Tips For Finding Housing on Craigslist

If you have spent any amount of time on Craigslist looking for your next apartment, chances are you have encountered at least one fraudulent ad. These ads are usually believable, in that they provide beautiful photos, and in a lot of cases a legitimate address that you could drive by and look at. They are written in perfect English and can even offer details on school districts that the home is located in.

The point of these ads is to get you to respond expressing your interest in this unbelievable deal. Once you have responded the poster will get back to you explaining that the unit is still available and all you need to do is send them money to some faraway land that they happen to be located in because of some misfortune that they are experiencing. Once you send them the money they will send you the keys and the place will be yours. How AWESOME is THAT?!

Just thinking about the people who post these ads makes my skin crawl. The worst part about it though is that people are falling for this every day! I have actually met people who have sent thousands of dollars to some friendly stranger and then been shocked weeks later when they realize that they not only don't have a place to live, but they just got cheated out of the money that should have gone to finding a real place.

Here are some no fail guidelines to using Craigslist to find your next dream home without getting robbed by these disgusting thieves:

1. If it sounds too good to be true, it is. There is no such thing as a 5 bedroom for $900, no matter how pretty the pictures on the ad are, simple as that.
2. If there is no phone number listed, don't bother. This is one rule that I stick to pretty religiously. Anyone interested in legitimately renting their home out is not going to limit their inquiries to people with email access.
3. If there is a toll free number, I usually don't bother... This one isn't so much related to the scam as it is to another problem on Craigslist which is people trying to get you into a "Rent to Own" property which ends up costing you more in the long run, or they try to sell you a list of foreclosed properties that they claim you could buy with the amount you would be spending on rent.

So yeah, I guess those are my three main tips on avoiding wasting time on Craigslist. It can be a valuable tool in locating your next home, but only if you can dodge the scammers.