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.

LANIKAI HOME FOR RENT | Rare 3BR/2BA Historic Oceanfront Lanikai Beach House for Rent

Looking for the best view on Oahu? Home Shoppe Hawaii was recently selected to manage this exclusive 1920’s era oceanfront rental home in Lanikai, Kailua.  With availability beginning mid-September, the fully-furnished Lanikai Beach property is available to rent short term - monthly, or long term - up to six (6) months (and month to month thereafter).

This Lanikai home for rent, originally built in 1926, offers three full bedrooms, two bathrooms, kitchen, dining room, living room, covered entry lanai and spacious outdoor living space.

Sweeping ocean views — Kailua Bay to the Mokuluas and beyond. Photo by Cynthia Haws.

With nearly 1,500 square feet of interior living space, this Lanikai rental home features high ceilings, wood floors, and period architectural decor. One hundred linear feet of ocean frontage provides sweeping views of Kailua Bay, Flat Island, the Mokuluas and beyond. And sandy Lanikai Beach, the prettiest beach on the island of Oahu, is just a short walk away.

This Lanikai oceanfront property also features a 14,000 square foot fully landscaped and fenced yard, providing privacy and plenty of room to pitch a volleyball net.  A detached two-car garage in addition to long gated drive-way provides ample parking.

Don’t miss this rare opportunity to rent a fully-furnished oceanfront home in the highly coveted Windward Oahu neighborhood of Lanikai, in Kailua.  

TERMS: $7,200/month, $7,200 deposit. Month to month, or up to six month lease. Fully furnished. Tenant will be billed for utilities (electricity and TV/Internet).  Landscaping and water provided.  Security deposit due at rental agreement signing. Available mid-September. 

Ossipoff Home for Rent: Architect-Designed Oahu Rental Property with History

Ossipoff homes or any other architect designed homes for rent are desirable, yet hard to find in Honolulu.  So Home Shoppe Hawaii is pleased to be currently marketing for rent a 1961 Ossipoff designed home in Waialae Nui Ridge, above Kahala.   Referred to by the Honolulu Acadamy of the Arts as “Hawaii’s most important modern architect[i],” Ossipoff was well known for incorporating the topography into his design, and for creating seamless indoor/outdoor living spaces.  This stunning Oahu rental home is built against the hillside, set apart from neighbors (also Ossipoff designed homes) so as to take advantage of the breathtaking ocean, Diamond Head and city views.

Breathtaking views from this Ossipoff designed Oahu rental property.

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