Five Ways Unscrupulous Real Estate Sellers Can Scam You.

When selling a home, it’s natural for people to want to get as much money as possible for their property. That’s why they often invest in renovations and upgrades just before listing, and why they hire home staging professionals to make it look its best. But not all home selling methods are honest: some unscrupulous sellers resort to dirty tricks to convince you to overpay for their property. Here are some tricks to watch out for during your next home inspection.

Home sellers may try to hide the true age of appliances.

When purchasing a home, one of the key factors is the condition and age of all appliances. Unscrupulous sellers may try to conceal the true age of their items to avoid offering a discount or having to replace outdated equipment, such as a furnace or HVAC system. They may always claim they don’t know when something was installed and try to avoid specifying the actual age of the equipment, but a competent property inspector can usually determine the date of manufacture and the expected installation date by looking at the serial number of each appliance.

That’s why some home sellers may try to prevent this by simply removing stickers or serial number plates from appliances or scratching them to make them illegible . Sometimes, they may even use a marker to try to change the installation date if one is present on the appliance. If you can’t easily find and read the serial numbers on your appliances, be wary, at the very least, and insist on finding out the actual age of the appliances.

Retailers could try relabeling household appliances using icons of expensive brands.

Most people aren’t experts in kitchen appliances, but many are aware of brand hierarchy and that some brands—like Viking—are extremely expensive and considered top-of-the-line. So, if you walk into your kitchen and see gleaming, stainless steel appliances with the Viking logo, you might be thrilled to think you’re about to buy the most luxurious kitchen you’ve ever owned. You might even be willing to pay a little extra if the appliances are included in the price.

And it could be a gimmick . In fact, you can buy appliance badges online from brands like Viking, slap them on your mid-range appliances (covering or removing the real logo), and hope buyers won’t know what the real high-end models look like. Obviously, this won’t work for those who understand appliances (or who have owned high-end models before), but for a few dollars, it’s an easy way to make your kitchen feel much more modern than it actually is. It’s only slightly better than those who leave brand-new appliances in place for the showroom, then replace them with older, beat-up versions after the deal closes, taking all the good stuff with them.

Sellers can use these tricks to make old appliances look newer and more expensive.

Appliances can make or break a kitchen and impact its resale price. A kitchen that looks new and recently renovated can significantly increase a home’s value. This prompts some budget-conscious sellers to try to give their kitchens a fresh new look with inexpensive upgrades.

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with updating an old, worn-out kitchen using some of these tricks—as long as you’re open about it. The problem arises when the seller makes you think things are new and in better condition than they actually are, and does nothing to dispel this misconception. Here are a few common tricks:

• Counterfeit Stainless Steel. People like the look of stainless steel and tend to consider stainless steel appliances to be of a higher quality than their white or black counterparts. It’s fairly easy and inexpensive to apply stickers, adhesive film, or vinyl wrap to appliances that will make them look like stainless steel, making it easy for buyers to assume these shiny appliances are newer and more expensive than they actually are. Always check serial numbers—and be wary if they’re hidden or missing.

• Updated oven grates, handles, and hardware . Combined with a stainless steel decal, replacing old, rusty burner grates with new, more modern ones, and replacing plastic handles with metal ones can give an old oven a completely new look. Again, if it’s specified, there’s nothing wrong with it.

• Dishwasher Panel. One easy way to hide the condition of an old dishwasher is to add a panel that matches the rest of the cabinetry. This will give it a high-end, built-in look that may confuse buyers into overlooking the appliance’s actual age and functionality. This can be done by yourself if you’re skilled enough, and it can even be considered a nice upgrade if you know what’s underneath.

Home sellers could make individual improvements to address more serious issues.

Everyone puts a certain amount of effort into preparing their home for sale. Deep cleaning, fresh paint, and necessary repairs are done shortly before listing to ensure the home looks its best and appears well-maintained. But sometimes these necessary repairs conceal a chronic problem that the seller hopes to conceal by fixing it “for now” and camouflaging the damage.

A telltale sign is a single improvement—for example, painting one wall in a room, replacing roof tiles, or installing new carpet in the third bedroom, but nowhere else. A single, isolated improvement or repair, no matter how well-made, can be a sign that something has happened there that the seller doesn’t want you to know about. At a minimum, such isolated improvements should be pointed out to your property inspector so they can pay extra attention.

Sellers can arrange furniture and decor in a way that hides the home’s flaws.

Another way sellers try to deceive potential buyers and hide problems is perhaps the oldest trick of all: simply hiding the problem behind something else. If a home is being shown furnished and possibly prepared for a showing, clutter and interior design can distract you from examining the home’s core elements—and, after all, we rarely rearrange furniture during a home viewing. Here are a few common tricks to watch out for:

• Incorrectly arranged furniture. If there’s too much furniture in the room, or the sofas and armchairs are awkwardly arranged, making the room uncomfortable, it’s time to inspect the space under and behind the furniture to check for any damage to the walls and flooring that the seller doesn’t want you to see.

• Decorative curtains and drapes. If you see voluminous floor-to-ceiling curtains or drapes in a room, consider whether there’s actually a window behind them. They may have been added to hide water damage or another problem.

• Brand new carpet or rugs. If you have brand new carpet or rugs in one part of your home, but the flooring elsewhere is worn, check underneath them if possible. They may have added them to quickly hide the problem.

• Propping the doors. Did the seller kindly prop all the doors so you could move around the house freely during the showing? That’s great. Now remove the door stops and make sure the doors actually close properly.

• Fresh Air. Making your home smell nice is an old trick when selling real estate. A fresh batch of cookies or a quick airing out are certainly nice, but if your house smells like someone sprayed a gallon of Febreze air freshener everywhere, there might be something more sinister lurking underneath—like mold or cigarette smoke.

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