New Homeowner scams

[DCnDC]

My GF and I bought a house together last month, and have apparently declared ourselves open for all manner of scammers.

Okay, maybe not outright scams, but definitely at least some seriously underhanded business practices.

Last week a woman knocked on our door and at first claimed to be a rep from our electric utility, PEPCO, and asked, nay demanded to see our latest bill. I asked her why, and she said she needed to verify some info on the bill. Not being an idiot, I immediately replied, “Bullshit. What do you really want?” Turns out she was a rep from an alternative provider and was trying to get us to switch companies.

I recognized this as the ol’ “Get your account number, switch your service without your permission, and even if you notice immediately, be ‘unable’ to switch your service back for several months, all the while charging double your previous rate or more.” The fact that she felt the need to outright lie at first told me that even if she was a rep from a legit company, they were not a company I wanted to do business with. She started to get pushy again so I kicked her out and told her if she set foot on my property again, first I would call the police, then I would get my gun. She left quickly.

Later that week I got an official-looking letter from “Property Transfer Services” or something like that, advising me I should obtain a copy of my property deed, and offering to acquire this document for me for the low, low fee of just $83. Not being an idiot, of course I know that I can get this from my County’s Land Records office, for free. The bizarre part is that the letter actually had this fact printed on it, no less than 4 times, in different iterations. Surely this was necessitated by this company’s lawyers in order to absolve them of any wrongdoing should they happen across people somehow dumb enough to fall for this, yet smart enough to recognize they’ve been scammed afterwards. There was even a phone number on the letter, so I called them up, which went, verbatim:

Friendly phone rep: “Thank you for calling [Preying On Suckers, Inc.]. How may I help you?”

Me: “I received your letter regarding the property deed service and I had a question about it.”

FPR: “Well I can certainly help you with that. What is your question?”

Me: “Are people really this stupid? I mean, seriously–”

FPR: click

Also in that same stack of mail: the ol’ “Switch to a bi-weekly payment and shave up to 10 years of payments off your mortgage, for a small extra monthly processing fee!” Nevermind that there’s nothing stopping me from doing this on my own for the same effect, with zero additional fees.

Can’t wait to see what next week brings!

[lavenderviolet]

One of the things I miss about living in an apartment was that, since my apartment had a locked lobby, I didn’t have to deal with nearly as many door to door salespeople, Jehovah Witnesses, and scammers.

[Chimera]

Here in Minnesota, it is not uncommon to use the back door for family and friends and the front door for business. In my old house, all of my family and friends were told to come to the back door. Then I completely ignored anyone knocking on the front door unless I was expecting someone, or a package. Or for some reason felt like answering it. Also had no problems simply closing the door if it was someone I didn’t care to talk to. No yelling, no anger, just close the door and move on.

[filmore]

Not only do you have to deal with scammers, but you can’t trust anyone who works on your house (painter, plumber, contractor, etc). Supervise everyone and make sure they are doing the job right. Many times they’re only concerned with doing the job well enough to get paid.

If you have major work done, like a renovation, consider getting a home inspector to go over the work to make sure it’s done properly and up to code. A contractor can hide a lot of mistakes behind the drywall.

[Caffeine.addict]

DCnDC, we had them coming through my neighborhood as well. Weren’t a bunch of those companies being investigated for fraud in utility switching in Maryland?

Since you are in Maryland, you can just download your deed from here. You don’t even have to go anywhere.

[DCnDC]

@Caffeine.addict

DCnDC, we had them coming through my neighborhood as well. Weren’t a bunch of those companies being investigated for fraud in utility switching in Maryland?

Seems they’ve been working their way through the area the last few years. WaPost story.

[Jophiel]

My house has been around forever and I got one of those “Let me see your utility bill” people at my door in the Chicago area. At first I just said my bills were done online and she asked me to print a copy of it for her or something ridiculous like that. So I asked for a copy of her identification from the utility company, then she admitted she was from some other outfit and I pretty much just shut the door on her.

[wolfman]

Hello Mr DCnDC,
I just wanted to set up a time where we can go through your house to estimate how much we can take you for in setting up a security system. I would also like to mention the ACME Home insurance company several times. Records show that your homeowners insurance is through ACME Home insurance company, and by doing so hope you infer that this security system is a standard thing requested by ACME Home insurance company, and not capitulating to be screwed by us will put you under grave, and fully imaginary, risk of having your insurance cancelled.

