Home sellers are becoming more skeptical about Opendoor, which is a national iBuyer with hidden fees. This real estate platform has become incredibly popular among people who need to sell their houses fast. Real estate markets, like California and Florida, have actively embraced Opendoor. You can use several options to look for Aqualane Shores homes for sale in places like Florida. Opendoor may be one of those and while there may be some rumors that they have hidden costs, this company does not if you go by the strict definition of the term “hidden fees.” We’re here to help you decide if you should use them to sell your house.
Should I Sell My House to Opendoor
Ultimately, people like to buy or sell homes on Opendoor since it’s very convenient. They may not care about the total sale price, which is something that can upset realtors. Most real estate agents usually want to get the best price for the home to earn the highest commissions.
Similar to most iBuyers, you can sell your home without a realtor to SD House Guys. Selling your property is easy when you’re not combatting multiple homebuyers or listing it on the market. You can save thousands of dollars and months of time selling your home directly to an iBuyer. Plus, there are no hidden fees when selling to us. We cannot say the same for all iBuyers out there in the real estate world.
Opendoor’s Homebuying Process
Many parts of the process are done through the app. It’s fairly streamlined, which makes things theoretically run much smoother. Nothing is perfect, of course, and there are good and bad things to look out for. The process of selling your house to Opendoor is fairly quick. You can submit your address to them. They will respond with an offer, usually in cash. From there, Opendoor will facilitate a closing within a few weeks. From there, you’re off to the races!
Depending on the type of property you’re selling, Opendoor may not be interested in making you an offer. For example, they prefer to buy residential homes over commercial properties. It’s not uncommon to find Opendoor’s hidden fees baked into their low offers on properties they aren’t very interested in. Opendoor will work with any existing baggage regarding your properties, such as bad tenants. However, most iBuyers will make you a higher offer for your home when it’s vacant.
Opendoor Fees
On the seller side, there are some fees besides the 5% service fee that Opendoor likes to tout. You could wind up having to shell out anywhere between 1% to 3% for closing costs associated with the transaction. There is oftentimes an additional 1%-2% for repairs and another 1% to 2% for miscellaneous. Would that be worth it to have everything made easier by using a process that makes everything about the sale flow?
If you are a buyer or seller and are thinking about using Opendoor, you need to compare those costs to what you would pay an actual realtor, which could wind up being a few percentage points higher. The thing you need to remember about Opendoor is that they want every transaction to happen quickly. Most iBuyers in real estate do.
That means you may leave a lot of money on the table as opposed to working with a realtor who can help you get the most money at any sale. The people at Opendoor know this and they even tell potential sellers that they could be losing out on 3% of the sales price by going through them.
Beyond the Fees: Is The Need For Speed Bad?
You should keep in mind that Opendoor may underestimate the number of repairs needed. Look at review sites to see what people are saying about using them and weigh whether the person who left it had a legitimate complaint or not. This is on both the buying and selling sides.
While there are always real estate horror stories no matter the method of purchasing, it sounds like Opendoor may cut corners in an effort to sell the homes they own. There were some reviews on TrustPilot that said they had bought a Money Pit through the site and were drowning in debt. As far as communication goes, people have reported difficulty communicating with Opendoor employees. Working with a realtor might be easier in terms of getting fast answers. Also, there were some issues with closings, with some inspections not being done.
Using an app like Opendoor may result in you having to do a lot more footwork than you would anticipate when it comes to getting your home ready for a sale. It’s best to keep your eyes open when getting any information from them and also consult impartial third parties for any advice on how to proceed.
The world of real estate has been slow to adjust to the Internet. The nature of going from using a website to an app has led to a lot of issues surfacing, including those aforementioned fees. Since the app lends itself to the potential for some unscrupulous behavior from the Opendoor people who just want to turn a profit, it might be a good idea to see how the app continues to develop or if there are some competitors in the works that could make things even better for the buyer or seller.
You need to weigh the pros and cons of using Opendoor for your real estate needs. See where your budget is and what is available in the area that you live in. While buying or selling your place could be made simple by downloading an app, you may decide that you want to go the old-fashioned way after all by going through a realtor or another well-known company that can buy homes. Homeowners can sell a house as-is to more reputable and local companies, like SD House Guys. Consider all factors when selling your house to Opendoor and finding any hidden fees.