This week, mortgage rates hit highs not seen in some time. This makes owning a home increasingly unaffordable for average Americans.
So, we accelerated our timelines on shipping a product out of beta. Need a bit of time to finish one last thing and for the PR to merge.
$OPEN bought back stock for the first time in company history cutting its share count by 5% after raising $650M at a 0% coupon.
CEO Kaz Nejatian says “I despise dilution” and plans to personally buy another $100K of stock as the company keeps hundreds of millions available to fund growth.
Some news. Today, for the first time in Opendoor's history, we bought back our own stock.
Our share count is down 5%. We paid for this buyback with money borrowed at a 0% coupon and we still have hundreds of millions of dollars left to grow faster.
There are plenty of helpful details, along with a lot of legalese, in our press release and 8-K (linked below). But there are a few things I want to say directly and in plain English.
First, I *despise* dilution. On my first earnings call at Opendoor, I told you that if we issue a share, it has only one job: to make every other share worth more for our existing shareholders, not to extend runway for management. The flip side is just as simple: when our own stock is one of the best uses of capital, we should buy it back. Today, we did just that - by 5%.
Second, I run a publicly traded company. I don’t get to have feelings about the macro or the way Wall Street works. My job is to understand the rules of the game and use them to find an edge and build a better company.
One of those realities is that our stock price has lots of volatility.
People disagree - A LOT - about what Opendoor could be worth one day. Some think we're worth less. Some think we're worth dramatically more. I obviously have a view…
That disagreement isn’t just noise - it has economic value that Wall Street monetizes every single day.
Most companies would treat this as a headache, but we see it as an asset. If people are going to speculate about our future, I'd rather our shareholders get paid than anyone else. So instead of complaining about volatility, we used those dynamics to borrow $650M at a 0% coupon.
Then we turned around and used part of those proceeds to buy back our own stock. At today's prices, buying back our stock and call options was one of the best trades on the board. The rest stays on our balance sheet so we can buy more homes and grow faster.
As for dilution, we bought our stock where we thought it was cheap and pushed any future dilution far above today’s price. Not one net new Opendoor share will exist below $10.38. And if we buy back stock in the future, that floor goes higher.
But why raise now? Because the best time to raise capital is when you don’t need it. We’ve proven the business can reach ANI profitability, but profitability is just the starting point, not the finish line. And waiting could make the shares we are buying back today more expensive, and homes we could be buying don’t get bought. I’d rather move now.
Some people will call what we did today aggressive. They’re right. But being aggressive is how we fixed a company that spent years being careful. I’d make that trade again.
To our shareholders: You trusted us with your capital. Today, for the first time, Opendoor used its own capital to buy more of itself. The company is putting its money where its mouth is. Tomorrow, I will too.
After our lawyers allow, I’m personally buying $100K worth of shares. I'm all in, and I plan to keep buying.
Missed the last 2 $OPEN weekly updates as I've been on the road watching England
Back at my desk now, will try to summarize
Q2 2026, incredible!
- Broke 7000 aquisitions (7014)
- Q2 acquisitions up 42% over the best quarter we'd seen since COVID (Q1 26). New record.
- up 344% vs the last quarter of the old $OPEN regime
The chart below show's exactly how growth is building
Excited to share that I'm joining Opendoor as Chief AI Officer, where I'll be bringing frontier AI to the way people buy and sell homes.
I've known Kaz for 11 years, and the chance to build something alongside him is a rare thing. Grateful for my time at Meta MSL, but this was the opportunity I couldn't say no to.
The way people buy and sell homes hasn't fundamentally changed in decades. I believe AI is about to change that, saving real Americans real time and real money, and making homeownership more within reach.
That last part matters most. Homeowners put down roots. They invest in their families and their communities. A nation of homeowners is a stronger nation. That's the mission, and we're just getting started!
Recently, the number of listings on @Opendoor has been steadily increasing, but pending and sold properties haven't kept up, which is a bit concerning.
$OPEN
I shared this note earlier today with the entire team at Opendoor.
Today we began to say goodbye to our colleagues in India as we wind down our India operations.
Our customers are in America, and that's where our operational work belongs.
If you are an Opendoor shareholder, I have an ask.
Proxy advisors at ISS and Glass Lewis have recommended shareholders to vote against me at our Annual Meeting. I don’t take this personally. This is the fifth time in my career these same people have told people to vote against my team.
These proxy advisors have built no companies and are not meaningful shareholders of OPEN. They're a checkbox industry charging fees to tell other people what to do with shares that aren't theirs.
Usually most companies can’t do anything about this since many institutional shareholders will just vote the way ISS tells them to.
But Opendoor has the Open Army! It is important that we stand up against this separation of management from shareholders.
If you are so inclined, help tilt the world in favor of shareholders and away from bureaucrats.
