"When we found out what was what, we were shocked." A Minsk realtor miraculously saved a girl from losing her apartment

"She was as if under a terrible hypnosis," says agent Viktoria. Onliner.by found out the details.

"She was somehow unsure, frightened"

Recently, a 27-year-old girl called the "Malnar" agency with a common request to help sell an apartment. Marina (name changed) decided to sell a nice Euro-two-room apartment with renovations, located in "Minsk-Mir," for $93,000. Real estate sales manager Viktoria visited the apartment to inspect it, meet the client, and conclude an agreement.

Overall, this is a standard procedure that doesn't raise any suspicions:

— Marina gave me all the necessary documents. She said she decided to sell the apartment to move to another one she owned, which needed renovations and a loan to be paid off. This seemed strange to me. She also mentioned that she was dating a guy.

Immediately after placing the ads on websites, the phone started ringing off the hook with calls from interested buyers. But the owner of the home was not in a hurry to show it. Viktoria continues:

— Naturally, it was necessary to show the apartment. But Marina constantly said she was busy. At one point, I presented her with an ultimatum — either we meet with interested people, or we remove the listing from advertising. She agreed.

A buyer was found quickly. All parties went to the agency office, signed a preliminary agreement, and the buyer left a deposit of $1000.

— Then we went with her to collect documents, Viktoria recalls. — At that moment, I thought she was always alone, and that looked strange. Usually, in such serious matters as selling real estate, parents, husbands, or boyfriends are also involved.

I asked her to bring someone to the deal, to which she replied that her parents live far away, in the Grodno region, and her boyfriend was busy because he works all the time. For me, that was another warning bell.

At this point, Viktoria finally realized that something was wrong with the girl. She lists the peculiar red flags:

— Marina was always somehow unsure, frightened. She agreed to everything. Whatever I suggested, she said: "Okay, let's do it." It felt like she was even afraid to look me in the eye.

Viktoria informed the management: it seemed the client was being scammed. Lawyers got involved and found that the girl had moved out of one apartment to another, all documents were in order, meaning there was nothing to worry about.

— But my intuition still told me: something is not right here! — Viktoria expressed emotionally. As a result, literally a day before the deal, it was decided to contact Marina's parents and make sure everything was in order.

Павялічыць

A call to parents and the shock of realization

What happened next is told by Olga, head of the "Malnar" sales department:

— Viktoria called the client's mother. She replied that she was not aware that her daughter was selling the apartment. She promised to sort it out and call back. Later we called her again. The mother replied: "My daughter is not selling anything. She just decided to check, to see the price, how much her apartment costs."

I said: "Please listen to me, your daughter is either deceiving you, or deceiving us, or someone is deceiving her. Tomorrow we have a deal. As parents, figure out what's happening."

It would seem that the story should have ended there. But even in such a situation, Marina managed to "excuse herself" from parental concern. She contacted the agency and said: the deal is on! However, the next day, no one showed up for the meeting with the buyer. The next call to the realtors was from an investigator.

— The investigator said that the mother and daughter were currently sitting in the department, flooding the entire department with tears. He noted that we were great. Then the client's mother called, crying and thanking us.

It turned out that a fairly common scheme was applied to the girl, starting with a legend about replacing meters. Then everything followed the usual pattern: passport data, a call from a "general against the background of the Belarusian flag," and intimidation.

In this case, the scammers promoted the idea that Marina was participating in some special operation to expose "black" realtors. And the apartment had to be sold to save it. After the "operation" was completed, the housing was promised to be returned.

What exact methods the perpetrators used is difficult to say, but the agency emphasizes: the girl was as if under terrible hypnosis and did not perceive reality.

Only later would she say that she literally lost sleep and was in wild stress.

— At "Malnar," this is the first such case and, I hope, the last. How do they operate? They name specific real estate agencies to people and say: contact them. We have communicated with colleagues from other agencies, they have also encountered similar cases. It turns out that fraudsters "test the waters" with agencies, sending people specifically to large companies in the hope that the deal will go unnoticed.

And if previously this mainly happened with elderly people, now it happened with a young girl.

That's why we dragged out this deal until the very end, we didn't figure it out right away. You see, they changed tactics. In any case, now we will monitor, we will re-check both elderly and young people.

How can realtors notice something is wrong in time?

Naive people are primarily affected by contact with fraudsters, who can lose all their savings and all their real estate in an instant. But realtors who contribute to these losses are also somewhat in danger. At the very least, it's morally difficult to realize that one has unwittingly become an "accomplice" in fraud.

— Of course, all this is psychologically difficult for an agent, — says Olga. — For example, Viktoria was nervous, slept poorly, and these thoughts constantly revolved in her mind. When the deception was exposed, I saw how happy she became. Inexperienced agents might leave the profession after something like this.

Павялічыць

Olga gives advice on how to avoid this:

— Of course, sellers and buyers should contact specialists who will provide professional assistance. We go to a hairdresser for a haircut, to a dentist for teeth treatment, and similarly with real estate — it's best to entrust it to professionals. Their competence includes checking documents, building the deal scheme, and protecting the client's legitimate interests. It should not be forgotten that, in accordance with the Rules of Professional Ethics of a Real Estate Specialist, the latter must take the necessary measures to inform the consumer about circumstances that hinder or exclude the possibility of providing real estate services.

If a realtor sees strange client behavior, first and foremost, they need to find out if the client has somewhere to register after selling the apartment. If a purchase of a counter-option follows the sale, there is nothing to fear. It's also good if the entire family sells the property and parents, husband, or children are present at meetings. But you still need to observe how they behave. They must have a clear motivation for selling.

If the client is always alone, you need to contact their family. Brothers, sisters, parents, aunts, uncles — any contacts will do.

The agency should have a psychologist who will tell the client about cases of fraud. If suspicions arise, you should immediately go to the police station of the district where the property is being sold and file a report. Let the police come to the apartment and talk to the owner. They have more experience regarding how a person behaves under the influence of fraudsters.

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