Common Housing Scams in NYC Students Must Know About

Don’t be fooled by fraudulent apartment listings!

Moving to New York City can be exciting for students. But NYC’s rental market is very competitive. This creates chances for scammers to trick naive renters, especially new students. It’s important to use trustworthy sites like HousingPanda to find real listings.

Here are some common housing scams to watch out for:

1. Bait-and-Switch Scam – The scammer posts nice apartment photos online. But the real place looks completely different and run-down. Sometimes the apartment in the photos doesn’t exist for rent at all. The scammer baits you with good photos, then switches you to a bad rental.
2. Fake Broker Fee Scam – In NYC, renters often pay a fee to brokers for finding apartments. Scammers pretend to be brokers and demand you pay them a fee upfront. But they have no connection to the apartment and keep your money.
3. Too Cheap Rents – If the advertised rent is much lower than typical for that area, it’s likely a scam. Scammers use very low prices to get your attention quickly before you realize it’s fraud.
4. Upfront Cash Payment Scams – The scammer demands you pay a security deposit or rent upfront in cash before giving you keys or access. Once you pay cash, they disappear without letting you rent.
5. Fake Rental Listings – Scammers create completely fake listings for apartments they don’t control or that may not exist. They make up details and provide fake documents to seem legitimate.
6. Illegal Sublet Scams – Current tenants or people pretending to be tenants try to sublet an apartment they have no legal rights to sublet. They may disappear after you pay them.

HousingPanda Can Help!

NYC’s rental market is tough, so students need to be very careful about housing scams. Even the New York state government website has a warning about housing scams. Verify everything in person, use secure payments, check credentials, and be wary of any too-good-to-be-true situations or feeling rushed. Sites like HousingPanda help by offering a guaranteed payment service for sublets, and verifying identities of renters and hosts.