Home sale scams ramp up amid a housing market short on inventory
Last month, a real estate agent in Patty Zuzek’s office got a call about selling a plot of land.
The caller, who had heard about the real estate agency through a Facebook post wanted to sell the vacant lot $75,000 below the market value. The caller’s only request was that the transaction be in cash.
“What they wanted was a quick deal,” Zuzek, a broker with Fieldstone Real Estate Specialists in Minnesota, told Yahoo Finance.
Zuzek’s colleague found a buyer, who was a builder. When the purchase agreement on the property came in, the builder buying the property put a “build your custom home” sign on the lot.