CLEARWATER, Fla. — Tampa Bay realtors are fed up with people copying their listings and trying to scam renters looking for a home. It’s an issue getting worse here in the Tampa Bay area as affordable housing becomes harder to come by.
“I’ve probably answered 50 calls over the weekend,” exclaimed Jess Rasemont, a realtor with Sellstate Legacy Realty in Tampa Bay.
Typically that’s exactly what a realtor wants when they list a property for sale, except when they’re selling a two-bedroom home in Clearwater for $343,000, and people are calling to rent it for $900 a month.
Jess Rasemont
“All Friday, all through the afternoon, all through the evening, all Saturday morning, all Sunday, I was fielding a ton of calls from renters potential renters who had seen the property listed for $900,” Rasemont explained.
The people calling said that the person claiming to be the owner via a post online told them that he took a new job in Texas and that they could drive by the home to see it. That’s when many of them saw the for sale sign out front and called Rasemont.
She also got a call from Pinellas County Consumer Protection telling her that her listing had been copied and pasted on Craigslist.
“I reached out to the person who listed their phone number posing as my seller,” Rasemont told ABC Action News.
In the text messages, the person had a Pinellas County area code, used the homeowner’s real name and asked for $1,800 for the…
