# Is this house rental a scam? Something smells fishy. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 28, 2015, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-house-rental-a-scam-something-smells-fishy/711119 "2015-01-28T17:08:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Agent\_Foxtrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc29f/32.png) [@Agent\_Foxtrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agent_Foxtrot)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2015, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-house-rental-a-scam-something-smells-fishy/711119/1 "2015-01-28T17:08:30Z")
I found [this](https://baltimore.craigslist.org/roo/4801189863.html) ad on Craigslist and texted the number provided. The poster responded me asking to call his “business partner.” The business partner was a nice guy but seemed awfully pushy. He jumped right to asking me when I could come look at the place before I even had a chance to ask him questions. When I told him I couldn’t come until Saturday, he pushed a little more, saying these rooms go fast and he can’t guarantee it’ll still be available Saturday. So what’s the deal? Is there a scam here? The rooms do seem fairly inexpensive for the area, which is a little weird. He also said I could sign a lease to last from Feb 1 to May 1, which makes me think he has a lot of transient tenants. Thoughts? ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2015, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-house-rental-a-scam-something-smells-fishy/711119/2 "2015-01-28T17:28:21Z")
Doesn’t look obviously scammy to me. It’s renting individual rooms out of an apartment, so you’re sharing your living space with whoever the rental company puts there. How far below the market rate are these rooms? Normally craigslist rental scams involve “renting” a house or apartment that doesn’t really belong to the person renting it and making off with the deposit. While that would be possible to do with an apartment that currently has people living in it, it would certainly be harder to pull off. On the other hand, the property manager’s name and the company don’t produce much in the way of google results. It’s a little odd in this day for a business to not have any kind of internet presence. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2015, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-house-rental-a-scam-something-smells-fishy/711119/3 "2015-01-28T17:35:18Z")
Doesn’t seem like a scam to me. But who knows, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![LurkerInNJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ed655f/32.png) [@LurkerInNJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkerInNJ)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2015, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-house-rental-a-scam-something-smells-fishy/711119/4 "2015-01-28T17:43:45Z")
What he is doing is running a rooming house. This isn’t a “house rental”. He is renting out rooms to whomever comes by with cash in their hand. This may or may not be legal in your area. The ad is in the Baltimore area, and I found a similar situation where an owner was fined in The Baltimore Sun [http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-county/towson/ph-tt-knollwood-house-decision-1224-20141216-story.html](http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-county/towson/ph-tt-knollwood-house-decision-1224-20141216-story.html) ---
**Author:** ![Baracus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/2bfe46/32.png) [@Baracus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baracus)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2015, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-house-rental-a-scam-something-smells-fishy/711119/5 "2015-01-28T17:47:15Z")
> [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > Normally craigslist rental scams involve “renting” a house or apartment that doesn’t really belong to the person renting it and making off with the deposit. While that would be possible to do with an apartment that currently has people living in it, it would certainly be harder to pull off. Yeah, if the guy actually has keys to the place and lets you in, chances are it is legit. The only scam I could see there would be if he is an about-to-be-former tenant, rather than the owner. Sharing one shower with up to three potential roommates and occasional guests sounds like a pain in the ass. Plus, unlike a normal roommate situation, you likely will have little input into who your roommates are. ---
**Author:** ![yellowjacketcoder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/4bbf92/32.png) [@yellowjacketcoder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowjacketcoder)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2015, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-house-rental-a-scam-something-smells-fishy/711119/6 "2015-01-28T19:12:56Z")
I dunno, the business partner sounds like a normal landlord to me. He can answer your questions when you’re there, and he doesn’t want to wait and wait and wait for you to decide to look at the place. I wouldn’t want to rent just a room (did that once in college and it sucked), but if you’re fine sharing a house with strangers and the price is right, sounds fine to me. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2015, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-house-rental-a-scam-something-smells-fishy/711119/7 "2015-01-28T19:42:23Z")
