Zillow Rental Scam Hits Tucson

I expect that most landlords have received poorly written emails from people who claim in bad English they want to rent a house sight-unseen, but for some absurd reason, the landlord needs to send the bogus tenant money.

One of my colleagues at Tierra Antigua has twice been the victim of a new, much more ingenious scam. The scammer copies a legitimate for-rent ad from Zillow, lowers the rent in his fake ad to the too-good-to-be-true level, and pretends to be the property manager. Unsuspecting renters send this fake landlord a security deposit. Then, of course, all communication from the fake landlord ceases. The renter is understandably angry that his security deposit has disappeared, and directs his anger at the actual property manager, whose identity has been stolen by the scammer.

When I put a listing in the Multiple Listing Service, it is automatically picked up by Zillow, Trulia, Yahoo.com, Realtor.com, and hundreds of other sites. This is usually a good thing. But if Zillow is unable to catch and prosecute the perps, the National Association of Realtors may have to reconsider the practice of allowing other websites to use our listing data.

In the comments following the Inman News article, many agents comment that the scam comes to an abrupt halt when the prospective tenant drives by the house and sees the real listing agent's sign in front of it, and calls the real listing agent. Unfortunately, not all prospective renters take this step and want to believe that an offer that's too-good-to-be-true might nevertheless be true.

One agent suggests that listing agents set up a Google search for the address of all properties that an agent lists in the MLS. Then if the listing is copied by a scammer on craigslist, Zillow, Trulia, etc., I will know about it. Reading all those emails (most of which will be legitimate repostings of my listing) will be a lot of work, but apparently this sort of diligence is required in the digital age.

Lost a Neighbor, Kept a Friend

I was disappointed when my neighbors Joe and Wayne told me they wanted to sell their house, but I'm glad I was able to help them. This is from Dr. Joseph Yukish, a trainer of teachers:

After waiting four years in the housing crisis for the house to sell, we decided to list again with Donna. She is the most amazing person and wonderful realtor. Her knowledge about the market helped us to create realistic expectations for the sale of our home, and it did, in fact, sell! Finally!!! Although Donna is not the one who found the buyer, she made the sale of our home possible by 1. Giving us suggestions about how to prepare it for the market. 2. Following up immediately with the realtor who brought a prospective buyer to look at our home. She would then give us feedback about what the buyer's impression of the home was, IMMEDIATELY! 3. Throughout the listing, she made us aware of the state of the housing market was in Tucson, allowing us to set realistic expectations for a selling price. 4. When we did get an acceptable offer, she orchestrated the proper submission of paperwork or duties we needed to complete to take the sale to closure. 5. The buyer wanted to make some renovations to our home, and Donna was excellent in setting up times for her contractor to come into the home allowing us to deal with taking care of Thumper and Lady Gray our pet cats. 6. And finally, she took us through the closing process in person, sitting by our side to answer questions and support us in the necessary procedures. I have bought and sold many homes in my life, and I place Donna Moulton at the "top of the heap" of realtors who worked with me. She is professional, competent, and very understanding of the angst and reactions homeowners have when selling their home. I was once told by a counselor that selling a home and moving is one of the top five stressors one must deal with in a lifetime. If you want to make selling your home possible, I can't promise it will be less stressful, but I can tell you this wonderful lady will be there to support and guide you through the ordeal. Hire her!!!!!!!

Lazuli Bunting

 If the Cactus Wren didn't already have the job, I would nominate the Lazuli Bunting for Arizona's state bird. Look how perfect he is: chrysocolla head and tail, and copper chest.

I am always impressed by how brave Mourning Doves are when they are on their nests. This one stays perfectly still whenever I go out on my back porch, and will not budge.

March Residential Sales Statistics

The Tucson Association of Realtors has published the Residential Sales Statistics for March 2013. Average sale price was $191,881, which is up 27% since the Tucson market hit bottom in September 2011. Average sale price is even up 5% in the past two months.

Dividing the 4,210 listings by the 1,329 sales gives a 3.2 month supply of listings. Anything below a six month inventory is a sellers' market.

1975 E Kleindale Road

Once you discover Richland Heights, every other Central Tucson neighborhood pales in comparison.

It's truly unique: huge lots, wide streets, close to the shops and restaurants on Campbell, and only two miles north of UofA. Miles and miles of biking and walking paths start at the Rillito River, about a mile away.

Unlike most of Central Tucson, here you are not in the flight path of the air force base. Check out the big, beautiful fireplace and open-beamed ceiling. Mid-century modern architecture is alive and unadulterated in this gracious home.

Living room, dining area, master suite and breakfast/family room all have sliding doors leading to the covered porch hugging the entire length of the house. You'll be delighted by the views of the snow on the Catalina Mountains in the winter and the dramatic lightning storms in the summer.

Four bedrooms, plus a den next the foyer--a great office or guest room. Kitchen counter and one of the three bathrooms are wheelchair accessible.

The 0.41 acre lot is rare in Central Tucson. So are the garage, workshop and abundant storage space inside and out. The interactive floor plan is here. Sold for $250,000 on June 28, 2013 to the perfect buyers. They love everything about the mid-twentieth century, and they appreciated the original character and fabulosity of this home. They don't plan to change a thing, which I think is keen.

New Uses for Old Pools

When I bought my home at the Desert's Edge, it had a repulsive pool. The water was blackish green, and I had to pull dead rodents and lizards out of it. It was surrounded by a hideous pool fence, and the pool equipment had caused some land subsidence. I got rid of it before I even started renovating the inside of the house.

I like the idea of converting a pool to a koi pond, but creating a cistern for landscape irrigation water is an even better idea.

Another Boost for Our Housing Market

Once again, Tucson is on a list of the best housing markets in the country. Fiserv Case-Shiller says Tucson is among the top 15 U.S. cities for projected increase in home values in the next five years. They are predicting 7.9% annualized home value appreciation for Tucson from 2012 to 2017. The projected national average home price increase is 3.3% over the next five years.

If you exclude the cities with horrible climates, or insane home prices, we're number one, I'd say.

Only Santa Fe has a lower unemployment rate than ours, which is 7.5%. National average is 8.1%.