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Instant Cash Valuationwww.openpropertygroup.com
Open Property Group is a well-established fast home buying company with headquarters in Suite 1, Europa House, Packhorse Road, Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, SL9 8BQ.
The organisation has a fairly complex and busy website displaying a large amount of information. As well as a standard “we buy any house” system, it appears that the company is also able to purchase freehold ground rents and also offers a “chain breaking service”.
They manage further brands too, including LandlordBuyer, Open Online property trading, Open Construction - a London and Home counties - based development firm - and OPG Financial Services who provide mortgage brokerage, bridging finance and Buy To Let services.
Open Property Group has been in operation since 2016, and is very transparent about the offer that they are able to provide to a seller. On their “Sell House Fast for Cash” page, the company states that their offers are “typically” 80% of market value, with offers up to 85%.
As is the case with all genuine cash home buying companies, Open Property Group cannot offer 100% of the property’s full market value - as they make their money by buying at a discount and selling on the open market.
However, with the average offer from companies of this kind ranging from 70% - 85%, Open Property Group clearly sits on the upper end of this scale.
The average timescales involved in selling to this company is a little less clear, as the company seems to focus on their approach of adhering to the seller’s preferences rather than displaying their typical turnover times.
On their “Cash Property Buyers” page, Open Property Group states that they can complete a sale “within 7 days from receipt of the legal documents”.
Where clients have approached them in order to stop a repossession order, the company claims to be able to exchange contracts “within 24 hours from receipt of the legal documents”.
In terms of the costs involved, Open Property Group states that “there are no fees, or legal costs and no hidden costs of any kind” when selling your property to them.
It is worth noting that the company usually provides a seven day window in which potential clients must accept or reject their offer.
In order to simplify the process of selecting your preferred cash property buyer, in this section, we will present a list of upsides and potential downsides to using Open Property Group when attempting to sell your home fast.
The company is established and well known. It appears high up the search results for a range of relevant key terms, which suggests that the Google algorithm considers its content to be trustworthy.
Due to the organisation’s claims that it can buy any house within just seven days - and can potentially exchange contracts within just 24 hours - it appears that Open Property Group is one of the fastest acting companies of its kind that we have reviewed
They are clear about their average offer, which seems to be a little higher than average for the sector in which it operates.
Open Property Group also provides a chain breaking service - whereby they are able to step in and purchase a property should an existing buyer pull out - which is a handy additional feature.
The company offers landlord services too, including the provision of Gas Safe certificates and boiler replacements.
The organisation claims to have “instant access to funds to buy properties”, cutting out any middlemen and speeding the process up considerably, as clients do not need to wait for viewings or offers, or for buyers' mortgage applications or chains to complete.
Open Property Group also clearly states that they are members of the NAPB (National Association of Property Buyers), TPOS (The Property Ombudsman Service) and the Residential Landlords Association (RLA), which means that your sale will be secure and protected.
Finally, the company appears to be passionate about charity work - with a link to a page devoted to their work with Haven House Childrens’ Hospice appearing at the very top of their first dropdown menu - even before they get to their “About Us” section.
For a company that seems to offer a fairly straightforward service, Open Property Group’s website is particularly complex and busy - brimming with detailed information that could perhaps be better organised.
For example, their “How it Works” dropdown is so lengthy that, for some devices, the menu disappears from the bottom of the screen and the final button is inaccessible. However, this huge list is really only representing two or three specialist services.
The information provided online by the company is therefore less accessible than perhaps it could be.
There are no clear Terms and Conditions displayed on the site either, which makes it a little more difficult for visitors to get to grips with the legal detail of the company’s services.
In terms of reviews, it appears that the Open Property Group performs well - but they have fewer write-ups than many of the organisations we have reviewed in the past, despite being fairly well established and claiming to have sold more than 2000 properties to date.
Finally, it would be useful to get a clearer idea of the average timescale to sell a house via Open Property Group. The company makes clear that they will work to the timescales stipulated by the client, and that they can complete in less than seven days if required.
However, other reviewers claim that the average time taken to sell to Open Property Group is around 14 days from first getting in touch.
Open Property Group reviews are displayed on Trustpilot, Google and Feefo. The company performs fairly well on all of these platforms. Here are the organisation’s overall star-rating according to these individual review sites.
Open Property Group has 39 reviews on Trustpilot, 35 on Google and 79 on Feefo, a link to which they display in the header of every page of their website.
“We guarantee to buy your house fast, whatever the condition, reason, or problem.”
Even the very lowest ratings for Open Property Group (of which there are not many) come with a complaint of poor or ceased communication rather than a report of the organisation pulling out of a sale.
For this reason, it does appear that Open Property Group will buy any home, as stated.
“A guaranteed sale / guaranteed offer”
Many “we buy any house” companies say that they will make a “guaranteed offer” on your property, or that their system “guarantees” a sale.
However, we were unable to find any documentation or Terms and Conditions on the company’s site that might provide further information on these “guarantees”, so it may be presumed that they are not legally binding and that this is simply language used to attract buyers and offer them a sense of security.
This is the case with numerous we buy any house organisations.
We highly recommend that potential clients discuss this matter with a representative of the company before taking matters further.
“The quickest, most reliable house buyer in our sector”
With completion possible within 24 hours of legal documentation being received in some cases, it does appear that Open Property Group is among the fastest in the industry.
However, as there are not a huge number of reviews available to help us analyse the organisation further - and because not all of the write ups on Google, Trustpilot or Feefo are verifiable - it is difficult to confirm whether Open Property Group is more “reliable” than any of its competitors.
