[muggums]

I'm leary about renting, given what I have read lately about foreclosures and such around Florida, and new housing scams that are popping up. We are looking for a place in Lake City.

I checked on craiglist, and found a 4/2 with a fenced yard, accepts all my pets, even my large dog, with all appliances, water, trash, sewage and lawn care all paid, within our budget... pics look very nice. Great, right!?

Well, the ad poster won't tell me the address, says she was vandalized last time, and wants to me to run a credit report online, through a company, (experian) that will contact her to let her know if I've ever had an eviction... called a "soft credit check". All this before we meet and set up a time to see the house. I thought we would go to the management company, fill out an app, and have our credit run, etc...

Anyone ever heard of this? I wanted to know the address so I could check out streetview, since we are from out of state... I feel skeptical

[ChrisA70]

NO!!!!! Don't give them any of your info.... Especially your SS#. There are a LOT of scammers doing this here, and everywhere. If it is a realtor, yes, and old Joe, NO WAY. keep looking.

[CrowGirl]

Originally Posted by ChrisA70

NO!!!!! Don't give them any of your info.... Especially your SS#. There are a LOT of scammers doing this here, and everywhere. If it is a realtor, yes, and old Joe, NO WAY. keep looking.

I agree....your instincts are right. Do not give any info and keep looking.

[Sunny-Days-in-Florida]

A soft pull is an inquiry that does not effect your credit score.

If they want to rent the house she needs to give you the street address of the property or tell her to forget it.

There are scammers on both sides, but DO NOT allow her to pull your credit and NEVER give anyone any info such as SSN over the phone.

Ask her if she has an office that you can come to to prove you are serious about renting this property. If she does not have an office or someplace to meet then maybe she is not legit.

Bentlebee and SoFlGal both are landlords and might be able to guide you on what to do.

Like Chris said, if she wont give and you cannot meet with her in person then walk.

Ask her to meet you at the address or something.

There are other rental sites that have pictures of the houses, prices, etc.

[doggiebus]

Something is very strange that they will not give you the address of the rental. I don't care if she was vandalized, she needs to give people the address first. So you or anyone else for that matter, can decide if the neighborhood is right first, before any info is exchanged. What if you do he credit check, and then find out it's not the right neighborhood for your family... Get the address first or walk away, something isn't right.

[DailyJournalist]

When I was a renter I always rented from Apartmant communities for this same reason, you are taking a big risk renting from a private owner, you really do not know if they are legit.

[ChrisA70]

The last 2 houses I rented I checked the owners for foreclosures, etc. I was able to meet the owners at the house and walk it first. This is a bit weird for someone not to give the address??? What if it is a really crappy area? A "soft check" still requires your SS#, My last landlord ran a soft one, I still had to give a lot of info, but he met me at the house. If you are out of state and she is paranoid about vandalism, what? Does she expect you to fly here, mess the house up and fly back...LOL. I would keep looking.

[DaniellaG]

Hi when I was looking on craigslist I got a response like this too about first doing a credit report. I chose to not answer the response. There are a lot of scams on craigslist in general so you have to be careful. I did rent through a private owner but worked with a realtor and made sure that the rental was current in payments and not in forclosure. I would not do it.