House for sale pops up on fake rental listing

HOUSTON – A Realtor is sounding the alarm after the home he’s selling popped up on a fake rental listing on Craigslist.

Realtor Randall Stewart, owns his own company is in the process of selling a home in the Willowbend neighborhood, but noticed he’s had a lot on inquiries about renting it.

“I had two or three people call and ask me, that got my number off the sign, (asking) ‘Is this for real? Is this house really being offered for $850 a month?’ And of course I said, 'No,'” Stewart said.

He said people alerted him to a Craigslist ad stating the home at 4510 Creekbend Drive is available to rent for $850 a month, when really it’s only for sale at $369,000.

“He (the person who created the ad) had encouraged them not to contact a Realtor, and that Realtors would give them some wrong information,” Stewart explained. "It has the name of the owner, but then it has an email address. It doesn't have a phone number. It just has an email address saying contact the owner at this email address."

KPRC reached out to the email listed on the ad, but did not hear back.

Stewart worries that there may be others who have contacted the false ad and possibly even given money.

“Make sure you have a reliable source that you’re dealing with, because there are people listed in other means committing fraud trying to get your money and if it sounds too good to be true it probably is,” Stewart said.