As well as its own operations, Open Property Group states on its website that it manages a number of other brands, including LandlordBuyer, Open Online Agents, Open Construction and OPG Financial Services.
The company has had no name changes since it launched in 2016, and its ownership appears to have remained the same.
Below, we will delve further into the inner workings of Open Property Group to help potential sellers to understand their processes and services to a greater degree.
You can also use our “Help and Support” service or visit the “Contact Us” section of this site to find further information about selling a house fast.
Open Property Group purchases property by following a very simple four-step process, which is explained on their “Sell Your Property Fast” page and goes as follows:
It is definitely worth noting that the only accounts available from Companies House that have been uploaded by Open Property Group are accounts for a “dormant company”.
This has been the case since their first accounts were filed in 2017.
It certainly appears as if Open Property Group is still trading, and was doing so during the years for which these dormant company accounts were filed.
However, the accounts for the company’s other brands, including LandlordBuyer, Open Online and Open Property Finance all appear to be up to date (though they are exempt from filing fill accounts due to their size).
Again, if you are considering using this company to sell your property it may be worth discussing this matter with a representative of the company, as it is important to be sure that your buyer has access to sufficient funds to manage the direct purchase of a property before you begin.
On various parts of their website, Open Property Group is clear that there will be no solicitors fees to pay.
What is unclear is whether you will be permitted to select your own conveyancing specialist or whether you will be required to utilise the services of a professional that the company selects on your behalf, or to choose from a panel of their preferred service providers.
In the “How it Works” section of their site, the company states that they will “find you a solicitor”. Whether this is mandatory or not - and, if not, whether they will cover your fees if you select your own conveyancer - is not fully explained.
According to the company’s FAQs, there are “no fees, or legal costs and no hidden costs of any kind”, which presumably includes valuation fees.
Their initial cash offer is free, with no obligation to continue.
On the comparison table partway down Open Property Group’s “Sell House Fast for Cash” page, they clearly state that they charge £0 for their services - as opposed to an average high street estate agent charging around £2,000 for a sale.
We could not find any information about any penalties accrued by dropping out after accepting a firm offer from the company, so this may be something that is worth checking during your initial conversation with a representative of the organisation.
As Open Property Group promises to buy directly from the vendor with no middle men involved, no buyer viewings will be required.
Indeed, as part of their four-step process, the second step is to “schedule a property visit if possible”. They go on to explain that “this can be an external survey”.
While this may be useful for busy sellers, or people planning to sell their home remotely, it may not allow Open Property Group to get an accurate idea of the home’s true value - which is risky, particularly as the seller is already due to receive a below-market-value offer.
For this reason, we always highly recommend arranging a property visit with the company.
At the time of writing, it does not appear that the Open Property Group have received any awards for the standard of their processes or customer service.
On Trustpilot, Open Property Group has an overall rating of 4.7 stars based on 39 reviews, with 92% of responders giving 5 stars, 3% giving 4 stars and 5% giving 1 star at the time of writing.
On Google, the company has an overall rating of 4.4 stars, with four reviewers rating the company 1 star, one reviewer rating it 3 stars, three rating it 4 stars and the remainder giving it the full 5 stars.
Feefo contains the most reviews for Open Property Group, at 79 in total. The organisation has a 4.9 star overall rating on this platform.
However, it is worth noting that the Open Property Group states next to the Feefo link at the top of its page that these reviews were left within the last 12 months when, according to Feefo itself, the company has not received a review on the platform for the past year at the time of writing.
Open Property Group’s Facebook page has been operational since January 2019. At the time of writing, the company has 230 likes and 255 followers on this platform. It usually posts at least once per week, focussing on advertising their services and providing insights into the current UK property market.
The company’s Twitter account is more established, having been opened back in 2014. It now has 1,812 followers and is fairly active - posting and retweeting multiple times per day. The account focuses on property news and advice.
Open Property Group also has an Instagram account with 144 followers, although the company has only posted six times.
While Open Property Group does not have its own dedicated YouTube channel, its Managing Director - Jason Harris-Cohen - has an account that features five videos created by the company. At the time of writing, the most recent upload is two years old.
All videos are online ads for the company’s services.
We hope you have found the above information useful when choosing a fast home sale company.
This Company Review and in-depth Summary have been created to provide users with a clear understanding of the organisation’s specialisms, processes and practices.
All of the information above was researched and fact-checked using:
The company’s official website
The Companies House website
Relevant review sites, including allAgents, Feefo, Google, Reviews.com and Trustpilot
Relevant social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn
The websites of regulatory bodies such as the National Association of Property Buyers, the Information Commissioner’s Office and The Property Ombudsman
The websites of relevant rewarding bodies (from which the company claims to have received accolades)
Independent reviews of the company found via Google’s search engine
If you wish to double check any of the information provided in this summary, you can refer to these same sources.
The entirety of the information we have included in this review was correct at the time of writing. We will continue to fact-check and update the review at regular intervals in order to achieve the highest possible levels of accuracy.
We highly recommend that you undertake your own research into any home buying organisation you may be considering, as we understand that you may have unique requirements or specific queries that are not covered on this page.
You can learn more about our company comparison techniques and approaches in the “About Us” page of this site.
You’ll find a selection of handy guides in our “Resources” section. These articles may provide you with valuable information regarding selling your property fast, for the best possible price.
Alternatively, if you require a fast valuation to get a clear idea of the amount you should be offered for your property, please tap the “Valuation Tool” button below. For further information, to make any enquiries or to request advice, please tap the “Help and Support” button.
0800 046 1949
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