House Flippers and the Internet

[The Last Standing Knight]

In a recent thread on spam calls, member 'deadin' dbrought recieving calls from these people. I wanted to comment on that but in a different thread.

I have a 90 year old relative who is recieivng constant calls from these people to the point of that is what the vast majority of her phone calls are. I have recieved them myself.

Unforntuantely, some of these house flippers have gone to extremes. I have actually caught them driving by or stopping in front of my house. All asking about buying it. A few have made less-than-thinly veiled threats about it as well...."Oh, you're going to sell it or else..." they never state "what else" is or even return. I am watchful and more than a little cautious.

I consider houseflipping to be little more than the new form of blockbusting from decades back. But there was ONE thing I discovered on this: THERE ARE SEVERAL WEBSITES THAT SHOW MY HOUSE AND THAT IT IS FOR SALE.

No it isn't...but it is listed as such. I have approached several of these sites and had the ads taken down...but it was like sweeping the ocean back with a broom. They come right back up.

If they are doing it to me, then they are doing it a lot. I consider most of these house flippers to be nothing more than scams themselves...at least the ones I have encountered are.

Spam calls ARE increasing and it is to the point that even when you recognize the number, it has been spoofed my some guy working out a sweatshop in Mumbai telling me my social security number has been cancelled or selling me Medicaid. Call registries do not work and even they are becoming more and more threatening with their remarks.

 

[mckenney99]

So far, all the "house buyer" nuisance has been via the mail, some times 3 or 4 times a week and via texts on my cell. I have reported the texts to my cell phone carrier as spam and some have still gotten through for a second or third time using the same number after being reported. Some of the spam calls on my home phone may be from the same bunch but they have not left any messages. I would love to have them drive by, at least I could have a face to face "conversation". I don't respond well to threats or attempts at intimidation.

 

[arjay]

Legit flippers don't threaten nor intimidate they offer cash and want to negotiate. The other guys are plain old fraudsters

 

[Onomea]

Odd that the websites list your house for sale. If I plug in my address, there are numerous sites that estimate its current market value and list what I bought it for in 2020, but all state it is off market at this time.

If real estate sites are listing your property for sale, you could, I think, report them to whoever is responsible for real estate agent licensing in your state. If they aren't real estate sites, maybe report them to the aforementioned authorities anyway. I'm sure legit realtors don't appreciate fake ones mucking up the market.

Probably illegal, too. Maybe call up your city/town office and ask who to report this activity to.

Good luck.

 

[NYlakesider]

Living up here on the lake with property selling at very high prices we received a few post card type items from realtors. Two even come up my long hilly driveway to ask me was I interested in selling and the money they could sell it for. Numbers were interesting.

A bunch of places sold the first day on market, many others in a few days and a few price wars happened. A retired good friend had his property advertised for sale. It went for about $50,000 more than advertised, with 3 people basically bidding on it. They had funds and there are quite few stories like that happened on the lake.
The biggest problem is the newbies are wealthy people moving out of a Covid hit urban area and not our kind of people!

As far as spam calls on that subject no it did not happen. Course for years as we have a LL as Cell service is a no-go here we leave our answering machine on 24-7. May calls just terminate and the other idiot calls that leave a number just get deleted. Hey you do what you got to do.

 

[LVSteve]

The real estate market is softening a little here in Vegas, and it's about time. The Zillow estimates on the worth of our pile of sticks are just laughable. Maybe now the bank will stop sending me home equity loan offers every week. Up until Christmas I was getting one or two cards a month from realtors wanting to know if we wanted to sell.

 

[Golddollar]

As far as spam calls on that subject no it did not happen. Course for years as we have a LL as Cell service is a no-go here we leave our answering machine on 24-7. May calls just terminate and the other idiot calls that leave a number just get deleted. Hey you do what you got to do.

I do the same thing as the cell service here was a little shaky when I first moved here. i have about the same results with calls where I don't recognize the number or name.

Some of these callers are not exactly the brightest bulbs on the porch. Twice I've had somebody try to spoof me with my own phone number. I've been talking to myself for years and didn't need a telephone to do it.