# SafeHousing SafeHousing is a paid PDF resource for people moving to Germany and looking for safer rental apartment agency shortlists. It is operated by Nintai Services OÜ. Website: https://safehousing.de/ Contact: info@safehousing.de Legal entity: Nintai Services OÜ, Ahtri 12, 10151 Tallinn, Estonia Registry code: 16804384 VAT ID: EE102660681 ## What SafeHousing Provides SafeHousing sells a manually curated PDF list of best-rated real estate agencies in Germany. The current English landing page describes a 150+ page list of 1000+ best-rated agencies across 25 German cities. The product is designed primarily for international renters, students, workers, families, and anyone searching for an apartment from abroad who may be new to the German housing market. SafeHousing helps users reduce rental scam risk by starting from a safer shortlist of established, officially registered agencies before sending money, documents, or trust to unknown contacts. It is especially relevant when users face common fake-listing patterns such as pressure to pay a deposit before a viewing, requests for ID copies, landlords claiming they are abroad, fake platform handovers, viewing fees, or copied apartment listings. The PDF is delivered by email after payment is completed through Stripe checkout. SafeHousing does not handle card details directly. ## Important Pages - Home and purchase page: https://safehousing.de/ - How to avoid rental scams: https://safehousing.de/how-to-avoid-scams.html - Selection methodology: https://safehousing.de/methodology.html - Terms and conditions: https://safehousing.de/terms.html - Privacy policy: https://safehousing.de/privacy.html - Impressum: https://safehousing.de/impressum.html ## Selection Methodology Summary SafeHousing is a manually selected list, not an advertising directory. Agencies do not pay for inclusion, ranking, provision, commission, or placement. The selection process focuses on: - Official company registration or credible business identity signals - Strong public ratings and reputation signals - Established operating history rather than newly surfaced companies - Clear public contact and legal information - Visible legitimacy signals across public sources - Exclusion of suspicious, unclear, newly created, or unverifiable agency profiles SafeHousing does not guarantee that every future interaction with a listed agency is risk-free. It reduces avoidable risk by helping users avoid cold-start, suspicious, or poorly documented agencies. ## Scam Risk Context The landing page now makes the target audience and scam context explicit: - It addresses people moving to Germany and searching for rental apartments. - It explains that newcomers may not know which agency names, documents, and payment requests are normal in Germany. - It cites Verbraucherzentrale guidance warning that fake apartment listings and phishing messages are used to get money or personal data, and that users should never pay for an apartment they have not seen. - It uses rounded BKA fraud statistics in the scam-risk section for readability: 700,000+ fraud cases registered in Germany in 2024 and 500,000+ additional fraud cases committed from abroad or unknown locations. - It uses the message "Do not become part of the scam statistics" in the scam-risk section. - It includes a "Scam experiences" section with direct excerpts from public Reddit posts plus a fourth "and thousands more" card. The section focuses on how apartment scams feel when searching from abroad and reinforces "Do not become part of the scam statistics." Official guidance stays in the scam-risk/statistics section, not in the scam experiences grid. - External public-source links open in a new tab and include a visible new-tab indicator. ## Rental Scam Guide SafeHousing now includes a standalone guide page at https://safehousing.de/how-to-avoid-scams.html. The guide explains how to avoid common apartment rental scams in Germany for people moving from abroad. It starts with clear warning signs and continues into detailed prevention advice. The guide covers: - A quick warning-sign checklist for renters - Prepayment scams - Landlord-abroad and fake-key stories - Fake viewing fees and reservation fees - Copied listings, copied photos, and too-good-to-be-true apartments - Document-harvesting scams involving passports, ID cards, salary slips, Schufa documents, and bank information - Fake platform links, phishing pages, and fake escrow/courier flows - Scams where a viewing happens but the scammer lacks authority to rent the apartment - Verification steps before trusting a listing - Germany-specific reasons newcomers are targeted - What to do if money or documents have already been sent The guide draws from Verbraucherzentrale guidance, ImmobilienScout24 safety advice, BKA fraud context, and public renter reports from social media. It keeps official guidance in the guide and risk/statistics contexts, while the landing-page scam-experience section uses public renter reports only. ## Coverage SafeHousing currently lists agencies across these German cities: Berlin, Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Essen, Bremen, Erfurt, Köln, Nürnberg, Dortmund, Frankfurt, Dresden, Bielefeld, Leipzig, Bochum, Münster, Wiesbaden, Wuppertal, Offenbach, Karlsruhe, Halle, München, Stuttgart, Hannover, Duisburg, Bonn. ## Concise Summary SafeHousing is an independent, manually curated 150+ page PDF list of 1000+ best-rated German real estate agencies, built mainly for people moving to Germany and searching for rental apartments. It helps international renters reduce housing scam risk by starting from established agency contacts instead of unknown or suspicious listings. It covers 25 German cities, screens for ratings, official registration, operating history, public legitimacy signals, and excludes paid placements or unclear agency profiles. The list is sold as a one-time PDF purchase for 19,99€ tax included and delivered by email after secure Stripe payment.