How to verify rental exists?

[Pamelah]

We want to rent a villa in TV for January 2015. Received an offer and agree with rent and stipulations. Just want to make sure the villa exists and its bona fide. Checked owners names on Google and location on Google Earth; all good. Any other suggestions before I send check? Cautious Calley!

[Bizdoc]

Go to www.sumtergis.com

You can search by address or owner name (I'd suggest address as some ownership is by a trust or by more than one person)

[Schaumburger]

We want to rent a villa in TV for January 2015. Received an offer and agree with rent and stipulations. Just want to make sure the villa exists and its bona fide. Checked owners names on Google and location on Google Earth; all good. Any other suggestions before I send check? Cautious Calley!

Pamelah, If you know what county the villa is in (either Lake County, Marion County or Sumter County), I would suggest that you go onto the tax collector's web site of that county and type in the address of the home you are renting. I have used this method in the past to verify that the person(s) I was sending my rental money to actually owned the house. Good luck with your rental and have a great time in The Villages.

[rayschic]

We want to rent a villa in TV for January 2015. Received an offer and agree with rent and stipulations. Just want to make sure the villa exists and its bona fide. Checked owners names on Google and location on Google Earth; all good. Any other suggestions before I send check? Cautious Calley!

How did you hear of the rental ?
if the person advertises on ****.com or some other website, you can usually see reviews from past renters.
Definitely check the county tax records website to verify the owner.
If you post the address that you are thinking of renting on here, I'm sure that someone that lives nearby could verify it for you.

[big guy]

Go to www.sumtergis.com

You can search by address or owner name (I'd suggest address as some ownership is by a trust or by more than one person)

This doesn't prove or disprove anything. We own 2 houses and neither come up when I put in the address or name.

[rayschic]

Sumter County Property Appraiser (http://www.sumterpa.com/GIS/)

This is the link for Sumter County.

[OBXNana]

Have you considered asking if they accept PayPal? If not, it's easy for both the owner and renter to sign up. The owner then gets verified funds and the renter can contest the charge through PayPal. It's a win/win for both parties.

[redwitch]

Sent you a PM.

[vj1213]

If you are renting privately you can call the sales office and ask to speak to the temporary ID dept., (Brenda) and she will verify with you the owners of the property.

[Yung Dum]

We want to rent a villa in TV for January 2015. Received an offer and agree with rent and stipulations. Just want to make sure the villa exists and its bona fide. Checked owners names on Google and location on Google Earth; all good. Any other suggestions before I send check? Cautious Calley!

Thank you for bringing up this subject. I will be renting soon and it never occurred to me to verify rental is for real. There's a lot of scammers out there. Thanks again.

[Villager Dude]

Smart to check this out.

I was looking for a rental once, not here, and went by the house to see what it looked like and it had a for sale sign . I called the agent listed and found out the rental side was a scam.

I would be cautious if you cannot verify the owner with the address you will be mailing the check.

[rjm1cc]

Also verify the home address of the landlord. Assume that is where you mail the deposit.
Look through this site to see if there is any mention of the person or property.
Look and see if the property is listed here. The Villages 4 Rent, Rentals in The Villages (http://villages4rent.com/). Might help.
You could see if you can find a neighbor and call and ask if they know anything.

[TomH]

I have sent you a PM.

[redwitch]

I'd say that the risk of the rental not being by the owners is slim (not non-existent, but slim). The bigger risk is that the property is not as advertised -- many pictures are old, out of date. The property may not have been maintained as promised. I know of one renter that requested that the homeowners get someone to take pictures of the interior with a newspaper showing that day's headlines so that they knew the property was as advertised.

I also know of at least one instance where renters paid their deposit and the agent (a franchise of a national real estate company) renting the property went out of business, keeping the deposits (and sometimes the full rental amount). Some of the homeowners were gracious enough to let the renters still have the property without having fork over additional funds. Some told the renters they were sorry but they needed to get the funds. It was not a pretty situation for anyone.

However, these are truly isolated. If you find a property in a for rent by owner site, you will usually find someone renting their home until they're ready to move here. The properties are in great condition and very nice.

[kansasr]

You are smart to be cautious....a couple of years ago my sister called me all excited about a rental she had found (not in The Villages). It sounded to good to be true and a little sleuthing on my part found that the person "renting" the property was not the owner. When my sister contacted the actually owner, she knew nothing about it. My sister dodged a bullet on that one.

[Pamelah]

Thanks for all suggestions! I requested a water/sewer/trash/activity bill which was promptly supplied. I'm satisfied we did due diligence. Looking forward to January!