—And what of the scammer real estate agent? Is he in a 4 X 6 cell now?—
This was probably a Craigslist Scam. My wife and I came across it when we bought our home in KY but needed a place to rent in Seattle for a while. They offer a place unbelievably cheap and often are not even in the country.
In our case it was just rent. They just wanted someone to “watch their place” while they were out of the country for two years. In Nigeria, BTW. :-)
When we got their email response I told my wife that with CL you NEVER do business with someone that is not local. Turned out it was a scam that goes on all over Seattle and I’ve seen it here in central KY with the local on-line want ads when I was looking for a truck. In the age of the internet, you should never enter into a transaction with a person you can’t meet face to face with the exception of eBay or other organizations where anonymity is not an option.
Period.
Mr. Mercat rents our residential rental places through Craig’s List. So far its worked out well. He knows to be careful though. Most of our tenants are friends of former tenants - word of mouth.