I wrote about Opendoor last week. They’re one of the “iBuyer” companies that buys off-MLS listings and flips them for a profit. Or at least that’s how it’s supposed to work, but too many homes haven’t sold, and they drop their listing prices twice each month until they sell. For too many of their listings, that means they will be getting far less than what they paid for them.
As I write this on Sunday evening, there are 446 unsold Opendoor listings on Denver’s MLS, and the median days on the MLS is 58! It’s apparent that they bought many of these listings during those heady days before the market softened and now they can’t sell them for a profit or even at the price they paid for them.
To keep it manageable, I studied only the 45 Opendoor listings currently active in Jefferson County. The median days on the MLS for those listings is 75! That’s three times the median days on the MLS for all active listings in Jefferson County. All but two of those listings have been active for at least 12 days, and all 43 of those have had their prices cut to try to clear the company’s inventory. They’re going to lose money on most if not all of them. Here are some examples:
They purchased 11022 Trailrider Pass, Littleton, for $631,400 on Dec. 2nd and listed it on Feb. 17th for $820,000. Nine price reductions later, it’s now listed at $643,000 and has yet to go under contract. At the current price, they will pay their usual 2.5% buyer agent commission, netting them about $5,000 less than they paid for it. Presumably they also had some repairs, repainting and other expenses during the two months between buying and listing.
Opendoor’s oldest listing, 2090 Braun Drive, Golden, was purchased last September for $638,300, and is currently listed for $621,000 after one failed contract and three subsequent price reductions.
4740 S. Tabor St., Morrison, was purchased for $500,500 in December, listed for $612,000 two months later, and after nine price reductions and no contracts, it’s listed at $527,000. Depending on how much money they spent dressing up that listing during those two months, they might break even.
Here are some of the Jeffco listings on which Opendoor will lose a lot of money:
Unsold Jeffco listings priced as much as $50,000 below what Opendoor paid for them:
6384 Newland St., Arvada ($579,000)
7076 Parfet Street, Arvada ($626,000)
6975 W. 63rd Ave., Arvada ($577,000)
12463 W. 68th Ave., Arvada ($693,000)
7155 Fenton Circle, Arvada ($568,000)
9010 W. 5th Pl., Lakewood ($594,000)
289 Marshall St., Lakewood ($657,000)
10112 W. Dartmouth Ave., Lakewood ($379,000)
10946 W. Texas Avenue, Lakewood ($558,000)
11266 W. Kentucky Dr., Lakewood ($575,000)
5645 S. Zang Street, Littleton ($481,000)
6309 W. Fair Dr., Littleton ($649,000)
10679 W. Cooper Place, Littleton ($776,000)
7782 W. Alder Dr., Littleton ($786,000)
6230 W. Maplewood Place, Littleton ($666,000)
5683 W. 118th Place, Westminster ($556,000)
11526 Marshall Street, Westminster ($495,000)
10012 Holland Court, Westminster $464,000)
10063 Flower Street, Westminster ($723,000)
9679 Teller Court, Westminster ($576,000)
6280 W. 45th Avenue, Wheat Ridge ($573,000)
Of the 177 Opendoor listings (in all counties) which closed in the last 90 days, only 18 sold at or above their original listing price. More than half sold for at least 5% below their original price. In the same 90-day period a year ago, 55% of Opendoor’s listings sold at or above their original listing price.
One could argue that the iBuyer model is still valid and that the company just suffered from the abruptness of the change in the real estate market. Meanwhile, it is also reported that although the market has slowed, prices are still increasing, so perhaps there are some bargains to be had among Opendoor’s “stale” listings.
Although Opendoor Brokerage is difficult for brokers and buyers to work with (they are managing 446 Colorado listings from their office in Tempe, Arizona), my broker associates and I would be happy to show you any of their listings and see if we can get you a good deal!
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