People searching for rental properties on Facebook and Craigslist need to be careful: More than half the people who told federal watchdogs they were ripped off by a rental scam said it had originated on one of those two websites.

In a December report, the Federal Trade Commission said that since 2020, consumers have reported nearly 65,000 rental scams, with total losses running about $65 million. But that’s just the people who complained. Many people don’t, so the losses are likely much higher.

About half the complaints fielded by the FTC in the 12-month period ending in June 2025 involved phony ads posted on Facebook, the agency reported. Some 16% were on Craigslist, while 32% were on other sites.

Rental schemes usually involve fake listings, which can look very real, often containing information and photos copied directly from legitimate listings on social media. But the fake ads include the swindler’s contact information instead of the real landlord’s.

When you call, the thief on the other end of the line will take your application fee, your deposit and your first month’s rent -- and then scram. And if yours is a last-minute rental -- say, for a vacation month or two at the shore -- you might be asked for the entire rent in advance. Ouch!

When these con artists disappear, they not only leave you without your money, but without the home you'd expected to occupy. They also make things more difficult for honest landlords, whose legit listings are often raided for these frauds.

When you search for a rental online, check to see if there's more than one ad for the same property. If two listings appear but with different rental companies or phone numbers, there’s a good chance one is bogus.

Here, the FTC advises you to go to each landlord’s website and search for the property there. If it isn’t listed, that ad may be fake.

If they don’t steal actual listings, scammers make up their own. Be suspicious if the monthly rent is shockingly low for the area or for the type of house. Another hint: The place may come with an amazing assortment of amenities -- stuff like a pool, spa, tennis court or a killer view.

You should always ask to see the place in person. If you can’t visit personally, have a friend in the area go by for a look. And if the landlord or owner always seems to be out of town when you want to view the place, your antennae should start to wiggle.

Don’t be rushed into making a decision. Take your time. If the place is real, and you lose it, another one will come along. If it's fake, however, the fraudster will often push you to decide right there on the spot, maybe by cutting the price. Don’t bite, especially if the price was already too low to believe.

The FTC also advises against sending any money for a property you’ve never seen, or to someone you’ve never met in person. If the swindler asks you to send money by wire transfer, gift cards or cryptocurrency, it’s the same as sending cash -- and it’s likely you’ll never see it again. Better to pay by credit card, which offers at least some protection.

Scammers make their livings by ripping people off, so the government agency suggests doing a little sleuthing before going too far or moving too fast.

Start by searching for the name of the property owner or rental company with the words “complaint,” “review” or “scam.” If others have fallen victim to a ruse with the company, they’re likely to post about their experiences online.

Ask the person you are dealing with for a business card and make certain everything on the card lines up -- the person’s name, phone number, license number and business phone number. You cannot be too careful.

If you are dealing with someone who says they are renting out their own property, the FTC advises checking the county tax assessment website to determine if they are the real owner. If the person says they're a relative or friend of the owner, it is worth a call to the owner to make sure the rental is on the up-and-up.

Keep your personal information private. If someone contacts you claiming to be working with the owner or rental company, ask to call them back -- but not at the number they give you. Rather, call the listed owner’s number, or that of the rental company, and ask for the person who just called you. They may not exist.

Finally, the government wants to know if you’ve been cheated or think you’ve run into a scam. Report your experience to your local law enforcement agency, consumer affairs agency, state’s attorney general and the website where the ad was posted. Also report it to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.

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, says 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,” says 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 says go directly to the utility’s home page. “Never search for the payment portal,” he advises. “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 warns. Nor will the utility ask for banking information over the phone.

Gathering places like coffee shops and neighborhood parks 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.”

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.

If these numbers don’t stop you from going it alone, Clever has compiled a library of articles to help with the process: “How I Sold My House Without a Realtor,” “Paperwork for Selling a House by Owner: Full List of Documents,” “How to List on MLS by Owner in 2026” and “Best Flat Fee MLS Listing Services in 2025.” These can all be found on the Clever website (listwithclever.com).

About 7% 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.

A whopping 85% of the folks responding to a Nationwide Insurance survey plan to stay in their homes forever. The other 15% view their places as starter homes.

It’s not done so much anymore, but years ago, homeowners used to celebrate paying off their mortgages with mortgage-burning parties, in which they actually set fire to their loan papers.