[Soylent_Juicy]

We get the water heater scammers here. TWICE they scammed my 90-year-old grandmother into buying their shitty water heater and thankfully the neighbours alerted my mom so she could put a stop to it. It is painfully obvious that my Nana has dementia (her short-term memory is on a 20 minute loop), which makes these assholes even scummier. The day after my Nana was admitted to the nursing home my mom and the neighbour were at my Nana’s house and some guy came up the walk - they asked what they could help him with and he said he was with <scam water heaters> and the lady at this house previously said “no”, he was back hoping she’d change her mind! :eek:

[picunurse]

@filmore

Not only do you have to deal with scammers, but you can’t trust anyone who works on your house (painter, plumber, contractor, etc). Supervise everyone and make sure they are doing the job right. Many times they’re only concerned with doing the job well enough to get paid.

If you have major work done, like a renovation, consider getting a home inspector to go over the work to make sure it’s done properly and up to code. A contractor can hide a lot of mistakes behind the drywall.

That’s what Angie’s list is for! We’ve used it for every project we’ve had done. Every one of them is on our Christmas list because of the excellent jobs they did.

[friedo]

Angie’s List is great.

[PSXer]

yeah but what list reviews Angie’s list O_O

[Lynn_Bodoni]

Last week a woman knocked on our door

I don’t do business with companies that send people out to knock on my door. Partly this is because I am nearly terminally cranky, but the main reason is because I don’t think that a reputable business would depend on this sales strategy. Most of the door knockers and phone solicitors are with shady companies. Nope, not gonna buy anything from someone who is counting on me not doing my research.

[Senegoid]

@filmore

If you have major work done, like a renovation, consider getting a home inspector to go over the work to make sure it’s done properly and up to code. A contractor can hide a lot of mistakes behind the drywall.

I always wondered: How does the inspector find mistakes or shoddy workmanship when it’s hidden behind drywall or otherwise not readily apparent?

[Spoons]

@Lynn_Bodoni

I don’t do business with companies that send people out to knock on my door.

Somewhat similarly, I only respond to the knock at my side door. My friends and neighbours know that the side door is the most important in my home (it’s where my hat and coat and shoes are), so I will respond to a knock there. I won’t respond to a knock at the front door.

If somebody knocks at the front door, I ignore it. They obviously don’t know that I and friends use the side door; and from experience, I know that front-door-knockers are just selling Jesus, an energy plan that’s the same as I already have, or something equally unwanted.

[pullin]

When one of our children was born, we got hit up by an encyclopedia salesman at the front door. He’d gotten the info about our newborn somewhere (which pissed me off), and started a high pressure pitch implying that not buying them would doom our child’s education prospects.

I asked if there were encyclopedias in the house where he grew up. He assured me there were, and what a marvelous boon it was, etc. I pointed out there weren’t any in my childhood home, yet I was the aerospace engineer living in this (very nice) neighborhood and he was the one selling door-to-door. He simply turned and walked away.

[kayaker]

@Spoons

Somewhat similarly, I only respond to the knock at my side door. My friends and neighbours know that the side door is the most important in my home (it’s where my hat and coat and shoes are), so I will respond to a knock there. I won’t respond to a knock at the front door.

Similarly, my friends and relatives know that I do not want unannounced visitors. We all have cellphones, use yours to call me and I’m happy to have you visit (usually). Show up unannounced and the dogs bark, but I assume you’re a salesman/witness/etc and ignore the intrusion.

[John_DiFool]

@filmore

Not only do you have to deal with scammers, but you can’t trust anyone who works on your house (painter, plumber, contractor, etc). Supervise everyone and make sure they are doing the job right. Many times they’re only concerned with doing the job well enough to get paid.

My roommate had some guns of his lifted from his closet by some plumbers once.

[glee]

@pullin

When one of our children was born, we got hit up by an encyclopedia salesman at the front door. He’d gotten the info about our newborn somewhere (which pissed me off), and started a high pressure pitch implying that not buying them would doom our child’s education prospects.

I asked if there were encyclopedias in the house where he grew up. He assured me there were, and what a marvelous boon it was, etc. I pointed out there weren’t any in my childhood home, yet I was the aerospace engineer living in this (very nice) neighborhood and he was the one selling door-to-door. He simply turned and walked away.

I love this!

[Musicat]

@DCnDC

Later that week I got an official-looking letter from “Property Transfer Services” or something like that, advising me I should obtain a copy of my property deed, and offering to acquire this document for me for the low, low fee of just $83. Not being an idiot, of course I know that I can get this from my County’s Land Records office, for free.

@Caffeine.addict

Since you are in Maryland, you can just download your deed from here. You don’t even have to go anywhere.

Just a nitpick er 2, but most states have a “Register (or Registrar) of Deeds” office, and that’s where your deed resides. Also, while it might be free online, getting a copy at the office will probably run you a buck or two, maybe three if you need a certified copy.

The title company, escrow company, transfer agent, or whatever they call it in your state when they handle a property sale, should send you a certified copy, with the cost included in your closing statement, within a few weeks after closing, so you’re certainly right that the offer you received is a scam.