Real Estate Scams AbroadExpats living abroad should be aware of real estate scams. As an expat, you may be surprised to see the low cost of homes, apartments, and land in foreign countries. Unfortunately, you may get more than you bargained for. Many criminals prey on your desires for cheap property and set up elaborate scams to con you out of your hard earned money. One scam criminals use abroad involves sending you a letter from an embassy (usually from the United States) claiming to that the embassy wishes to sell you land at a discounted rate. The scam further claims that the embassy accidently purchased too much land and needs to quickly resell it at a discounted rate the get it off the books. You are instructed to immediately wire money to an account before others can purchase the “deal” before you. However, what you are actually doing is getting scammed and sending your money to a criminal. Many expats have fallen for this con and lost a lot of money. You should always contact the embassy directly. Never use the contact information listed on the letter you received; it’s all false. Instead, you should contact the embassy directly at a number you find in the telephone directory. Another scam involves document fraud. A criminal will advertise property at a discounted rate and specifically target foreigners to purchase it. The criminals do this by using sells pitches like “great vacation home” or “take advantage of the declining dollar”. Once you contact them, the criminal will offer to email pictures of the property, claiming that he is out of town on business and cannot physically show you the property. The criminal may in fact use actual photographs of properties that do indeed exist. However, in reality he is not the true owner. He may present false documents that claim he is the owner but these documents are false. To avoid this scam you should work with your embassy or a local attorney to ensure that everything is legit. Yet another scam involves criminals convincing you to list their name on the deed. How do they do this? Many foreign countries only allow its citizens to own property. No foreigners are allowed to be owners. A local may develop a relationship with you and convince you to purchase real estate in their country; however, you must list their name on the deed because you learn that foreigners can not own property. Once you do so, the local that you thought you could trust suddenly breaks contact with you. This person has legally stolen your property. In order to avoid this, you should never deed property to anyone. Also, you should understand that relationships you develop abroad may not be as genuine as you may think. Lastly, not all real estate scams are as blatant as these. Some scams involve true owners of properties with actual real estate to sell. You may negotiate a price and sign documents as you would in any real estate transaction. However, you may later discover that contracts are not as binding abroad as they are in your home country. The original owner may choose to take you to court in their country, again, where courts abroad are not as fair as they are in your home country. Many locals may bribe judges to decide on their behalf and there is little that you, as a foreigner, can do about it. Afterwards, you find that you have been scammed even though you thought you played by the rules. The point I would like to stress here is that sometimes if a deal seems too good to be true, then it probably is. Avoid real estate deals that appear to be great deals abroad. Real estate investing is both complicated and risky enough in your home country and even more risky abroad. So watch out for these real estate scams while in a foreign country.
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For a fraction of the costs that it would take to purchase real estate abroad, you may think that you can get a great deal compared to the prices at home, right?
