Property Management Scam: Reminder

I very much doubt it's a large problem, but it is always good to be aware. When you deal with a great property management company, it's hard to believe that there are those out there without integrity. We like to consider ourselves one of the great ones, but here's a few key things to look out for if you think you might be involved in a scam.

Now a scam is different to being a bad property manager. A bad property manager will not return calls, will leave maintenance issues lingering and will have poor people skills. A scam artist on the other hand, aren't property managers at all, and see the opportunity to fleece the unwise. The scammer will try and rent a property to potential tenants (sometimes to multiple tenants), collect the first and last months rent, plus maybe some other fees (e.g. pet deposits) then disappear along with your money.

So what to look for?

1. If you are going directly through the 'landlord' then check their ID, and see if you can track down the name of the owner of the property.
2. If you are dealing with a property management company, like above, find out who the owner of the property is. 
3. Do some research on the property management company itself. Ask friends if they know of them, check their website (please don't just look here, it's easy to put up a bogus website), their address and see if they are legal and legitimate.
4. Have they asked for a rental application? If not, then walk away - quickly, this is a red flag.
5. It's not uncommon that a property management scam artist is the owner of the house - well previous owner of the house. They could be in the middle of a mortgagee foreclosure and are trying to collect the rent while the house is going through the system. The problem with this is, you the tenant, will be kicked out eventually.

Like I said, it's not all that often property management scams come up, but you never know. Have you been a victim of this? What happened?