Interesting: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2022/08/ftc-takes-action-stop-online-home-buying-firm-opendoor-labs-inc-cheating-potential-sellers

More here: https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/blog/2022/08/home-economics-62-million-ftc-settlement-addresses-opendoors-alleged-misrepresentations-homeowners

Shocker.

Or not. Got a quote from them 5 years ago when we moved for grins. Was pretty funny and not a good deal even if their offer had been better.

Glad to see they are at least getting their hands slapped. Who gets the 63 mil?

from the second link: To settle the case, Opendoor will pay $62 million, which the FTC will use for customer refunds.

From the 2nd link:

"To settle the case, Opendoor will pay $62 million, which the FTC will use for customer refunds."

Ok I got sidetracked and started my post several minutes ago but I find it pretty funny that the 2 above are the exact same

I'm lazy. Only skimmed the first article.

I have heard of those situations as well. Congrats. That was part of the reason I at least got a quote.

In my case, in 2018,theybwere 75k under what we ended up selling for 6 to 9 months later. All their fees and such added up to more than a traditional brokered transaction (I don't remember the exact percentage more, so won't throw out numbers, but it was substantial) and they had lots of gotcha clauses included, such as forcing repairs or adjusting the offer after they, not a professional home inspector, inspected the house, etc. Having inspected some of their listing for Buyer's, most of which had no significant repairs completed, I found that kind of funny.

I don't disagree that there is always room for industries to improve and evolve. Nor do I doubt that they could improve their practice or that some cases would work as your did. Unfortunately, the linked articles seem to reinforce that it is just too easy for companies to choose to do the wrong thing rather than the honest thing and too many sucome to the temptation of easy money iver hard work, honesty and integrity.

AggieFrog said:

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Absolute said:

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Shocker.

Or not. Got a quote from them 5 years ago when we moved for grins. Was pretty funny and not a good deal even if their offer had been better.

Glad to see they are at least getting their hands slapped. Who gets the 63 mil?

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We sold to them in June. Was a great, seamless transaction for us and if given a competitive offer I'd sell to them again (not having to show when working from home with 3 teenage sons was a huge benefit for us). They offered us $30k above what our realtor friends thought we could get, got to set and update closing to match our new home build completion, had lower fees than using a realtor, and had 17 days in the house after closing for $1,000 (first 7 days were free). We timed it perfectly, as they have listed the house for $12k less than they offered (eating substantially into their fees).

Real estate is well overdue for disintermediation.

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We sold to Open Door last year. We also had a great experience. They paid more than our agent said we would get. Their fees ended up being almost exactly what our agents fee's were. The felxibility in closing date and not having to deal with real estate agents, showings and open house's made selling and moving a much less stressful experience

I also sold to Opendoor earlier this year. I was feeling very risk adverse and wanted a quick sale. They offered $10k more than what the realtor I trusted thought I could get, and that was after netting out their "repairs" (which based on listing photos they didn't do…to me that should be cited in this fine/lawsuit). My realtor also suggested what would have amounted to the same cost in repairs prior to going to market, and was going to charge me an additional 1% (6 vs Opendoor's 5).

It ended up not being the right call financially, probably. Opendoor was able to sell it for $25k more than they paid me for it, but it was a unique home and had an equal chance to sit on the market for a couple of months (my neighborhood was weird in that sense).

So it was a good process for me at the time with the data I had. They offered what I thought was a good price and ultimately the real benefit is the ease of the transaction (and it was INSANELY easy). Hindsight, I could have gotten more, but…no idea if I would have listed for the price they did as it was crazy high and sat for 2 months. Ended up selling for $15k under their list.

Was there any truth to iBuyers nabbing properties (p1) at market rate in m1 and then over paying for a similar home (p2) in the neighborhood in m4 then trying to sell p1 above even the p2 prices in m6 with nothing more than a coat of paint because they pushed most of the fixes to the original seller?

Effectively driving up a neighborhood based on comps they are responsible for.