Mike Cole - Your Texas Realtor

Yesterday, I was contacted by a young woman who is looking to lease a house. She said she had been looking at ads on Craigs List every day in hopes of finding the right house, at the right price, and a homeowner that would work with a nice person with some credit issues.

After speaking to the young woman about what she could afford and some of her credit issues (she skipped out on a lease) I explained to her that for her budget and rental history it would be difficult to lease a house, but, I would definitely keep my eyes and ears open around my office.

This morning, I get an email from her asking about a particular house being advertised on Craigs List for $750 a month. The email she sent me included an email from the property owner to her.

This is what it said... (The email subject was "$750/3br - Great Beautiful Home for a Small Family")

Common sense told me that this smelled bad. Real bad. So I looked up the address in MLS, and sure enough, it is listed for lease for $1,250, not $750 as the email advertised. Now it really smelled bad, so I call the listing agent to let her know that I believe her listing has been "high jacked" and being used in a scam. She knew exactly what I was talking about, and let me know that this is the second time this has happened with this listing and by the same person. The scam artist even used the actual homeowners name and created a yahoo email account as the actual homeowners name. This particular scammer is actually lives in Puerto Rico.

The scammers hook consumers in by the very cheap rent and get them to send deposit money, and in return the scammer will send the keys to the house. Obviously, there are no keys to be sent and the unsuspecting consumer is out a few hundred dollars.

If you are looking to buy, sell, or rent a home, it's always best to work with a professional Real Estate Agent and avoid getting trapped by internet scammers.

During the first two months of the fourth quarter, 1,639 jobs were added to the payrolls of Collin County, in turn causing the average monthly unemployment rate to fall from 3.9% during the third quarter to 3.7% for October and November.

While the number of inventory (Houses on the Market) rose 17% in the fourth quarter, the average Sales Price remained flat, but is forecasted to rise in Q1 2008.

The number of homes sold fell 32% in Q4, with an average number of days on the Market increasing 21%.

New home construction fell 47% .

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