18/10/2025
HOW TO SPOT SCAMMERS PRETENDING TO BE LANDLORDS OR AGENTS ON SOCIAL PLATFORMS
These criminals are not easy to identify but the following tips will save your life, money, dignity and mental health.
Take these tips extremely seriously.
1. Those who comment on posts of house hunters with "No Agent", followed by another comment of a picture of a house are absolute fake. No landlord advertises houses like that.
2. Those who post houses with photos but very scanty information. Which genuine agent or Landlord hides the price or location of a vacant house? If you must ask for location, price, contacts and basic features, that's a criminal you're dealing with.
3. Those who post houses but block people from commenting. They put their contacts for you to call. If you love your life, don't ever engage them.
4. Their posts are full of errors. Poor grammar. They write everything in CAPITAL LETTERS, without even punctuating. Marketing is a profession of serious communication. Scammers are in too much hurry to proofread their posts.
5. They don't want to meet you. Anyone claiming to have a vacant house but cannot meet you for viewing should be treated as a scammer. Genuine agents or landlords give your viewing the first priority.
6. They want you to pay for a house you haven't seen. They claim you are booking with a refundable fee because another person also wants it.
7. They want you to pay immediately, threatening to rent out the house to another person. Do not pay for the house just because you have seen it. Sometimes a conman will take you to a house that is unlocked and pretend to be the owner.
8. They post give you too good to be true offers. Imagine an own compound of Ksh 15,000 or a single room with free WiFi for Ksh 3000 pm. There are no bedsitters of Ksh 5000 in Nairobi!
9. They are more concerned about viewing fees than they are about you getting the house you want. They even get angry when you ask something like if there is a resident caretaker or if the kitchen is fitted with cabinets. Extremely mean with information. All they want is you to go see a house you have no certainty that it's your best fit.
This last point is very crucial because very many people claiming to be house hunting agents are actually smooth scammers.
They are scamming both you and the Landlord.
This may not be too obvious.
4 powerful tips to get a genuine vacant house:
1. If you love your money, health and life, never trust any house posts from unregistered companies, however desperate you are.
Of course some people are genuine advertisers while others are scammers.
But you can't know with certainty who is real and who is fake.
Verified genuine advertisers know where to post their houses. Just not on social media platforms.
Better to be safe than sorry.
2. Deal only with registered property agents.
They have offices you can visit or websites or pay bill numbers bearing their company names.
After you get a lead to a house, ask to visit their office or meet them in the property.
If they tell you they are Renters Hub's ground agents, their houses must be posted on the national platform.
AVOID STREET DEALS AT ALL COST...Ati tukutane pale equity tuongee. That's recipe for premium tears.
Anyone talking about viewing fees before asking you for what you are looking for in a house is a smooth scammer. Avoid such unprofessional, incompetent agents.
No serious Landlord or agent will ask you to pay for a house because it might be taken by another person.
3. Stop looking for leads to houses on social media.
You don't want to get the unwanted attention of the criminals waiting to scam you.
They will show you very good houses renting too cheaply and ask you to pay "deposit" even before getting into that house.
However intelligent you think you are, you are not a match for them.
4. Search for houses on registered websites, that verify house owners/agents before posting houses.
Here, you can find leads to a house in 2 minutes, even at night, free of charge.
And get all the details of the house even before calling the verified landlords or agents for a pin location.
If you don't find one, ask their customer care to connect you with a landlord or agents they can verify, for a manual search.
Meaning you no longer need to walk the whole day searching for vacant houses.
No more swollen feet, headaches, exhaustion and confusion.
No need to pay someone your sweet money to find you a house.
You can compare many houses in one place before choosing the one suited to your needs.
And you don't need to fear being conned, robbed or r***d by criminals; you're safe.
Good examples are Renters Hub , Hauzisha and Buyrentkenya.
Renters Hub is purely a rentals website, so, you only see what you're looking for.
Renters Hub even guarantees to return your money back should you ever be scammed on their platform.
And if you don't get exactly what you're looking for, contact their customer care on 0731352350.
If you found this information valuable, please share it with just 2 of your closest friends.
You're welcome.
