You Can't Be Too Careful!

Take a look at my previous post. I put out an offer for anyone that is considering renting in Miami Beach to contact me BEFORE you rent. Whether you are renting one of my homes, or even someone else's home that I do not manage.

Well, I just got a call from someone that did NOT contact me. And they learned the hard way that you MUST be careful when renting a vacation home.

Here are some details of what happened and how you can learn from this persons mistake:

1. They inquired about a rental from Craigslist.
2. While not all Craigslist ads are fraudulent (we advertise there as well), you do have to be very careful when choosing to rent from a Craigslist ad as this is pretty much the ONLY place where fraudulent posters post their ads
3. The person that called me sent a payment via Western Union. NEVER MAKE A PAYMENT THROUGH WESTERN UNION. If the owner/manager does not have an alternate way of accepting payments you should strongly suspect that this listing is fraudulent.
4. Talk to the owner/manager. If they sound foreign you should suspect this listing.
5. Do a search on the Miami Dade Property Appraisers website for the owner name of the property you are considering renting. You should ask the property manager for the owners name and it should match what you find here: http://gisweb.miamidade.gov/PropertySearch/ . Also ask for the owners name and contact information from the property manager. Tell them you must verify this information prior to you sending any deposit money. If they hesitate you should too.
6. Make sure you trust what your instinct is saying to you. Don't disregard it.
7. Ask the property manager if they have this property listed somewhere else or are they only listing it on Craigslist. Most, if not all, property managers/owners that have vacation rentals always have listings elsewhere. Either homeaway.com, VRBO.com, FLIPKEY.com, etc. At the same time ask them how long this home has been used as a vacation rental. If they are just starting out then maybe they haven't had time to list on other sites. But if they say longer than 9 months and they are not on one of these websites, you should question the legitimacy of this rental.

These are just some of the things you should do to make sure you are getting a legitimate rental.

Again, do not hesitate to contact me if you need help either for any of my rentals or someone else's rental. I have helped many in the past without hesitation.

Good luck!