A vacant home in Dublin was being used as a shipping address by criminals who had stolen the identity of someone and were having their purchases sent to the house. The police are involved. Please take care to protect property/listings that are vacant. In addition to making sure all doors and windows are properly closed and locked, check on the property regularly. You can also notify neighbors and/or the police to keep an eye on the property.

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12/07/2016

Last night, eligible MLS Participants (Broker of Record/Designated REALTOR®) were sent a unique link to their online ballot for 2017 MLS Committee members. If you are the official MLS Participant (Broker of Record/Designated REALTOR®) for your company and did not receive this email, please contact vote@CRelections.com. Votes may be cast from Nov. 29 (12:00 a.m.) to Dec. 8 (11:59 p.m.), 2016.

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11/29/2016

He’s back – David Gale Scott
This guy, who keeps making cash offers on million-dollar plus homes then walks away from the deals, is back. The agent who was going to show him her listing had a weird feeling about this guy. He was being aggressive and way too friendly over the phone and in text messages, so she mentioned it to another agent in her office to have the agent keep an eye on her via the Real Agent Guard app. When she told her colleague the guy’s name, her colleague remembered seeing the posts about this guy in alerts. He asked if she was married and had children…he mentioned bringing a female friend, but was hesitant to bring her, or she would want to move in to the home with him, haha (his words).  He was trying to be very flirtatious via text and the agent just kept ignoring and answering questions only about the home. Again, just another reminder for agents to be aware of this fraudulent buyer.

Tenant moves in to a HUD property listed for sale and claims to have a signed rental agreement
Vicki Shaffner, Saxton Real Estate, reported that she had went for a final inspection of her HUD property (which was in contract and scheduled to close the following week), and found that a woman had moved in to the home; stating that she had signed a rental agreement and paid the supposed landlords $2,000 in cash. The woman further stated that she had found the name and number of the fraudulent landlords (Patty and Richard) on a bulletin board at the BP down the street from the property. She also stated that they had drove her pass several vacant HUD properties before selecting Vicki’s listing. They handed her the keys and she paid them in cash. Vicki did check with BP and was told that they didn’t have a bulletin board. Vicki’s sign and lockbox had also been removed. Reports were filed with both the police department and HUD.

See these and more at: https://www.columbusrealtors.com/alerts/default.aspx

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11/18/2016

On 11/8/16, eligible members were sent a unique link to their online ballot for 2017 Directors. If you did not receive this email, please contact vote@CRelections.com. Votes may be cast from Nov. 8 (12:00 p.m.) to Nov. 15 (11:59 a.m.), 2016.

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11/08/2016

From Columbus REALTORS®

Sales Associates Day parking is available in the Ohio Union South parking garage. The Ohio Union South Garage is located immediately adjacent to the north side of the building with access from High Street and College Road. This garage offers 800 visitor-only spaces. A passenger drop-off loop is located off of the 12 Avenue entrance to the Ohio Union.

Parking vouchers are available for $8.75 each. A parking voucher may be purchased online when ordering Sales Associates Day tickets or at the door. NOTE: Replacement fee for lost, misplaced or forgotten parking voucher is $8.75.

Directions for using parking voucher: As you exit the parking garage you will insert parking voucher first and then your parking ticket.

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10/13/2016

Please note, the standard form providers that are affiliated with Columbus REALTORS® have specific support methods. You’ll find the information below:

* Business Hours and contact phone numbers listed below were gathered from the webpage of each vendor on 10/10/16 and may be subject to change. Also, your individual brokerage may have separate contact details for a form provider. Before calling below, you may want to check with any internal support available through your brokerage. The MLS Technical Support team at Columbus REALTORS® cannot assist with these form providers outside of providing the contact information below.

FormsRus

Desktop sales: (800) 955-6284 – sales@formsrus.com
Tech Support: (408) 947-2107 – support@formsrus.com

Hours:

Monday-Friday, 9am EST – 5pm PST

http://formsrus.com/faq.cfm

Ziplogix/Zipforms

Main: (866) 693-6767

ZipLogix Help Desk: (586) 840-0140

Hours:

Monday-Friday: 24 Hours
Weekends and Holidays: 10am-10pm ET

http://support.zipform.com/

Dot Loop

Sales: (513) 257-0552 or sales@dotloop.com

Support (513) 257-0551 or support request

Hours:

https://support.dotloop.com/hc/en-us

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10/10/2016

The agent receives an e-mail from a “buyer” purporting to have property under contract and wants the agent to facilitate the closing – often a cash deal or large earnest money deposit from an “out of town” buyer. When the agent agrees, the fraudulent buyer sends funds in the form of a wire or check along with purchase and sale agreement. The agent might even know or confirm that the property really is listed for sale – and it is.  The amount for the contract even looks right given the list price/value. After a few days, the buyer says the deal fell through and asks for the money back saying, “a wire would be best.” The check or wire has either not cleared yet, or even if it has, it is still within the period for which payment can be stopped or reversed.  Either way, the agent ends up having paid out good funds, but has no good funds paid in. Below are suggestions from First American Title on how to protect yourself from Cyberscams:

1. Never wire out funds from your escrow account until you have confirmed that funds are IRREVOCABLY in your escrow account.
2. Contact the listing agent for the property at a KNOWN SAFE NUMBER – confirm that the property really is under contract to the parties with whom you are dealing.
3. BEWARE the deal out of nowhere!  Ask the buyer where they got your agency’s name.
4. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact your underwriter.

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09/21/2016

David Scott Gale who walked away from at least 4 contracts on million-dollar plus homes a few years ago is back at it again and using the same MO, where he makes a cash offer on a million-dollar listing and claims to want to close in 30 days. He never does any due diligence (negotiate in good faith, provide proof of funds or produces an earnest money deposit). We’ve been told that he is charming, tells lots of stories; many of which have been found to be lies. He has a rap sheet, is a registered sex offender and also has a securities violation. He hasn’t threatened any of the agents he’s been in contact with, but he does waste a lot of their time and no one knows what he’s up to. In the past, he’s looked at properties primarily in Southern Delaware County, but has also contacted agents about properties in Bexley and downtown Columbus. Just want to remind agents about this fraudulent buyer and his MO.

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09/12/2016

According to HER, Realtors®, two of their agents have received non-legitimate email inquiries from Al Maktoum almakt0808@gmail.com (863) 400-6366 x2 on two different properties through Zillow.

https://columbusrealtors.com/alerts/default.aspx

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09/07/2016

An agent in Newark was contracted by a potential seller, requesting an appointment to list his property at 60 Peach Blossom Road, in Pataskala. He had mentioned that he had seen her picture, thought she was pretty, and that he had known of her for about a year. This made her a little apprehensive about meeting with him alone, so she took a colleague with her to the listing appointment. When they arrived at the property, there was a heating and cooling van parked and running in front of the house. They asked the gentleman in the van about the owner and he said “the owner was running late and that he was there to help the owner move some things.” When the owner arrived, he was very insistent about them seeing the bedrooms in the home and took them to the loft. They tried to turn on the light in the loft, but it was taped off. So, her colleague turned on a light she had, saw that there was someone in the bed, and their instinct was to run. As they were trying to get out of the home, the door handle came off, so they had to run out through the garage. They called the police and found out the seller had a 20-year history of criminal activity from assault to sexual imposition. The agent wanted other REALTORS® to be aware of this incidence and to always trust their gut — if it doesn’t feel right, proceed with caution.

See more at: https://www.columbusrealtors.com/alerts/default.aspx

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08/29/2016