Baltimore, MD is misspelt. The ad says Batlimore. Not very professional. Utilities of $75 for heat, water, gas, electric, and wireless internet? Sounds too good to be true even if it is shared with two others. Of course the winter heat in Maryland is probably only $20 of that since it never gets cold there. :rolleyes: I would be skeptical to say the least. Although good deals can be found on Craigslist it is often just one big conduit for criminal enterprise, my opinion. One of my neighbors is selling a large ranch and was inundated with people who saw somebody on Craigslist trying to rent the property. The owner had no connection with CL at all. The info was taken off of real estate web sites like Zillow and put on CL asking for deposit money to hold the place. Offer NO money, deposit or financial information until you have actually seen the place, met your new neighbors and verified property ownership. They may be looking for naïve college students, sounds like it to me. ---
**Author:** ![Agent\_Foxtrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc29f/32.png) [@Agent\_Foxtrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agent_Foxtrot)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2015, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-house-rental-a-scam-something-smells-fishy/711119/8 "2015-01-29T03:18:26Z")
Thank you all. I will turn my search elsewhere. Too many unknowns here. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2015, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-house-rental-a-scam-something-smells-fishy/711119/9 "2015-01-29T06:17:58Z")
> [@Dallas\_Jones](#): > > Baltimore, MD is misspelt. The ad says **Batlimore**. Not very professional. Maybe the room is at [this place.](http://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g60811-i29437978-Baltimore_Maryland.html) His roommates might be dolphins. I see in the news that [Batlimore will be signing a new chief for their school system](http://www.wbaltv.com/news/maryland/education/Sources-Milwaukee-school-chief-coming-to-Batlimore/24527384) too. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2015, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-house-rental-a-scam-something-smells-fishy/711119/10 "2015-01-29T13:33:38Z")
The red flag that hit me was that there are 2 others living there, but the photos are absolutely pristine - no evidence of human habitation at all! I suppose they could be from when the place was newly rehabbed. Not sure I’d want to live with a “Nursing strudent”, tho. Hard to tell if the landlord is scammy or just really eager to have someone commit to the place. But if he’s that eager, I might worry a bit. ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2015, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-house-rental-a-scam-something-smells-fishy/711119/11 "2015-01-31T04:45:43Z")
If you doubt the “landlord” is legit: Ask to see a utility bill with the property address. Now explain why your name is not the same as the one on this 4 month old scrap of a bill… ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2015, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-house-rental-a-scam-something-smells-fishy/711119/12 "2015-01-31T05:10:21Z")
Doesn’t seem scammy to me. The rooms are cheap, but not out of line for a group house, and between four people the utilities are about right. My last group house room, in DC, was $625 with utilities included. It looks to me like someone decided to try to make some passive income by buying a house, fixing it up a bit, and renting it to students. They probably lost a couple of tenants over winter break, and are eager to get that income flow back again. WIth students, it’s important to have your vacancies either at the start of summer or the beginning of fall, so a May departure would be workable. Most landlords would want to either rent to a group as a whole, or rent to a single individual and let them sub-lease as they see fit. But I’m guessing these guys are new investors- maybe recent grads themselves- and haven’t yet learned what a PITA it is going to be to try to rent individual rooms seperately. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2015, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-house-rental-a-scam-something-smells-fishy/711119/13 "2015-01-31T05:14:03Z")
> [@LurkerInNJ](#): > > What he is doing is running a rooming house. This isn’t a “house rental”. He is renting out rooms to whomever comes by with cash in their hand. This may or may not be legal in your area. > > The ad is in the Baltimore area, and I found a similar situation where an owner was fined in The Baltimore Sun > > [http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-county/towson/ph-tt-knollwood-house-decision-1224-20141216-story.html](http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-county/towson/ph-tt-knollwood-house-decision-1224-20141216-story.html) Wow, that’s ridiculous. According to those rules, an unmarried couple can’t get a roomate. Practically every place I’ve ever lived would be illegal. ---
**Author:** ![LurkerInNJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ed655f/32.png) [@LurkerInNJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkerInNJ)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2015, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-house-rental-a-scam-something-smells-fishy/711119/14 "2015-02-01T00:35:58Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > Wow, that’s ridiculous. According to those rules, an unmarried couple can’t get a roomate. How do you figure that? Every unmarried person has no living relatives? They can get a roommate, the roommate just has to be related. ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2015, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-house-rental-a-scam-something-smells-fishy/711119/15 "2015-02-01T02:30:45Z")
I would love to see that law challenged: It deprives the owner of potential income without due process. It limits the availability of cheap housing. I suspect it also runs afoul of of the Bill of Rights, but not certain.