Opendoor

Opendoor is an American real estate company based in San Francisco. It makes as-is cash offers to property sellers through an online process, improves and repairs the properties it purchases, and relists them for sale.[1][2]

Opendoor
Private
IndustryReal estate development, Property management, Real estate
Founded2014
FoundersKeith Rabois, Eric Wu, Ian Wong, Justin Ross[1]
Headquarters
San Francisco
,
United States
Number of employees
1001-5000
WebsiteOpendoor

Business Model

Property owners bid to sell their properties on the online platform. When a bid is accepted, Opendoor purchases the property as-is, charging a fee slightly above the commissions real estate agents collect in return for the convenience of closing a sale quickly.[3]

Opendoor then makes improvements to the property and makes any necessary repairs before relisting the property. The process is known in the real-estate market as "iBuyer", or Instant Buyer.[4]

Through this process, Opendoor carries an inventory of homes, though it aims to limit the number of homes it owns at any given time. In 2019, the company reported that the average time a property is held by the company is 90 days.[5] The company has considered renting properties to make use of excess inventory.[6]

History

The company was founded in March 2014 by serial entrepreneurs Keith Rabois and Eric Wu, who previously founded Movity, a real-estate startup acquired by Trulia. After raising a $9.95m venture capital round led by Khosla Ventures in May 2014, the company began operations.[2]

In 2018, Opendoor raised $400m in funding from the SoftBank Group Vision Fund.[7]

In 2019, Opendoor raised $300m in a funding round led by General Atlantic. At the time, the enterprise valuation was $3.8b.[5]

In 2020, Opendoor laid off 600 employees, which makes up 35% of its team, partially due to business impact from the COVID-19 shutdown.[8] In March, Opendoor announced they would suspend home buying during the COVID-19 pandemic out of concerns for the safety of their customers. [9] Opendoor resumed their iBuyer program in Phoenix, AZ on May 4th & Raleigh-Durham, NC on May 11th. [10] Opendoor has since resumed purchasing in multiple cities.

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gollark: No.
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gollark: Yes, why?

References
  1. "Opendoor". Crunchbase. Retrieved 2020-05-16.
  2. "With $10M and a long list of big-name investors, Opendoor is almost open for business". Venturebeat. Retrieved 2020-05-16.
  3. "Home-flipping giant Opendoor says it's time to resume buying". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2020-05-16.
  4. "What Is an iBuyer? iBuying Explained". Fool. Retrieved 2020-05-16.
  5. "Opendoor raises $300M on a $3.8B valuation for its home marketplace". Techcrunch. Retrieved 2020-05-16.
  6. "OpenDoor back open for business". Daily Beat NY. Retrieved 2020-05-16.
  7. "Opendoor just raised $400 million in funding from SoftBank's Vision Fund". Techcrunch. Retrieved 2020-05-16.
  8. "SoftBank-backed Opendoor has announced a massive layoff, cutting 35% of its employees". Techcrunch. Retrieved 2020-05-16.
  9. "Opendoor, Zillow begin pausing homebuying, citing coronavirus concerns". HousingWire. 2020-03-20. Retrieved 2020-06-08.
  10. "Opendoor returns to homebuying with contact-free selling". Inman. Retrieved 2020-06-08.
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