Every couple of weeks, Megan Gilhooly and her husband Ryan drive by their vacant property outside Arvada to pick up the mail.
On Sunday, however, they noticed something strange: Their property in unincorporated Jefferson County had a “for sale” sign on it from a legitimate real estate broker.
The couple never put the land on the market.
“Was this an early April Fools’ joke?” Gilhooly said she wondered.
Turns out, a fraudster had convinced a real estate agent with the Johnson Team, a Keller Williams affiliate, that they were the true owners of the land and wanted to sell it. The property made it on all the major listing services, including RedFin and Zillow. A host of people already had come by to check it out.
Gilhooly contacted the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office and the Johnson Team, who quickly pulled the listing. Authorities say they’re now investigating the attempt to sell the property.
“There were more checks and balances to come that would have prevented the sale, but human error is always a possibility,” the real estate firm’s CEO, Dan Noel, told Gilhooly in a text message that she shared with The Denver Post.
Noel, in an interview Monday, said the firm will be changing its policies in light of the fraudulent listing, but declined to offer specifics.
“This one was a little bit of a longshot for whoever was trying to make it happen,” Noel said, “but we don’t want to put sellers through panic when their property is listed for sale.”
Real estate fraud is a booming business in the United States. Losses from real estate and rental scams reached nearly $400 million in 2022, according to the FBI.
Rental scams are pervasive in Colorado and around the country, with imposters posting listings on sites like Craigslist and luring eager renters into sending them deposits. Then they vanish.
The National Association of Realtors sounded the alarm over vacant land schemes in October, saying scammers comb through public records and vacant properties, looking specifically for those without a mortgage or lien.
Next step: They pose as the landlord, searching for real estate agents to list the property that they don’t actually own.
“For the agent, the deal seems too good to pass up,” wrote Charlie Lee, senior counsel and director of legal affairs at the National Association of Realtors. “The seller is willing to sell below market value, the property generates great interest and they’ll quickly accept an offer — with a preference for a cash sale.”
Vacant land sales are especially enticing, real estate agents say, because there’s nobody living on the property to see a “for sale” sign go up and no keys to hand over at closing.
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“As a Realtor, it’s our job to do due diligence and make sure, but we are not investigators,” said Jennifer Schumacher, an Arizona Realtor, in an interview. “If someone sends us a fake ID, we don’t know what the owner actually looks like. If someone sends us an ID matching tax records, to us it’s legit.”
Title companies in Washington state have started sending notices to property owners when vacant lots go up for sale.
With so much of the home sale process going digital, it makes it easier for scammers to forge documents, said Debbie Jaeger, a Seattle Realtor, in an interview.
Buyers and sellers, she said, should be required to do in-person signings or go to a mobile notary in their area.
“I’m not really sure how to stop it,” Schumacher said, “but I hope someone figures it out.”
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