In the past few weeks, several Central Virginia agents have received online leads from scammers posing as property owners. The scammers seem to be targeting lot/land properties. Their information, including legal owner’s name, phone number, and email address, appear legitimate. In several cases, the parties have entered into a listing agreement and submitted the listing into the MLS. These scams have been thwarted when the confused owners contact the agent about the listing.

While scammers have gotten very sophisticated, and detection may be difficult, we advise you to thoroughly vet your online leads to ensure that you and an unknowing property owner do not become victims.

Below are the characteristics, some or all of which may be present in these scam transactions:

• The listing involves vacant land or vacant condos.
• The seller is out of state or out of the country.
• The seller cannot provide a mailing address for their current location.
• The seller asks to communicate using WhatsApp
• The seller will only sign documents remotely and will or cannot meet locally.
• The seller won’t provide detailed information on the property, such as HOAs, utility
• The seller indicates they want to price the lot for a quick sale.

Basic due diligence for vacant lots and out-of-town sellers:

• Check the real estate tax records for the name and mailing address of the current owner.
• Do a tax record search on the owner’s name. In at least two of the cases reported to us, the actual owner lived in a property adjacent to the vacant lot. Search the name of the property owner for other properties in the locality.
• Do a tax search for the owner’s name in adjacent localities. This may provide additional information that the actual owner could provide if asked.
• Request photo ID. While it can be forged, often, forged documents give themselves away.
• Be very leery of online leads or calls from out-of-state or out-of-town owners offering to sell vacant lots.