On Wednesday, Opendoor, an online marketplace that buys homes directly from homeowners, announced it has expanded its Homebuilder Program beyond its pilot and is now available to all homebuilders.
Opendoor explained that the program, which initially launched with mega homebuilder Lennar, frees buyers who need to sell their home before purchasing a new one to do so without having to sell their old home.
“Today, we’re announcing that the program is now available to all builders,” the company wrote in its blog post. “Already, it has been used by 19 of the industry’s top 25 builders, including 6 of the top 10, who have offered Opendoor as an additional service to create a better experience for contingent buyers.”
The company explained the expansion is to better serve the needs of homebuilders and homebuyers, adding that the company is now offering customers in the program the ability to be flexible with their closing dates. The company said buyers can close in as quickly as 10 days or as long as nine months.
“This makes Opendoor an option for standing-inventory homes, as well as new builds from the ground up. Opendoor’s closing timelines are also fully flexible, which provides a better customer experience for new home buyers if there are construction delays or last-minute changes,” the company said.
Opendoor explained that its program aims to help homebuilders sell more homes by:
- Eliminating a top industry-wide barrier to new home purchases by making it easy for homeowners to sell their home to Opendoor at fair market value. The mechanics are simple – the prospect fills out information about their existing home in a few clicks right from the builder’s sales office and Opendoor will send a fair market offer within 24 hours. The service eliminates the “I have to sell my current home first” contingency — at zero cost to the builder.
- Sending a no-cost, no-obligation offer to sellers in 24 hours makes anyone who visits a new home sales office a viable top-tier prospect. A buyer can return as quickly as the next day with a signed purchase agreement on their existing home in order to remove the contingency to purchase a new home.
- Buying the home directly brings convenience, control, and certainty that is unmatched in the industry for builders and customers alike. The customer is in full control of when they sign our purchase agreement and our closing dates are guaranteed and flexible.
- Providing a stress-free home sale creates a halo effect for our builder partners who experience higher customer satisfaction scores.
