County works to counter real estate scams with new software

Free fraud alert service available for property owners

[  By Katherine Nettles  ]

In the wake of some major real estate scams in which home and/or property owners have learned too late that their property was sold without their knowledge or consent, the Gunnison County recording department is now offering a free fraud alert service to all property owners in the valley.

The county recently purchased the software through Tyler Technologies which alerts property owners when there is activity associated with their property. They are now encouraging property owners in the area to enroll in the fraud/document alert service to better keep track of any activity and documents associated with their property.

“Several real estate scams have happened here in Gunnison County,” says Gunnison County clerk Kathy Simillion. “Some have even gone as far as completing a sale.”

The way most scams work is that someone impersonates a property owner, most often one who owns vacant land but occasionally someone who owns a home, particularly a vacation home that goes unoccupied for long periods of time. The scammer lets a broker know they want to sell quickly, and they tend to communicate by text or a chatting app such as What’s App. The transaction is completed remotely and digitally and perpetrators are generally hard to track with use of unregistered “burner phones.” 

The rise of these crimes in the past few years has hit close to home in the Gunnison Valley, with numerous local realtors being contacted by a fraudulent seller and plenty of close calls. 

“We have been made aware of numerous recent scams in the area and are constantly vigilant about fraud. Some have even made it to the MLS,” says Christian Hauck with Land Title Guarantee Company in Crested Butte. 

Michelle Gerber, CEO of the Gunnison-Crested Butte Association of Realtors (GCAR), says there must be continual vigilance as the scams come to almost anyone in the industry. GCAR and the Colorado Association of Realtors issued a fraud alert when the scams started in 2022 advising people to be cautious and to report any suspicious activity to local authorities or the Colorado Bureau of Investigation at [email protected].

Long-time North Valley realtor Maggie Dethloff has had several people contact her fraudulently in attempt to use her as a selling agent, but she has been able to identify the difference between fraud and a legitimate seller. 

“I’ve been approached a couple of times, but it’s always easy for me to see through the language used in texts and the way they want to communicate only by text,” she says. “I’ve had other people say they want to buy property and saying they have x amount of dollars they want to spend. And that is not how people generally speak about real estate.”

Dethloff has also had clients whose property was targeted for fraud but who found out in time to prevent a sale. 

“Usually, it’s just vacant land that gets targeted, because people aren’t paying as much attention to it,” she says. “They are coming at us from all angles, through realtor.com, by text, by email.” 

Dethloff says the first thing she does when she is contacted about a sale is go to the MLS listing platform, find the property owner’s previous agent and let them know what’s going on so they can contact the owner. 

Dethloff said a couple of years ago, before people were as aware of the problem, one of her clients was targeted but the scam failed. She says she learned of the issue when her clients’ neighbor contacted them after seeing the property for sale online. “They had an agreement that if he was ever ready to sell he would offer it to the neighbor first,” says Dethloff. “I called the broker and let her know it wasn’t for sale.”

Dethloff stresses the importance of brokers being aware and asking questions.

“It is very common to not necessarily meet your client, but that’s when you have to ask questions and do your research.”

She recommends that if someone believes they might have been targeted, try to get on the phone with them to ask if they know the area and the exact location of their lot and nearby landmarks.

“It’s just as much on us as realtors to look into these things,” she says. “It’s up to us to do our homework too. It’s unbelievable to me the number of scammers out there.” 

There has been at least one example in the county where a property did go all the way to closing. The realtor involved is no longer in the industry, and the property sold was in the Skyland area. According to several sources, the scammer closed on that property, listed another vacant property in CB South and then a third one on Sunflower Drive in Mt. Crested Butte. Fortunately, they were stopped before the other two could sell.

Simillion says, it can cost tens of thousands in legal fees to clear the situation. And the recording office cannot decipher between the documents that come in the office for filing; hence the new software to give owners a heads-up.

Given the scourge of similar scams across the country, recording office staff member Shelly Williams began talking with other recording departments regionally, and learned that many other counties are now providing the fraud/document alert.  

The service cost the county about $10,000. Opting in to the service is specific to Gunnison County, although anyone with property in other counties or states that have also adopted the same service (Tyler Technologies) can use their same login to enroll for that county as well. Some counties do charge for the service, but Gunnison County decided to provide it at no charge to all property owners in the county. 

“It’s a service to the community. We felt very strongly about this,” says Simillion. “We just really want to get the word out and we’re hoping to get a lot of people signed up.”

People who opt in for the service will have access to their own account and be able to track any documents associated with their property. 

“We’ve had a lot of people come in asking for it,” says Robbi Murdie, another recording department staff member. “It catches the problem in its infancy.” 

Simillion says that since they adopted the software this spring, the recording department has heard strong feedback from the community.

“The system is a closed system and does not keep a count of how many people have signed up,” she says, so it is impossible to know how many people are now using it. “What I can tell you is that we get five to 10 calls/drop-ins a day with questions or needing help.” 

In addition, plenty of people are signing up without the need for assistance. “The feedback has been pretty amazing,” says Simillion. “The property owners have really appreciated this opportunity to help to protect and be alerted if their property is potentially being scammed.”

More information and a link to sign up for the fraud alert can be found at https://www.gunnisoncounty.org/civicalerts.aspx?aid=289.