Lew Sichelman
It’s time to pay your utility bill, so you go online to find the, say, water company’s website to make your payment. Up pops a site that looks official. It has the company’s logo, professional layout and even the company name in the URL. So, you enter your payment information – and within hours, your bank account is drained dry.
It’s the latest scam levied against unaware homeowners. And what makes it so dangerous, said Genady Vishnevetsky, chief info security officer at Stewart Title Guaranty in Houston, is that criminals aren’t just blasting out random emails.
Instead, “They’re building websites that appear in your search results when you’re actively trying to pay a legitimate bill,” said the security expert. “You’re already in payment mode, ready to enter your banking information.”
In some cases, the thieves actually pay your utility bill so you won’t find out your money is gone until your balance hits zero.
To protect yourself, Vishnevetsky said go directly to the utility’s home page.
“Never search for the payment portal,” he advised. “Type the official URL into your browser. If you don’t know the official address, call the number on your bill.”
The security pro also warns people to give the URL a hard look before entering it, noting that scammers often use similar addresses to that of your utility but using different letters, added words or phone numbers that are off by a single digit. And beware if the site promises to pay your bill for a “small fee.”
“Your utility company doesn’t need an intermediary,” Vishnevetsky said. Nor will the utility ask for banking information over the phone.
Beer Gardens: The New ‘Third Place’
Gathering places like coffee shops and neighborhood parks, often called “third places,” have long been the staple of larger master-planned properties. But beer gardens?
Local breweries are a big draw for younger homebuyers, developers told the trade journal Builder recently. Indeed, they are vital, said a researcher.
“People are craving ways to feel connected and supported in their day-to-day lives, and if a community can offer that, they’ll have a real advantage,” she said.
A Texas builder told the magazine that his firm designs its properties “around human connection, not just homes.” A brewery or beer garden concept “fits naturally into our philosophy of building ‘cultural living rooms’ that promote joy, belonging and everyday interaction,” he said. “For us, it’s about creating an anchor for social life rather than simply adding another trendy amenity.”
FSBO Regrets Common
If you are planning to sell your home this year without the help of an agent, consider these statistics from Clever Real Estate:
Four out of 5 do-it-yourselfers regret going it alone, with 1 in 5 citing the most common lament: a lack of offers. Half felt overwhelmed by the process, and slightly more than that said buyers don’t trust them.
Clever also found that sellers with an agent earned an average profit of $207,500, $79,000 more than the average FSBO (For Sale By Owner) gain of $128,500.
More than a third of nontraditional sellers wished they had used an agent, while 2 in 5 wished they had priced their homes differently.
How Many Sales Are Teardowns?
About 7 percent of all single-family houses built last year were on sites where another house was demolished to make way for the new one, according to data from Home Innovation Research Labs.
Called “teardowns,” the new structures are mostly built in older neighborhoods where the houses they are replacing are largely out-of-date, derelicts or abandoned and the ground they sit on is worth more than the houses themselves. With teardowns, it’s usually more financially feasible to just knock them down and start over than to try to fix them up.
Contrast that to a new statistic about the flip side to the lack of inventory available in some housing markets.
A whopping 85 percent of the folks responding to a Nationwide Insurance survey plan to stay in their homes forever. The other 15 percent view their places as starter homes.
Lew Sichelman has been covering real estate for more than 50 years. He is a regular contributor to numerous shelter magazines and housing and housing-finance industry publications. Readers can contact him at lsichelman@aol.com.
