It’s actually much easier to make a profit flipping homes in a Seller’s market as the value increases are very forgiving. However, one still has to buy right and even in the hottest Seller’s market of my lifetime, Opendoor, still paid too much. It almost has to because it is competing with the local wholesalers and flippers who know the micro-local markets very well and know exactly how much to bid to still make a profit. This is what Zillow realized and why they quickly got out of the buying game.
I’m actually a big fan of Carvana I do remember when they went through the same thing. I think they figured it out much faster. Car sales are also a faster sales process with much lower transactional costs. The end buyer, who usually pays the most, does not conduct as much due diligence with cars as they do with a house.
Also, I believe Carvana started going down when they started spending so much on building those big car ATMs. By then, they had already built a decent reputation and trust with the public.
Although Agents may have a poor reputation as a whole, many individual Agents are trusted advisors that the public would not dare buy a house without. It’s just too big of a purchase. I’ve had clients who will find and negotiate their own house or sale and still bring me into help them get to closing. Maybe Opendoor can disrupt that, but they have a long way to go to win that trust.
I’m an Agent in Denver and I’ve also flipped houses for 20+ years. This September, I had a client who bought a house in Aurora, CO for $476,500. Opendoor bought it in May for $474,500. After commissions and transaction costs from the two sales alone, this is a big loss. This does not even take into account the cost of rehabbing the properties and holding costs.
This is not the first time and I know many other Agents take advantage on either side of the transaction. It’s a running joke in most real estate offices. During the low rate boom, many people were buying houses just to sell to Opendoor and Zillow for a quick profit.
@gnoble79 is spot on. @rabois I urge you to get in the weeds and you will realize this too. Shop their listings and offer them houses to buy. Talk to Agents. You will see that they buy for too much and sell at a loss over and over.
Perhaps there are other revenue drivers that I am not aware of, but I don’t see it unless they are getting a cut of the title insurance and fees. Regardless, that is not enough to make up for their losses.
I say this in hopes that @Opendoor turns into something really disruptive in the housing industry because I think our industry could use it. There are a lot of smart people with tons of bottomless resources who may be able to figure it out and that would be great.
We don’t know each other, though I live in Denver too. I saw your post and admire so much what you did. Your courage to post what happened to you was amazing.
As a husband and father of two beautiful teenage young ladies, thank you. I’m going to show this to my girls and hope they never need to show the same courage you did but hope they feel safe to do so. Kudos to the organizers for handling this right too.
So much gold in here. Thank you so much for sharing, especially 23 (I’m biased 😁).
25 got me thinking… I have known a lot of people in a lot of financial troubles from time to time. Myself included a few times. But the only ones who go bankrupt are the ones who owed a bank. Never really recognized that before you put it so succinctly.
43 is so much more impactful by just adding the word “nice”. I have to start doing that more often.
Thanks again. This is like @naval advice for real estate.
This is such a common mistake that flippers make and hard to get away with in this market. It looks like he cut corners to try and optimize profit and turn it quick. This scares Buyers in a market where Buyers are already afraid of buying a lemon. Color wouldn’t be so bad if he hired a good finished carpenter, more lighting, new appliances rather than scratch-n-dent (see fridge) and professional cleaners. Then get new professional photography. Of course, price trumps everything.
@SteveRattner The difference is that he is providing real products and services. Probably at a fraction of the cost than what others would do it for if they could too.
I am one of your constituents and have voted for you in the past. Never again. You have now lost my trust.
Our current health system is my biggest issue and it needs to be re-thought regardless of politics. RFK is the first person I have seen who represents a new approach to the problems and my family, friends, and neighbors are excited about that even if we are not in total agreement with him or the new administration.
@Codie_Sanchez Great list. I would add “Shoe Dog” about how Phil Knight built Nike.
Also, the podcast “Founders” is a phenomenal of lots of the legend’s biographies.