The answer to “why is HomeWise contacting me” is almost always a public record. HomeWise reaches homeowners through mailing lists built from county records, offer requests submitted on its website, and referrals, as most direct buyers do. Ownership, tax status and pre-foreclosure filings are public at the county. An owner who wants no contact can reply STOP to a text or ask to be removed from the list.
Take a homeowner in Tucson, Arizona, who bought his house in 2009, paid off the loan in 2021 and has never listed it. In April 2026 he gets a text from a first name he does not recognize offering cash for “the property on East 5th Street,” then a letter with the parcel number printed on it. He has filled out no form. The assessor’s roll shows his name, mailing address and purchase year; the recorder’s index shows the satisfied mortgage; a list vendor sold that slice of the records (owned 15 years or more, no mortgage of record, single-family) to several buyers at once, which is why the texts arrive in clusters.
How do direct buyers find a homeowner’s name and number?
Four channels account for nearly all of it.
- County records. Deeds, mortgages, liens, judgments, lis pendens and notices of default are recorded at the county and open to anyone. The Miami-Dade Clerk’s official records page states that under Florida law “the Clerk of the Circuit Court is the official recorder of all instruments that may, by law, be recorded in the county,” and the office is responsible for “recording, protecting, preserving and disseminating” those records. The assessor adds the mailing address, tax status and purchase year.
- List vendors. Data companies compile those records nationwide, attach phone numbers from commercial databases, and sell filtered lists: absentee owners, long-tenure owners, tax-delinquent parcels, recent filings. A pre-foreclosure list is nothing more than the notices of default or lis pendens recorded in a county, sorted by date. Several buyers usually buy the same list.
- Online offer requests. An owner who typed an address into a “cash offer on my house” or instant cash offer form has asked for contact, and some comparison sites forward that request to several buyers at once. That consent is generally what permits a follow-up call under federal telemarketing rules.
- Referrals. Agents, closing attorneys, contractors and past sellers pass along an owner who has said the house needs to go.
What does each channel do with a STOP or a removal request?
The rules differ by channel, and the most common frustration, that messages keep coming after one opt-out, exists because each buyer bought the list separately. Stopping one sender stops one sender.
The Federal Trade Commission’s Do Not Call Registry FAQ sets the baseline for calls: “Companies can call you if you’ve recently done business with them, or if you’ve given them written permission to call. But if you ask them not to call you, they have to stop.” The same page summarizes the Telemarketing Sales Rule: no sales calls before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. local time, and no recorded sales message without written permission. According to the Federal Trade Commission’s National Do Not Call Registry Data Book for fiscal year 2025, the agency logged over 2.6 million Do Not Call complaints and the Registry held over 258 million active registrations. That same FAQ puts the penalty for illegally calling a registered number at up to $50,120 per call and notes that registration can take 31 days to take effect. For texts, the FTC’s guide on spam text messages tells consumers to forward an unwanted message to 7726, which helps a wireless provider block similar ones.
An owner who finds a notice of default or a lis pendens recorded against the property, and is unsure what it means, should have a licensed attorney in that state read it; the recorder’s office cannot interpret it.
Where does HomeWise fit?
HomeWise, a direct home-buying company that purchases distressed single-family houses in California, Texas, Florida, Arizona, Georgia and other states, reaches homeowners through the channels above: mailing lists drawn from public records, offer requests made on its site, and referrals, the same way most direct buyers do. It has purchased more than 500 homes, buys houses as-is with no repairs, cleaning, staging or showings, and states that requesting an offer is free and carries no obligation. A letter from a buyer of that kind says the property matched a list, not that anything is wrong with the house or the owner’s finances.
An owner who wants off the list can reply STOP to a text or contact HomeWise through its site and ask to be removed. The request should go through those published channels rather than a number in the message, since letters that borrow a real company’s name do circulate. The company’s about page describes how and where it buys. A STOP reply or a removal request to buyers such as HomeWise covers only that company’s list, so an owner hearing from several buyers must repeat it with each.
Frequently asked questions
Why am I getting an unsolicited offer to buy my house?
Because ownership is a public record. The county recorder and assessor publish the owner’s name, mailing address, purchase year and tax status, and list vendors sell filtered versions of those records to direct buyers. An unsolicited offer to buy a house usually means the property matched a filter such as long tenure or no mortgage of record.
Is an instant cash offer sent by text legitimate?
Sometimes, and the test is what the sender does next. A legitimate buyer gives a company name, puts any offer in a written purchase agreement, and never asks the owner to send money. A text that leads to a link, a fee, a wire request or pressure to decide within hours should be forwarded to 7726 and ignored.
How do people texting to buy my house get the number?
The address comes from county records; the phone number is usually appended by a data vendor from other commercial databases. Replying STOP opts the number out with that sender only. Registering at DoNotCall.gov limits sales calls from companies that follow the law but does not, by itself, stop texts or mail.
Does replying STOP actually work?
For that sender, yes. Business texting platforms treat STOP as an opt-out and suppress the number from future messages. It does not reach other buyers who bought the same list, and it does not touch mail campaigns. For calls, the owner should also ask to be put on the company’s internal do-not-call list.
Is a “cash offer on my house” letter worth answering?
Only if selling is on the table. Answering produces a number, and a free, no-obligation offer costs nothing to receive, but it also confirms the address is live. An owner with no interest in selling loses nothing by ignoring the letter; a curious owner should ask for the offer in writing and compare it with a nearby sale.
