Investor · hampton, VA · Member since 2009 · 428 posts · 249 votes
So I had one of my rentals on craigslist with a lockbox on the front door. I've been using lock boxes for 10 years. I had a rental on the market for a few weeks giving out the code to people to look inside. Yesterday I went to the house and there were clothes and boxes inside the house. A few hours later 2 people showed up with a uhaul truck full ready to move in. Could have been a disaster. They said they wired $1400 to a man in ohio and they had a fake lease on MY HOUSE. anybody else got a craigslist nightmare...
@Stan Butler You can get spare key sets at Home Depot , Lowes ect. Or you can take blanks and have the key cut random. The Smart Key adapts to any key you insert into it.
I ran into this scam a few months ago here in a Houston suburb. One of the agents in my wife's office called her to say that they saw our add in craigslist for our rental, but we hadn't posted it to craigslist. We had a tenant moving in the next day and were unable to track down the posting on craigslist. I have hear that happens often. We only use a Supra key here, so that only licensed agents can gain access to the property. We don't allow anyone to enter without knowing who they are.
So something similar just happened to me. No one was moved in but we had inquires on the property we just finished rehabbing asking to rent it. We thought it was strange then discovered that someone had listed our house on Craigslist for rent. Some people!!!
I did seller financing. He did 30% down payment than made 2 other payments. Stole people identities and transferred money into my account from account set in his "fake" name until full transfer of title.
My wife and I have run in to this scenario before in Oklahoma. Not on the investor side, but as the potential renters. We found an excellent house from an "out of state" landlord on CL; they wanted the deposit and first month's rent wired to them. We could never actually meet with a human being so we passed on the deal...even a property manager or friend showing up would have sold us. Hopefully, the real owner of the house didn't have the same experience as you.
Glad you were able to work everything out civilly.
This practice isn't allowed under the Terms of Use of the lockbox company--precisely for the reason that incidents like this can happen.
Catherine,
Not all lockboxes are supplied by a third-party. We have three of our own; we never allow unaccompanied showings, but nothing would prohibit us from so doing.