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The Texas Real Estate Commission WARNS about DFW BROKERAGE
SCAM
The Texas Real Estate Commission ( TREC ) Standards and
Enforcement Services Division has received complaints against
a group of individuals and companies that have been doing
business in the Dallas–Fort Worth area.
The individuals and companies named in the complaints
represent themselves as real estate agents and real estate
brokerage companies but do not hold Texas real estate
licenses. Owners of real property, tenants, buyers and
investors claim to have lost large sums of money because
of the group's schemes, which allegedly include:
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taking
and keeping deposits for properties over which they have no
authority or no control,
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not
paying rent to property owners on property they claim to
manage for those owners, and
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taking
deposits or earnest money on properties that they claim are
available for a short sale but in reality are days away from
foreclosure.
TREC states that Much of the solicitation of potential victims
has been conducted through
www.craigslist.com,
Make
sure you know who you are dealing with
Before consumers give personal information, money, or
financial information to any person claiming to be a real
estate agent, they should verify the identity of the person
and check whether that person actually holds a Texas real
estate license.
All active
Texas real estate license numbers are held by TREC and are
public information.
License information can be obtained by doing a “licensee
lookup” on TREC’s website,
www.trec.state.tx.us, or by calling TREC at 800-250-TREC
or 512-465-3942.
Be safe, if a real
estate agent you are working with will not produce a valid
Texas real estate license at your request, don't do business
with them.
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