Find out how (ask your broker, check your emails) and vote your shares. Our board is excellent. We are back on mission and we are winning.
Don't outsource your vote. Read the proxy. Vote your shares.
Apologies to the $OPEN army but won’t be able to get a full pre-earnings article out before tomorrow earnings but here are my high-level thoughts heading into another blockbuster event.
Stock price has fallen a lot since last earnings so overall I would say expectations are lower; however, it’s so hard to handicap what’s going to move the stock given how hard this business is to value.
Overall, I’d say there’s a strong narrative up for grabs that Opendoor could be an AI-winner by finally disrupting the real estate space (fool me twice shame on me right?). We’re starting to see stories like this in other “legacy” sectors (see $CHRW) but it just needs to be proven out with the numbers.
I believe the most important metrics that investors will be looking at are:
Post-Kaz inventory performance - this basically sums up the whole she-bang. it’ll be interesting to see how / if they break this out but essentially Opendoor needs to show that the “Kaz magic” is real and that the homes they bought post his arrival are fundamentally positive margin. If they can make a compelling case for this then investors will be willing to write off all of the “Carrie” inventory (breakeven CM) and start to model “run-rate” performance (positive CM).
Additional services attach rate and “pro-forma” margin impact at scale - this is what gets big money excited. Showing clear growth and progress around attach rates and margin contribution for title, insurance, and mortgage will finally get the “Amazon for real estate” story off the ground.
Mortgage especially deserves a call-out as it has been a clear focus for the company and would be a huge “buyer unlock” in terms of accelerating buyer demand and resale. Also plays into the AI story as it’s an area clearly ripe for disruption (see $CHRW as a poster child for AI-powered stock rocket fuel)
Operating efficiency and net-income profitability guidance - at the same time Opendoor also needs to continue providing visibility on overall operating efficiency and when the “cash fire” is expected to stop. If there’s clearer line of sight into cash-flow profitability or a move up a quarter - investors will pay attention.
This is probably the biggest fundamental reason for shorts and any guidance around this could potentially accelerate position closing (this is a real business??)
Worth a callout here is marketing spend and CAC efficiency. Kaz has explicitly said this is something they’re being very mindful of and I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re tracking to something crazy like 5x more marketing $ to acquisition efficiency with a combination of better analytics, better channels, lower rates, more overall consumer mindshare, and better pricing / offers.
Secondary metrics:
Updated acquisition guidance - https://t.co/RbwSazX2mt has been a boon for retail investors but the company has barely managed to eeke out the bottom of the guidance so far. We’ll see what they say in terms of their guided range for Q1 acquisitions after their blockbuster week this week and hopefully heading into Q2.
Cash Plus - Cash Plus is a game-changer and one of the few “Carrie-legacy” ideas that the new team has kept in place. However, there hasn’t been any public data around what the split is between the various seller options or the downstream impact to CM and margin variance. Could be big if they decide to share these so early.
There’s so much I didn’t cover (partnership, market launches, buy direct) but I’ve highlighted what I think will move the needle in terms of stock price tomorrow. Still, we were thrown in a loop with the warrants last earnings call and there could well be another big thing brewing tomorrow.
My gut says we’re in for a treat, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
Cheers!
Jeff
US CPI inflation dropped significantly today from 1.24% to 0.86% in our independent price data, the lowest since 2020.
Truflation US CPI today: 0.86% Y/Y
The biggest downward drivers were:
1. Utilities down -0.13%
2. Clothing -0.08%
3. Housing -0.05%
4. Transport -0.05%
5. Food -0.04%
I need to give some suggestions to @Opendoor. For homes sold in January,
the average time from pending to sold was 31.5 days,
the average time from purchase to listing is 25 days,
which might be due to the holidays, but I hope this time can be significantly shortened.
$OPEN
In January, @Opendoor sold 378 homes, but since I captured about 85% of the sales, I estimate it to be 440. Currently, there are 638 homes pending, so we can predict that February's sales will reach 600 homes, a 50% increase!
$OPEN
FASTER
OPEN is a turnaround. New CEO, new board, new strategy. They are offloading legacy unprofitable flips. They are launching a mortgage strategy. They are focused on tech, execution, and profitability. If you are looking at a spreadsheet with backwards looking data, you won’t get it
"Just because the asset size is large doesn't mean friction needs to be high. In fact, the fact that asset size is high means friction should be lower..." - @nejatian
JUST IN ⚡️: @themotleyfool highlights $OPEN evolving business model and notes the valuation upside once growth is proven.
With mortgage rates easing, costs coming down, and marketing efficiency improving, it’s hard not to be optimistic about the next few quarters. Re-rating WILL happen fast. 📈
When families buy homes, they buy a stake in the future of their community.
Everything we can do to help people live in homes they own is a good thing. Homes are for families.
We are super happy to see @realDonaldTrump is so committed to helping average homeowners.