Contacting Cash Property Buyers

Cash property buyers tend to want to make themselves accessible 24 hours a day. This is unsurprising since we are often dealing with people who are under a great deal of stress.

This means they make widespread use of 0800 freephone numbers. So while the initial call is free of charge you may find your call being taken by someone who can’t help you directly in the first instance. Let us explain.

"Open all hours"

The national companies may have call centres/call answering services in place, as do some other small traders working on their own. This enables them to be accessible 24 / 7 and to better filter their responses ("we will get back to you").

We have a long-held policy of not using call centres. No one approach is necessarily better, but we think our direct approach puts a more human face on the company. The downside is our freephone number only operates between 10 and 10. Real people need sleep.

If your call is logged with a call centre in nearly all cases you will be called back by your local "representative" (the trader or owner if it’s a local company) who will be responsible for finding a solution to your current circumstances.

As with any type of business, some companies, both large and small, are quicker at responding to enquiries than others.

If at first you don't succeed...try and try again..

In the event that your initial call is not returned within 24 hours, it probably means one of two things. Either the details you left with the call centre suggest you're in no rush to sell your house or that they can't help you. In any event, don’t wait longer than 48 hours for a call back - try another company instead.

Getting up close and personal

When you contact a cash property buyer (or their call centre) they will ask you some preliminary questions. Your answers help them assess your enquiry.

Common questions include:

your full contact details

address of the property for sale

how long you have owned the property

brief details of the property e.g. number of bedrooms

how quickly you need to sell

the reason you are selling

the amount of equity in the property

whether your house is for sale through an estate agent

the condition of the property

the value of the property

whether you want to "sell and rent back"

and details of how you valued the property

any other relevant information

The first questions are always aimed at assessing your motivation. Do you need to sell or is it simply convenient to sell quickly? Are you a motivated seller? Do you have a distress property sale on your hands?

First impressions count

You're not going to have much of a conversation with a call centre. Their job is to "register" you. However, if you get through to a real person you'll quickly be able to assess the extent to which the cash property buyer is focusing on your issue or your property. Different approaches suit different sellers.

Many cash property buyers will be very direct about their investment policy. Indeed some include brief details in their advertising ("20%+ equity needed"). Others make you a verbal cash offer on the phone to hook you into a meeting. Some will be gauged in "take it or leave it" terms. Others will mention indicative numbers but want to meet to get a better overall idea of the picture.

And there you have it. Contacting cash property buyers to find out more about their services does not have to be daunting. But first impressions on both sides are important.