Updating post from Reddit.
From experience I would say with near certainty these are rent to rent enquiries to effectively sublet your house. They all follow the same spiel and ultimately want to get you on the phone to try and 'sell' you their offer.
Whether that's of interest to you is up to you but I personally wouldn't touch it with a barge pole.
I now annoyingly have to qualify all tenants by asking them if they will be the person living in the house and some still try and evade giving me a straight answer.
Thanks. I think this is probably what they are doing. And you are right they all want to get on the phone. But the genuine tenants usually ask about if they can book a viewing at xx time.
I'll preface this message with: I'm sure others here will have far more experience/knowledge. But to me...
Wouldn't it be best to just reply and test the waters?
It's only a scam once you lose money or let them in, but complete all the background checks, and do everything with a paper trail and up until they move in, you can pull the plug.
Seems to me they're all foreigners, and have used chatgpt to make a respectful message to enquire about the room. Doesn't necessarily imply they're scammers though. The reverse is equally true of course.
They all sent quite similar message requesting a call. I have replied to them asking some questions, most of them ignored. Some then replied and said below which made me find these messages odd.
OK that looks dodgy - but it is why you should always conduct a brief pre-viewing e-interview asking basic questions (dates, where currently living, why leaving, what financial resources they have in broad terms). I don't use openrent now, but you can probably eliminate 50% of viewings at least. Also to check they actually want what you are offering (I used to have millions of enquiries where folk wanted an unfurnished property, and thought that was something that could be negotiated afterwards.
This is why I tell people to give me an intro about themselves first.
No intro - no reply.
Not at all clear why that is "dodgy". You presumably advertised via openrent, and here is someone wanting to view.
when I ask questions, some ignored someone replied this.
Why do you think they are dodgy? Nothing jumps out at me.
Someone replied like this.
Are they under the illusion that this sounds professional!? Ignore any such things, it's lame.
Oh, that's a comment about a rent-to-rent scam. The TikTok gurus are teaching subletting to ninjas, telling them it's a get-rich-quick method. There are lots of topics about this on this subreddit.
You need to have a conversation to identify those scams.
Unfortunately, using OpenRent will mean you're a "target" because the Gurus know they are dealing directly with the landlord, rather than having to get past the letting agents ("gatekeepers") who would weed this out.
Initiatory messages. Not gonna be formal till you follow up
seems legit messages, just follow the process on OpenRent and don't take their calls or messages on a different platform
You need to change the setup so anyone contacting you automatically gets a message asking them x,y,z. One of those questions would be willing to pay rent monthly by standing order and willing to show salary receipt in their bank accounts. Watch the number of invalid queries drop!
Always get these chancers. You can normally weed through them.
Always report them (button in the manage menu). If every landlord does this they'll go away quickly.