I heard a pretty scary story from a friend about people renting out homes they didn’t own taking advantage of desperate families who lost a house and need to rent a home. If you lost a house or you are going to short sell your GA house, make sure you are renting from someone who actually owns the house.
It starts with an ad in Craigslist or some other online classified website for a house for rent that seems like the best deal in town. You contact the person by email and you get a message like: Thank you for contacting me about my house. I live in Kenya and I am a missionary doing God’s work. My house is empty and I would like to find a good tenant who will take care of my house while I am gone. I have a relative there in the states who can meet you and sign the lease. They break into the house, let you move in and take your money. Here’s a story about this from a news channel in CA.
It’s sad that there are people out there taking advantage of families who are just looking to move on from a foreclosure. If you’re in the market for a rental property in Georgia, make sure you know who you’re dealing with. Talk to the neighbors about the house and search local tax records to make sure the person you are dealing with is the owner.
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I had this happen to one of my listings! It’s a scary place out there. Best off just buying the homes since it’s likely you can afford them.
This happened to me. I had a foreclosure on my house in Marietta and I was looking for a house to rent. Almost the same story exactly. Luckily I thought it sounded fishy and found something else.