ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — There isn't one centralized place to go house hunting. There are dozens of real estate and rental sites, and now, you can look at properties online as you scroll past your friends' selfies.
Through Facebook Marketplace, it's easy enough to find listings in your area. But not all listings are legitimate.
"I was on Facebook Marketplace," Vaughn Thomas, a St. Pete resident looking for a new home to rent, said. "I saw a nice house on there I kinda knew was maybe a little too good to be true but I tried to contact the owner. It was a text-only ad."
A bit skeptical, Thomas decided to reach out about the listing anyway to get more information on the house. Thomas said the poster gave a sob story as to why they were selling the home and continued to explain why they would not be able to show the home to prospective applicants.
"Apparently this person had recently moved out of the state," said Thomas.
"They weren't able to physically show me the place, so they told me to just drive by the house, and from there, if I like it, they would send me an application and I would pay a fee."
The red flags here are pretty obvious. The best advice from a real estate agent: Ask a lot of questions.
"People are desperate," Future Home Realty's co-owner and realtor Cyndee Haydon said. "Whether they're buying or renting. And sometimes it clouds our judgment."
Thomas asked the poster if he were to apply and was approved, how would he get into the home if he couldn't even see it ahead of moving in.
"And she or he said that they would just mail me the keys," said Thomas. "I searched the address of the house and it's clearly not the lady. It's been owned for quite some time, it's not a rental, it says it's occupied."
Thomas posted about his experience on Facebook, in hopes of warning others using social media to land their next home.
Haydon said if a home listing post has you raising your eyebrow, check other sites to verify the legitimacy of the listing.
"You're going to need to do some research," said Haydon. "Go and see if it's listed on realtor.com because if a realtor has it listed, you'll see it on other places being legit. The other is, go to the property appraiser and find out if the name and that person are the owners of the property..."
Haydon said the only time a home listed on Facebook wouldn't be on any other sites is if it's for sale by the owner. But even then, the seller should work with you and your real estate agent to validate the listing.