Rental Scams on Long Beach Island
LBI Real Estate Rental Scams
Renting a Home on Long Beach Island
The entire basis of the LBI economy is summer rentals! Tourism supports local businesses on Long Beach Island as well as creating a basis for the LBI NJ real estate market. There are literally thousands of summer rentals every week on Long Beach Island. With so much activity, unfortunately some take to nefarious acts. LBI Real Estate Rental Scams first became apparent in Summer 2012 and have grown over the years. Understanding LBI Real Estate Rental Scams is important to both prospective tenants and homeowners.
LBI Real Estate Rental Scams
There is a rather common pattern when dealing with LBI Real Estate Rental Scams.A fake ad is taken out on a free website such as Craigslist
- Data is taken from the sale listing or rental listing that is advertised on a legitimate website.
- Instructions on the fake website tell the tenant to send money to an address
- In return, a fake lease is sent to the tenant
- On the day of check-in (which is fake), the tenant arrives only to find the property is either already rented, was never for rent, or is otherwise not available
It is unfortunate that this occurs however there are a few steps tenants can take to protect themselves from LBI Real Estate Rental Scams. Above all else, rent a home through a real estate agent. A property that is marketed and offered for rent with a LBI real estate agency has been verified to be available and the real estate agency acts as an intermediate between the two parties. There are many legitimate by-owner rental sites such as homeaway.com or vrbo.com (which are not fool proof but are much better than Craigslist). Whenever dealing with an owner, it is important to remember that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is! Take caution when seeing a rate that seems too low or a rate that is broken down to a daily rental rate (most rentals in the Long Beach Island real estate market are weekly). Also be careful when the owner’s address is far away. The majority of homeowners on LBI come from New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Florida. If the mailing address for a deposit is in another state, verify that the rental is legitimate.
Nathan Colmer | The Van Dyk Group
Cell: 609-290-4293 | Office: 800-222-0131 | ncolmer@vandykgroup.com