Do some estate agents have dummy properties on Rightmove?

[MochaMad]

Myself and my DP have been trying to view properties over the past 2 years in towns local to us and we have noticed something odd about one of the larger chain agents in the South East.

There seem to be a few properties on Rightmove that are listed as unusually cheap and been on Rightmove for many months. No obvious reason why they haven’t sold.

When we have tried to request viewings it’s been difficult for all sorts of reasons: they won’t show us if we are not yet on the market / under offer, too busy no agents free even on weekdays, seller is never in, simply not responding to emails or calls etc… But then they HAVE taken the time to get our details on the database, offer us other viewings, offer mortgage advice packages and do the hard sell about marketing my house (already on the market with another agent). These properties never seem to have a board up outside.

There was one property we eventually viewed and the agent knew nothing about it, couldn’t answer any of our questions. The moment my partner made an offer it was suddenly sold. The day before there had been no offers. They still haven’t updated the listing on Rightmove weeks later - still not showing as under offer or sold. I phoned to point this out and they said they’d forgotten, still there two weeks later…

Now I am on the market I have noticed a property for sale in my street with the same chain of agents at a ridiculously cheap price, making others in the street look overpriced. It’s been on since March and not sold. No board up outside.

I am beginning to wonder if this is a common underhand practice to get new potential clients?

Are people living in these houses? Is someone living in the one on your street? I would go and knock to ask!

Never heard of this before. Very strange.

These properties are probably sold long time ago but listings never taken off. We have completed in June but the ad on RM is still live, I have already requested to take it down twice with little success. Ripped the board sign first thing.

@mnahmnah mostly no - no chain, empty, no furniture.
I’m not sure about the one in my street but I’m working on finding someone willing to do some digging for me. I can’t because they already know me and family have same surname.

Sometimes we have awful properties with difficult clients who will never sell yet insist we keep it on. Divorce, probate, pain the arse clients, there
are so many reasons. Just move on and find something else.

Look up the title deeds on gov website, will tell you who owns it.

@areyouhavinglaugh
the thing is - they aren’t awful properties,
they are ridiculously cheap for the area & decorative order - that’s why it seems so fishy

Some terrible dodgy agents rip off old people in care homes and buy them for cheap cheap! Has been known to happen

Give us the link on rightmove!

I suspect they are old listings that sold ages ago before the market rose (which explains the low price) but the agent keeps renewing the listing to get new clients in.

Back before everything was online, the estate agent who sold our house kept the advert on his “for sale” window display for several years after the house had sold . We asked him to stop displaying it but he wouldn’t take down the advert. Shady practice is very common in the industry.

We sold my MIL property and it was still on the website months later. It was cheap, but it needed a lot of modernization (central heating, bathroom, kitchen) though was otherwise in a good state. It was on for at least 10% less than neighbouring properties. I could only presume it was because they wanted to boost their profile.

When I bought my house it kept popping back up on Rightmove in between the offer being accepted and the sale going through. They had agreed to stop marketing it but I still had to call several times to ask them to remove it from Rightmove. So some of the houses listed are probably under offer and well into the sale process. I’m sure I heard somewhere that it’s beneficial to agents to have as many properties as possible on Rightmove, no idea why though.