Certain rental listings on Craigslist (bank owned, real estate, foreclosure)

[vamtncat]

This may be an obviously silly question but one worth asking. I've come across a number of rental listings on Craigslist that were showing pictures of the same house over and over but different descriptions and locations. All the ads gave was a 1-800 # to call. I tried reverse lookup to no avail. First Red Flag. So.... I called the 1800 number and found that the listings are from a company called HR National and they list properties that are in pre-forclosure. (Second red flag??) For a fee of $150, they supposedly provide you with the listings, financial consultants, etc. Their website is hrnational.com.

Has anyone out there had any contact with these folks? Are they legit? I'm cautious about these but the monthly rental rates are attractive. No I have not sent any money or given any personal info.

[Rggr]

I would stay far away from that.

[jba4241]

Yeah, I get irritated everytime I click an ad and find that same house. I wish they would just have one add per month. There are cheaper services to find foreclosure and pre-foclosure listings. You may want to google that.

[emilybh]

Originally Posted by vamtncat

This may be an obviously silly question but one worth asking. I've come across a number of rental listings on Craigslist that were showing pictures of the same house over and over but different descriptions and locations. All the ads gave was a 1-800 # to call. I tried reverse lookup to no avail. First Red Flag. So.... I called the 1800 number and found that the listings are from a company called HR National and they list properties that are in pre-forclosure. (Second red flag??) For a fee of $150, they supposedly provide you with the listings, financial consultants, etc. Their website is hrnational.com.

Has anyone out there had any contact with these folks? Are they legit? I'm cautious about these but the monthly rental rates are attractive. No I have not sent any money or given any personal info.

Those lists of forclosures or work at home companies or business opportunities you have to pay for don't have any info you can't get for free if you aren't afraid to do a little research. The Real Estate boards on City-Data is a wealth of info. I've gotten links to bank owned property listings for FREE there.

[vamtncat]

Originally Posted by emilybh

Those lists of forclosures or work at home companies or business opportunities you have to pay for don't have any info you can't get for free if you aren't afraid to do a little research. The Real Estate boards on City-Data is a wealth of info. I've gotten links to bank owned property listings for FREE there.

I'm just curious how they work. They are showing monthly rental amounts which I assume is the original house payment. I am looking to rent for about a year untill we get settled. Some of these homes seem appealing but you know how that is... if its too good to be true.....

[Brandon Hoffman]

My guess is they find distressed owners by looking at courthouse docs and strike a deal of some sort with the owners to compile the data. Most of them sell the lists (a la Rentmark) and make their money selling a list that you could find yourself with some legwork. If you're looking rentals avoid a pre-foreclosure.