Community Real Estate

CA DRE warns of scammers impersonating real estate licensees
Source: California Department of Real Estate

The Calif. Dept. of Real Estate recently released a warning that scammers are increasingly impersonating real estate agents and brokers by using their photos, names, license numbers and other information to create fake social media accounts, using Tik Tok and craigslist listings to illegally engage in activities that require a license from the state, such as home buying and property management.

DRE advises consumers and licensees to be aware of scams that involve the misuse of the names of legitimate real estate licensees. If a real estate professional contacts you, get the name of the person calling, emailing, making a solicitation or offering services, look that person up on the DRE website (www.dre.ca.gov), locate a telephone number for the brokerage or service from another source than the person contacting you, and speak with the licensee.

How AI is intensifying real estate fraud
Source: Inman

The threat that artificial intelligence poses to cybersecurity means that scammers are increasingly leveraging AI tools to scam homeowners, buyers and sellers. Experts warn that scammers are using tools like ChatGPT to generate polished, highly convincing phishing emails that erase many of the traditional red flags used to spot scams.

Technically, OpenAI prohibits the use of its models to generate malware, facilitate fraud of deception, or engage in any illegal activity. Its systems are designed to refuse direct requests to write phishing emails or build scam websites. However, they can still lower the barrier for bad actors and help streamline research, refine language, and scale the kind of content that underpins phishing campaigns. Voice cloning is challenging the tools that traditionally protect email accounts via detection of suspicious domains or email headers. While someone might pause to verify an email’s origin, they are less likely to hesitate if someone calls who sounds like their boss. Powerful new AI models like Anthropic’s Mythos tool could make fraud detection much harder.

Occupations most likely to own homes in the U.S.
Source: Realtor.com

In more than 60 percent of metro areas, the occupations most likely to own homes today are different from what they were a decade ago, according to new data from the National Association of REALTORS®. NAR reports that some jobs make it easier to become a homeowner than others. While higher salaries play a role, factors like job stability and the geographic locations of jobs are also important. It depends mostly on affordability. Earning a high salary in a high-cost market might not be enough, while in more affordable markets, even lower-paying jobs can have higher homeownership rates.

Management and business roles were the most likely to own homes, with homeownership rates at 72.2 percent nationally compared to 72.4 percent in 2014. Across the country, 67.3 percent of teachers and social service professionals own their homes, a small decline from 68 percent in 2014. Engineers, computer scientists and other STEM and technical professionals had a homeownership rate of 67.2 percent, down from 69.2 percent in 2014. Sales and real estate professionals’ homeownership rates rose to 63.3 percent today from 60.8 percent in 2014. Approximately 62.2 percent of health care workers own their homes today, up from 61.8 percent in 2014, while 62 percent of electricians, carpenters and other skilled trades workers own their home – slightly higher than 61.2 percent in 2014.

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