Stacey Wood, Molly Mason Jones Chair in Psychology and professor of psychology, the prevalence of home-buying solicitation scams with NextAdvisor, a financial advice publication produced in partnership with TIME magazine. Wood has seen a number of these scams in her investigations of elder abuse and exploitation cases. Many of these scams, she explains, target homeowners who aren’t aware what their homes are worth, offering a purchase price that’s under value. She urges homeowners to be wary of buyers who want to purchase a home that isn’t already on the market. “There鈥檚 such demand in my town for housing stock that the only reason I would consider a [for] sale by owner is to make more money, not to make less,” she says.