Does this seem odd to you?

[CuthbertDibble]

I sold a property in London earlier this year. We exchanged and then completed two weeks later.

I just happened to be having a bit of a nose on Rightmove and the flat is back on the market.

The thing is it's up for sale at £50k less than I sold it for and it was put back on the market after exchange but before we'd completed the sale. All of the marketing photos have my stuff in them but they're not the photos that my agent used for the original sale.

I realise that it doesn't affect me at all but I'm really curious as to how and why this has happened, it just seems really odd.

Maybe the person who bought your old flat was desperate to move, so put in offers on two places, expecting one of them to fall through.

they didnt fall through and now they have two properties they cannot afford.

they moved into the other onw, so knew straight away they wouldnt need yours.

How did they manage to take the photos with your stuff?

If you're being peevish you can ask them to pull the photos as the property wasn't theirs when the photos were taken so they had no right to take the photos and therefore no right to post them on the internet.

You could also check with a solicitor whether it was "theirs" to put up for sale before the sale was completed at all.

Money laundering of some sort?

No, not peeved, it was up for sale, it sold, they paid the full price. Not sure how they managed to take the photos, maybe during a viewing on the pretence that they were for personal use? The photos aren't very good.

To be honest, I was thinking it might be something a bit dodgy, but I couldn't quite figure out what.

You could phone the agent and ask general vaguely interested in the flat type questions and see if they let anything slip, or go and look around yourself? It does sound dodgy.

Is the sold price up on Right Move yet?

I wonder if the agent is trying to drum up trade for themselves for a certain type of property at a certain price level - a bit like unscrupulous employment agencies do: if you ring to enquire, they'll tell you the vendor has just accepted an offer, but there's somewhere else round the corner which you might like? Clutching at straws, I know.

Or is it some sort of fraud?

The EA for our vendor still had the house in their window for months after we'd bought it and moved in - I don't know why, but I doubt it was because they had simply forgotten, there was some rationale behind it.

Is it with the same agency? The market is cooling down a bit and if it is the same then maybe they are just drumming up their game. If the agency is different then I am speechless, unless the buyer's decided to sell and never moved out. Maybe he expected to make a quick profit but saw it is not possible and decided to get out.

Yes, it is very odd.

I'd be inclined to ring the agent and ask. The photos were taken in your home while you were the owner. Its not unreasonable to want to know who took them and why.

Price I sold it for is showing on Zoopla but not Rightmove. It's a different agent, based in East London, flat is SW postcode.

Not sure I really want to make any phone calls, it doesn't affect me at all, just makes me very curious.

I wouldn't be able to not phone and at the very least ask why is was for sale so quickly and at less than it previously sold for!

I would certainly call them.

Do you want one of us to do it for you?

sits on hands

There may be a good reason for a quick sale, but not in a rising market.

We bought our house from someone who put it on the msrket the day after she bought it. She had exchanged contracts on it, but not completed, when the firm she worked for offered her a major promotion involving relocation. So she never moved into our house, sold it on and just moved straight to the new location.

However, the price drop sounds very strange.

Add it to your saved properties on right move

Was it a cash sale?