware and ask questions throughout the process. One of the people you’ll be asking questions to is… drumroll please… your great real estate agent! We will introduce and make sure you know your whole team involved in your transaction… from the title and escrow people, to our TC team (transaction coordinator), to the lender team, to inspectors and anyone else involved. Call Mareen and me and/or any of the other great folks helping you achieve your goal with any questions at any time! Dang dirtbags… hope they catch ‘em and make ‘em do some hard time!