The concept of paying off a mortgage was so important, reminds Joe Garrett of the Garrett McAuley mortgage advisory firm, that in the great American play, “Death of a Salesman,” Willy Loman waited to take his own life until after he made his final house payment.

Shopping for mortgage rates can save borrowers a lot of money -- $222 a month on average, according to a June report from LendingTree. But there’s a trick to browsing the field for the best rate.

For one thing, compare rates on a single day -- ideally, around the same time of day, advises David Reed, a loan officer for 20-plus years.

Rates react to market conditions, which can change over the course of a day -- let alone several days. So a quote you secured on Monday could be very different from a quote from the same lender on Thursday, explains Reed, who has written several books on mortgages.

If you are reviewing rates online, pay attention to when they were posted, Reed advises. If they were put up a few days earlier, he says to pick up the phone and ask for the current numbers.

It’s equally important to compare rates at the same time of day: Market conditions can change so quickly that a quote in the morning could be different from one in the afternoon.

Next, be certain you are comparing apples to apples by getting quotes for the same mortgage program, Reed counsels. For example, a 30-year mortgage is not comparable to a 15-year loan, nor is a fixed-rate loan comparable to one where the rate adjusts every few years.

Also, lenders offer various rate guarantees, or locks, for set periods of time. When shopping around, get quotes that lock in the rate for the same specific period -- say, 15 or 30 days -- from each lender. But be aware that the longer the lock-in period, the higher the rate.

Finally, along with the rates themselves, compare the fees each lender will charge. The lender with the best rate might tack on higher fees to compensate.

Life events -- divorce, death and bankruptcy, to name a few -- often dictate when someone has to sell a home. Now, a new tool alerts real estate agents to listing opportunities that result from these life-altering events.

Daily Lead Alerts monitors public records for such events as mortgage defaults, divorce filings and involuntary liens. Agents can sign up for alerts within a 3-mile radius of a location of their choosing and will be alerted when these situations are recorded.

According to a statement from Benutech, the real estate technology company offering the feature inside its Title Toolbox platform, "most 3-mile radiuses will include between 10,000 and 40,000 properties, generating a sizable list of potential new listing leads for agents to pursue."

Benutech’s Brian Fox calls the feature “a true game changer,” noting that "there’s a clear link between major life events and real estate decisions ... this tool empowers agents to connect with potential clients at exactly the right moment.”

Sellers are yanking their houses off the market at record levels, mostly because they have been unable to obtain the prices they are looking for. But for some, removing their properties from the multiple listing service is a marketing ploy designed to give their outdated listings a fresh start.

They are taking down their listings, then relisting them later at a lower price. That way, house hunters won’t see it as a “price drop” or be alarmed by the high number of days the property has been on the market.

According to Redfin, the majority of "delistings" in September had been on the market for more than 100 days -- far beyond the 60-day definition of a “stale” listing.

Apparently, the technique works. Redfin reports that almost a third of the houses delisted in July sold when they were listed again.

Gated communities are falling out of favor with buyers of new homes, according to NewHomeSource data that tracks house hunters’ amenity searches.

The listing site for newly constructed houses says searches for gated communities have been slowing since 2024, while interest in community pools has more than doubled.

Gated communities gained popularity in the 1970s and '80s, as rising crime rates increased some buyers' perceived need for an extra layer of security. But now that crime rates are down, would-be buyers are paying more attention to the costs associated with gates and guards. Those costs are usually included in homeowner's association dues -- which are increasing, right along with insurance premiums and property taxes.

"Many consumers are finding that the high homeowner's association fees and the premium price often attached to gated communities have made them less favorable for the time being, as they grapple with rising housing costs,”

says economist Ali Wolf of NewHomeSource.

Robots are moving beyond 3D printed walls to take on such finishing projects as painting and finishing drywall.

One model can paint a four-room apartment in 60 to 90 minutes, according to the manufacturer, and two units can be run simultaneously by one operator. Another robot, says its maker, can paint about 1,000 square feet per hour, about 10 times faster than a human. And a third is said to paint 14 times faster than a human.

Robots can drywall, too. One model muds and sands the gypsum, sprays compound on the joints and, once dry, sands the seams -- while capturing 99% of the resulting dust. And another applies plaster, finishes drywall and paints. The all-in-one model, which is designed to work alongside human laborers, can finish 1,000 square feet an hour -- about 10 times faster than manual methods.