SCOTTSDALE, AZ — He may not know exactly what's growing on his vacant property, but Wade Rasmussen knows the value has grown since he bought the north Scottsdale land about 20 years ago.
Wade and his wife hope the future sale will help fund their retirement.
"Future" is the important word there.
We asked Wade recently while walking his property: "It's not supposed to be for sale?"
"No, not at all. No sale," he said.
Yet there it was — listed for $250,000 on Zillow.
Wade says he only found out after getting a call from a potential buyer.
"At first I sit back and I'm like, 'What do I do?'" he said.
Wade found himself caught in a growing Arizona scam that involves people posing as property owners, finding ways around protections, and listing real estate for sale right out from under the real owner. Vacant land may be the most vulnerable.
"Most at risk, free and clear land, owned outright, no mortgages on them and to some degree sit vacant," said Susan Nicolson, Arizona's Real Estate Commissioner.
Her office is seeing sophisticated brazen scammers who are even engaging real estate agents.
"They always say they don't live inside the state, so you're never going to get that face-to-face. They're using burner phones. They're using fake email addresses that look like the owner's name. They're assuming aspects of a person's identity," Nicolson said.
Wade's situation got serious, fast.
"I ended up receiving a notice from a title company," he said.
Somebody wanted the land and hired Fidelity National Title Agency. They had a signed purchase agreement. It even had Wade and his wife's DocuSign signatures as sellers.
"They somehow got a picture of our digital signature and I have no idea where," Wade said.
While he was dealing with that, Wade got another surprise.
"We get another package from another title company but with a different buyer's signature," he explained.
It was another sales contract for his land.
This one came from Driggs Title Agency in Scottsdale and this buyer seemed very eager.
"A guy came down and put $5,000 earnest money on it," Wade said.
The money was already in an escrow account.
"And so, at this point, I'm getting very nervous... I'm going to be doing this the rest of my life," Wade said.
Both Fidelity National and Driggs Title say it's a huge problem and they constantly try to stay ahead of scammers.
In this case, a Driggs spokesperson says they searched the parcel number online and reached out to the owner listed.
They say that's when they found they were not dealing with the actual owner.
Driggs further says they have a "red flag counter in our system that tallies points against a transaction."
"Points are allotted if it's vacant land, if it's owned free and clear, if there are no Realtors involved, etc. Those are classic attractors for fraudsters," they said.
Fidelity National Title also says it has security measures put in place.
Wade knows he got lucky. The two scam attempts were stopped, money returned, and his land is still his — for now.
"We don't know what's going to happen tomorrow," he said.
Wade shared his story so other property owners, especially vacant land owners, can keep a close eye on what they have.
He wants to warn officials more needs to be done to protect Arizona property owners.
Wade has also signed up for Maricopa County's Title Alert.
The service is through the county Recorder's office and says they will "notify participating subscribers by email when a document is recorded in a specific individual's name and/or business name."
Real Estate Commissioner Nicolson says that service should be available in all Arizona counties by 2025. And she says her office is working to try and help owners and prevent the scams.
The title alert only warns after something has been recorded.
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