I've been searching for a rental apartment for the first time in years, and one thing was immediately clear: the market has changed dramatically. The prices are much higher, options for long-term rentals are very limited, and scams are everywhere. At The Local Italy we've heard from many people who've been stung or had a near miss with scammers preying on people making an international move. We've reported how rental scams have increased in recent years.
Velasquez would rent cars from dealerships and list them for sale online, Chang said. When interested buyers would contact her, Velasquez would ask for a down payment or monthly payments, and once they paid it off, she promised to give them the car, Chang said. The cars would end up being repossessed or reported stolen and buyers never got their cars, according to Chang.
At first, Sicari, the top rental broker at Douglas Elliman, who leads a team of six other agents, assumed the callers were clients. 'Oh, which apartment?' she'd ask. But the addresses they gave her didn't exist, nor did the prices: $950 for a Soho studio, $2,500 for a loftlike two-bed, two-bath in Greenwich Village, a Gramercy one-bedroom in a luxury doorman building for $1,800 a month.