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Would you pass on this?
DH and I are looking for a new apartment. I found a place on craigslist last week that seems like it's too good to be true. Great price, right size, pictures look super nice. We haven't driven by the area yet to see what kind of neighborhood it's in but overall seems like a good place.
I email the guy about the listing. I get a lengthy email back explaining that he and his wife are in West Africa on a missionary, that they tried to find an agent to work with before they left but couldn't, they'd send keys and documents once deposit and stuff was taken care of....but the weirdest part are his emails. They aren't completely coherent....it's either that English isn't his first language, or that he's uneducated. But with a name like Mike McAdams - seems like he'd know English pretty well.
So, what do you guys think? Scam? Would you pass and keep looking? He did provide a cell phone number....should we call that and see? It does seem to be an international phone number
Re: Would you pass on this?
I know! It all seems a bit shady to me. Like, who would our day to day contact be, in case something broke/went wrong? Certainly not a guy living in Africa!
Sucks to walk away....the pics look really nice and the price is unbelievable.
Bummer for a sucky situation!
I wanted to post my previous message asap.
Something similar happened to us. We were looking for an apartment or house to rent and there was one that seemed too good to be true. Like you we got a similar email saying they were somewhere in Africa and they'd send us the key, blah blah blah. I searched the address online and found the site it was actually being rented on (for twice as much) and emailed them about it. The craigslist listing was a scam.
Be really careful with craigslist for apartments. There are so many scams. I then stuck to realtor.com for my searches since it lets you look for rentals too.
I'll have to check this out! I wasn't sure where else to look for rentals other than craigslist. I haven't had any problems with CL before, but thank you for sharing your story!! We will certainly be careful in our search.
LOL.
That is a classic CL scam.
Yeah, as others have said, total scam. My brother got the same response out in western MA, complete with the West Africa missionaries. I'm going to have to ask him if the name was Mike McAdams.
In general, I'd avoid any "landlord" that talks about money right up front, aside from "first, last & security = this amount."
Totally agree! Very shady. I don't buy that they could not find an apt. agent, especially if this is in the greater Boston area.
Sorry sweetie, but it is definately a scam. We were just looking a few months ago, and I got those kind of responses a few times when I tried for more information on Craigslist....with different versions of crazy stories. And on great looking places, of course!!
On the bright side, we did end up finding our place because of Craigslist, so don't give up on using that. I would just recommend using a different email address than your regular one.
We also found this house on CL.
Just be smart- only deal with local LLs and management companies.
Thanks ladies. I'm feeling like an idiot for even having to ask if this was a scam...DUH!!
::off to scour the internet for rentals::