From left: Opendoor CEO Eric Wu and Open Listings CEO Judd Schoenholtz (Credit: Twitter, LinkedIn, and iStock)
For its first acquisition, Opendoor is scooping up a discount brokerage.
The startup is buying Open Listings, a firm that offers homebuyers a 50 percent rebate on a buyer’s agent commission, Inman reported. The privately held companies did not disclose the price of the deal.
The purchase means that Opendoor will both employ buyer’s agents and also work with agents from other brokerages. Combined, the company wants to “make it as easy to buy, sell or trade-in a home as it is to hail a ride, book a flight, or shop online,” Opendoor said in a statement announcing the deal.
San Francisco-based Opendoor has raised $645 million in equity financing and $1.5 billion in debt, the report said. The company will be in 18 markets by the end of the year — including Sacramento, Las Vegas, Denver and Atlanta. It will also have two in Florida: Jacksonville and Tampa.
In each of its markets, sellers can receive an almost instant cash offer on their home. And more sellers are taking advantage of that: Opendoor bought more than 1,000 homes in August, up from 400 a year ago, according to Inman.
Earlier this year, Opendoor expanded its home trade-up program, extending it to all developers. The startup had previously partnered with Lennar Corp. for the program — and added homebuilders including Taylor Morrison and Meritage Homes, before letter any builder in its markets participate.
Nationwide, Opendoor has competition from new “iBuyers,” or companies that let investors buy and sell homes online. In April, Zillow said it would start buying and selling homes, most recently bringing that program to Atlanta. And Redfin has also hopped on the bandwagon. [Inman] — Meenal Vamburkar
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