Oahu Property Management Company Protects Clients & Public Against Rental Scams & Fraud

Does your Oahu Property Management Company take steps to protect your property from exposure to online scams and fraud?

The answer is YES, if you work with Home Shoppe Hawaii Property Management. Home Shoppe Hawaii manages rental properties in Kailua, Honolulu rentals, and Oahu rental properties in other areas of the island.

At Home Shoppe Hawaii, we rely on the Internet to market our available Oahu rental properties beyond Honolulu County.  The Internet is the best place for maximum global exposure for Oahu rentals.  Our award winning property management software, Appfolio, has a unique marketing feature that blasts our available properties to over thirty rental property Internet sites worldwide.  These Watermarks identify photo ownership, and deter would-be thieves.sites include Trulia, Zillow, Rent.com, Hotpads.com, Apartment.com, to name just a few.  We also market our Oahu rental properties on Craigslist. As a result, our Home Shoppe Hawaii rental properties have wide-spread visibility which leads to quick rental. 

Unfortunately, like many other Honolulu property management companies and independent landlords, Home Shoppe Hawaii has also had our ads hi-jacked by criminals. Sadly, rental fraud is becoming more and more prevalent in Honolulu and other areas of Oahu. Rental scams usually occur when the ads for property for sale or for rent are stolen by would-be fraudsters. These criminals take legitimate information and photos and market our Oahu rental properties or homes for sale in Honolulu County as their own rentals. The rental scammers make-up plausible stories to convince people to rent these properties sight-unseen and to send deposits, which are then stolen. Usually, the properties are advertised at under-market price points, that seem to good to be true, to encourage many applicants.

For example, Home Shoppe Hawaii was recently called by some scam victims who had paid a $900 deposit to rent unit 1206 in a Kailua condominium building. They found me online and asked me to look up the name of the Kailua property manager to see if the person was a REALTOR. These poor fraud victims had recently arrived on-island, expecting to move in and could not get in touch with their supposed “Kailua property manager.”  They came to find out there there was no 12th floor in the building that they thought they had rented in and the address they rented did not even exist. Needless to say, the person with whom they made contact also was not a REALTOR. I did some investigating and found out the photos used for the Kailua rental were from a 2 bedroom unit that has been for sale, on a lower floor of the same building. The phone number they had used to contact the supposed Kailua landlord was now disconnected. This was not a Home Shoppe Hawaii ad that was hi-jacked, but a disturbing story nevertheless.

Home Shoppe Hawaii’s Multi-Step Approach to Deal With Rental Scams

The following multi-step process helps to protect our Oahu property management clients from unwanted hassle and the public from potential loss and heartache associated with rental scams.

1.  Watermarks.  Home Shoppe Hawaii is now watermarking all of our rental photos – this is intended to alert potential victims to the fact that the pictures are stolen from Home Shoppe Hawaii and are not the property of the fraudster. 

2.  Signage.  We place both our Home Shoppe Hawaii Property Management vinyl window sticker and, when possible, our outdoor street sign on the property – this is send a clear message to visitors of the property that the property is under professional property management. Street sign not only advertises the property, but alerts potential renters that the property is under professional management.

3.  Personal Viewings.  Home Shoppe Hawaii Property Management maintains a strict policy that no application for rental property is complete without a viewing of both the inside and the outside of the premises.  If the propective tenant cannot view the Oahu rental property personally, he or she is required to appoint a representative to view the property for them.

4.  Google® Alerts.  Finally, and most importantly, we set up a Google® alert for all of our Oahu rental properties.  Google® alerts work to scan the Internet for a particular phrase – daily – and alert the user of the discovery of the information.

For our Oahu rental properties we generate alerts for the address of the property — partial address and full address.  Google® sends us an email each day (or more frequently when the property is being marketed) if the address is detected by their crawlers.  It provides us the link to the location, and we can immediately address any potential instances of fraud.  Ad hi-jackers can strike at any time – and so we maintain these Google® alerts through-out the course of our management of the property.

What Can You Do to Help Prevent Rental Fraud on Oahu?  

One of the most important steps in combatting fraud, is awareness of the problem.  Also:

~ Report fraudulent ads and tell your friends and family about information you have seen or received.  

