Clarification: (In regards to healthy vacancy rates) Property owners could still be particular about which tenants they take in— based on decisions around fair housing laws and a tenant'sability to pay— and tenants could have more living options. A previous version of this article did not define the parameters around which property owners can be selective.
A couple packed their life into a moving van and drove over 1,000 miles from Floridato a Colchester, Vermont, cottage they thought they had rented, only to find the cottage occupied.
A few monthslater, Vermont police were called to a home in Burlington'sNew North End when a prospective tenant showed up asking for a person named Alla, who she said had rented the property to her online.
"There's no Alla here," the residents in the home explained. The prospective tenant had paid a securitydeposit and first month upfront, but the home was not for rent. The listing was a scam.
Housing scams in Vermont doubledduring pandemic
Emilie Donath-Crawford, owner of BTV Property Management, got these reportsin 2021about her properties, but they are not the first, nor does she expect them to be the last.
"This is a daily, hourly issue," Crawford said of scammerspulling images ofproperties fromZillow and using them to take advantage of people desperate to find housing in an increasingly tight market.
Reports of housing scams in Vermont have about doubled since the start of the pandemic, according to data provided by Vermont'sCommunity Assistance Program, and have evolved to target a larger audience of prospective tenants.
While the reason for the increase is unclear, Lisa Jensen, director of the Community Assistance Program, saidit raises the question about whether the shift to more online work during the pandemic has made a larger community of people vulnerable.
Those able to access and afford housing in Vermont, face the challenge of filtering through minimally moderated platforms such as Craigslist and Facebook, which are prime targeting grounds for online scammers.
"I think part of the problem is that we don't really have a good centralized place to look for housing," Ryan Murphy, statewide housing navigator at the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity (CVOEO) said. "The options areCraigslist, Facebook Marketplace, leads through friends, and going really deep into the internet."
Murphy said the issue is countrywide, but rental-related scams are likely more common in areas experiencing population booms, like Vermont has in recent years.
Conditions that have contributed to Vermont rental scams
The state's population increased by 2.8 percent over the past decade, according toVermont 2020 Census. In response to this change, more housing units were built,but Vermont is stillunable to meet the demands of its residents.
The state is "expanding in de-ruralization,"Karin Ames, CVOEO housing education supervisor said.
As of 2021, Burlington hadthe sixth hottest real estate market in the country, according to ShowingTime,a national real estate research firm.
Thestatewidehousing unit vacancy rate was 3.4 percent in 2019, according toU.S. censusdata, which means Crawford and other property managers across Vermont, are working within a more competitive rental market.
For every 100 units, less than four were available at any given time in 2019. But vacancies have decreased even moreduring the pandemic.
Housing market:Burlington ranked in Top 10 real estate markets in country by national firm
"It is important to recognize that the statistical vacancy rates recorded over our past three vacancy surveys are heavily influenced by the government response to COVID-19," Brad Minor, commercial real estate appraiser at Allen Brooks & Minor said.
State-ordered moratorium on evictionscoupled withrent relief programshas contributed to historically low vacancy levels by limiting tenant turnover and mitigating rent loss, Minor said.
Chittenden County was found to have a 0.8 percent commercial rental vacancy rate in December, 2021, according Minor. While commercial rentals consist of about one thirdof the total Chittenden rentals and do not include nonprofit housing, owner-occupied units,or short-term rentals,Minor said the rate is likely representative of overall county vacancy.
A healthier vacancy rate would sit between 5 to 8percentand allow for morefreedom of choice for both renters and housing-seekers alike, according to Jessica Hyman, associate director of CVOEO's housing advocacy programs. Property owners could still be particularabout which tenants they take in— based on decisions around fair housing laws and a tenant'sability to pay—and tenants could have more living options.
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How Vermonters are being targeted
Scammers will often pull images of real houses listed for sale on Zillow and use those addresses for their own rental listings on free-to-use platforms like Craigslist or Facebook, convincing people to pay fora space they may never get to live in,Crawford said.
"It's happening because they're getting away with it," Crawford said. And the scams continue to evolve.
"They often have burner phones to actually speak with someone or text with someone, so it all seems quite friendly and authentic," Crawford said.
On Craigslist, all it takes to get a rentalremoved is a reader flagging the post. Scammers will take advantage of this to flag legitimate listings so that the illegitimate listingscan take up more space on the site.
Online showings are more common now with more people social distancing,whereas previously it might have seemed odd to ask for a virtual showing, Murphy said.
Scammers use this to their advantage and craft reassuring-sounding excuses as to why they can't show properties in person, even putting videos together from pre-existing stolen media in attempt to ease doubts about legitimacy.
Some will pretend to be a reverendor missionaryin orderto build trust.Or say that they were assigned overseas for work and are new to the area.
"And I think for some people that can soundreassuring," Ames said. Scammers will try to relate to those who they are reaching out to.
Because of the way fake listingsare worded and the lack of region-specific verbiage,virtual scams can be especially difficult to navigate for those who are moving from out-of-sateor for those who are non-native English speakers, Ames said, but no one is exempt from targeting attempts.
WhatVermonters can do to avoid rental scams
Ames is working on creating an online workshop centered around finding housing in Vermont to help prospective tenants as the struggle for housing continues in the state.
CVOEO also has a tenant hotline at 802-864-0099 for any questions about landlords or the rental process.
Resources like the ones housing organizations in Vermont offer in addition to the Renting in Vermont:Information Handbook for Tenants & Landlords may be contributing to a recent increase in awareness, which Jensen said could in turn lead to a rise in reports to the Attorney General's office. “There’s not a clear answer,” she said.
But no matter the reason, Jensen said these scams can be avoided or decreased by housing seekers doing their research to find out who they’re talking to and reaching out to the Community Assistance Program when they have questions or need to report fraudulent activity.
Here are some general steps to take to avoid online rental scams:
- Be aware of local housing rates in your area for a realistic picture of what properties cost. The old adage "If it sounds too good to be true, it is," may apply in many rental scams.
- Check for an address in the ad and search for it on Google,Zillow, or a paid listing platform.
- Do animage search on google to see if the photos of the property come from any other source or are being listed elsewhere.
- Ask to speak with the renter in-person or via live video call.
- Ask to tour the property in person or via live video call.
- Beware ofprerecorded videos of a property
- Beware of typos, font changes, and verbiage not typically used locally or country-wide in rental ads
- Visit the Vermont Housing Board of Review to search for the landlord's name and to see if that landlord has had complaints from any prior tenants
- Beware of application fees, which are illegal in Vermont
- Do not pay money to a renter without first seeing and/or signing a lease agreement
Summer Sorg is a reporter for the Burlington Free Press. Contact her at ssorg@freepressmedia.com.