~ Never give your personal information or send money without first having seen the inside of the property.  A legitimate Oahu property manager or landlord will meet you at the rental property to show you the inside.  

~ Know that if a stated rent seems too good to be true - it probably is.

~ Check to see if the advertised Property Manager is licensed. Property managers on Oahu are not always required to be licensed (there are a few exceptions, such as when an owner rents out his or her own property, which does not require a real estate license), but having a property manager with a real estate license listed is one clue that the ad may be legitimate. You can check on a property manager’s real estate license here.

~ Be wary and do your own Google® search for the Oahu property address - you may just find the legitimate landlord and ad in your search!

For more information on how Home Shoppe Hawaii works to protect your Oahu investment property, please contact Yvonne Ahearn (B) at (808) 721-8088.

Where to Find a Kailua Rental Property

Drive through the Kailua neighborhood you want to be in, and look for signs!I answer this question about Kailua rental properties each week.  With Kailua’s idyllic lifestyle, beautiful beaches and proximity to everywhere – many wish to settle here.  If you are like so many others looking for a Kailua rental property – and we don’t have anything available — try the following links:

• The Oahu MLS rentals can be found at www.hicentral.com

Click to read more ...

Oahu Property Management | Setting Monthly Rent for Oahu Rental Properties PART 2

How to Set the Monthly Rent for your Oahu Rental Property
Part 2 — VIEW PROPERTY 

In my previous blog post – I outlined some challenges we face when deciding on a market rent rate for an Oahu rental properties, and provided my formula for determining market rents on Oahu:

A.  View Property

B.  Research Rentals

C.  Research Market Variables

D.  Set Rent

               The first step is to view property – not just YOUR property, but other Oahu rental properties as well!  If you can see others in person, that would be helpful, but pictures and phone calls will suffice.

               To ensure that you are comparing Oahu rental properties of similar status, size, and quality, you should pay attention to at least the following factors:

Click to read more ...

Oahu Property Management | Setting Monthly Rent for Oahu Rental Properties PART 1

How can I determine how much to charge for monthly rent on my Oahu rental property? 

What is the fair market rent for my Oahu rental property? 

I am collecting $X per month in rent … is this fair rent for my Oahu rental property?

I get asked these questions all the time.  I often wonder if there is a secret formula out there that I am not aware of and so every so often, I Google® it.  The truth is, every property manager and owner manager sets the rent for their rental properties differently.  Some use comps, others add market conditions, and first-time Oahu investment owners often take into consideration their monthly mortgage/tax/insurance payment.  Add to this, the fact that in Hawaii, we don’t have good rental statistics from which to compare monthly rents (that is, statistics on Oahu investment properties that are rented rather than on offer for rent).   In fact, the only way Oahu property managers can determine what rental properties are actually rented for is to use their currently rented inventory as a gauge and to search our MLS for “rented” properties. 

Click to read more ...

Keeping Your Oahu Investment Property Secure with Home Shoppe Hawaii Oahu Property Management

Feel Secure with Home Shoppe Hawaii Oahu Property ManagementToday, I received a call from the Honolulu police. They contacted me after they Googled a particular Kailua rental property. When they used that address, my name popped up as an Oahu real estate broker who could help with the home.  I get calls like this a lot, because I subscribe to a buyer lead referral service, but usually not from the police. 

The Honolulu police were calling because the fire alarm on this particular Kailua home was going off. It appeared to be vacant and there was an old-style lock box on the property. Seemed to the officer like a Kailua rental property that wasn’t rented at the moment and perhaps, there was a property manager.  So he found me online, though this was not a Home Shoppe Hawaii managed or listed Kailua property. I was able to look up the owner name in the tax records but I could not help beyond that.

Click to read more ...

Turn Your Home into an Oahu Investment Property

You’ve decided to build wealth with real estate, and rather than sell your property to buy a new one, you will instead convert your home into an Oahu investment property.  It’s a wise move.  Generally, the first few years of mortgage payments are equal to or greater than the monthly rent you could charge, making losses likely.  Some investors welcome the loss due to the tax effects, but as many shy away from the opportunity.  Eventually, monthly rents will exceed your monthly mortgage payment, making the prospect of converting your home into an Oahu investment property appealing, and profitable.  Here are some tips* to make the transition:

Click to read more ...