Selling a house or a property can be a huge hassle. There are waiting lists, long discussions about prices, endless paperwork, and inspections!
So, to make things easier for the people, iBuyers have come into the picture. They offer an alternative to the conventional of selling your property, with a faster and more convenient process.
Among those iBuyers is a company called Opendoor, which is relatively fresh in the market compared to others, like Zillow.
This leaves us with various questions, like: What are the pros and cons of this company? What’s the difference between their final offer and preliminary offer, and how accurate is Opendoor preliminary offer? Let’s find out!
What’s Opendoor?
Opendoor is an iBuyer (Instant Buyer) company that launched its first market in 2014. The company had one goal: to make the challenging decision of selling a home a bit easier by removing any hassles and providing instant cash offers.
Currently, Opendoor works with over 2,500 employees and operates in nearly 50 markets across the United States.
Once you head to their site, you’ll find that Opendoor has a straightforward interface. All you have to do is request an offer on your property.
This is entirely free and doesn’t bind you to accept the offer from Opendoor in any way or pay any fees if you don’t accept the offer.
Once you click on the request button, you’ll need to fill in some basic information about your property, including its address and some features. You should receive a preliminary offer on your property within a few minutes.
If, after the inspection, the final price is up to your liking, you can pick a closing date within 14–60 days of the signed contract. Contrastingly, if the final offer isn’t as good, you can back out of the deal without worrying about cancellation fees.
Pros and Cons of Opendoor
Trusting a company with hundreds of thousands of dollars can be scary, especially if you don’t know much about it.
That’s why we’ve compiled this little pros and cons list to help you learn more about Opendoor and determine whether using an iBuyer service is the right move, given your situation. After all, it’s convenient, but the cost could be high.
Pros
Opendoor showed up, like many iBuyers, to streamline the real estate world and make it more efficient. Among its various benefits, you’ll find the following:
1. Quick and Easy Services
One of the best features of Opendoor is how easy it is to use and how fast it can get the job done.
If your house is in good condition and all the information is in place, the company will automatically make an offer within 24 hours.
Also, Opendoor pays for the entire home inspection process, making it easier for sellers to avoid extra costs and close on their properties.
2. All-Cash Offers
A true horror story many sellers deal with is the money dilemma. Sometimes the money they’re offered simply isn’t there because the buyer couldn’t get the needed financing.
It’s undoubtedly a frustrating situation to deal with, and that’s why Opendoor offers all-cash deals. You won’t have to wait for the buyer to pull through with their financing.
3. Choose Your Closing Date
Finally, there’s no reason to adjust your schedule according to the buyer’s convenience. Opendoor has you covered by offering 14–60 days to pick your own closing date.
This is especially beneficial if you’re going through many things simultaneously and need time to get things in order.
Cons
On the flip side, Opendoor does have some downsides, including:
1. Can’t Take Advantage of the Market
The problem with iBuyers is that they offer below market value prices in exchange for convenience and certainty. Plus, relying on them disconnects you from the competitive housing market.
You can get your home to sell for more by allowing multiple buyers to see it, creating a tiny bidding war. Unfortunately, selling to Opendoor takes that away.
2. Can’t Catch a Buyer
With Opendoor, your buyer is the company itself, and the deal is purely about the numbers. This takes away the emotional aspect of selling a home, which can make a buyer pay more than you’d expect.
3. Can’t Negotiate
One of the few benefits a traditional selling process offers that Opendoor won’t budge on is negotiations. Their offer is mostly final, and there’s no room for negotiations.
Moreover, fees, such as repairing, are entirely at Opendoor’s discretion, and they decide the percentage without your intervention.
How Accurate Is Opendoor Preliminary Offer?
Before answering this question, you must learn the difference between a final offer and a preliminary one.
A preliminary offer is a general estimate of what you can expect to sell your house for according to its size, age, and components. On the other hand, a final offer is based on more detailed information about your home, including its required repairs and closing costs.
Opendoor’s preliminary offer on your property can be slightly inaccurate compared to the final proposal but not too much so. If you’re not satisfied with Opendoor’s preliminary offer Sundae (another online real estate company) might be a better option.
Sadly, it’s usually higher, which tricks various sellers into thinking they’re getting a great deal. However, that’s not always the case.
When an iBuyer is appraising your property for a preliminary offer, they look at various factors, including but not limited to the following:
1. Location
Have you ever heard the phrase “location, location, location?” If not, you’re probably not experienced with the real estate world.
In short, that sentence emphasizes the importance of location and how it could affect a home’s price tag. Its proximity to amenities, good schools, future projects, and developments can all come into play regarding the price.
2. House Condition
Not many people think about their home’s age when they want to sell. However, your home’s age can tell a lot about its general condition, energy efficiency, and safety standards.
These little factors can impact how much your home sells, as modern homes are usually more sought-after.
3. Market Conditions
The local and national real estate markets can affect prices according to the demand and supply in your area.
If there’s a lack of supply and high demand, you can bet that your house will sell for a good price. Unfortunately, the opposite is also true.
Of course, these aren’t the only conditions affecting the initial price. Regardless, this makes us wonder what makes the final offer different, even after considering all these factors.
Why the Final Offer Is Different Than the Preliminary Offer
The best thing about Opendoor is that you can just fill out your property’s information, couple it with a few pictures, and they’ll do the rest.
This means that if too many repairs or wear and tear are required, Opendoor will take care of it. However, they’ll deduct those repairs as well as the closing costs from the preliminary offer.
Generally, the repair costs could go up to 2% of the price, while the closing costs can be an extra 3%.
Also, as we all know, the real estate market is always in motion. Sometimes the prices are up, and other times they’re down, affecting the final offer you get.
Furthermore, Opendoor charges customers around 5% or more for their services. As a result of all these elements, you get left with a final price that looks slightly different from the initial one.
If you want a more accurate preliminary offer, you can send a video with the pictures to help them better understand the property’s condition and needed improvements.
How to Enhance the Preliminary Offer on Your House
Because Opendoor’s prices are primarily non-negotiable, getting them up will be tough once they’ve put a deal on the table.
To solve this dilemma, you’ll need to make your house as appealing as possible to get a reasonable preliminary offer that you can work with.
Here’s how you can do it:
1. Research the Market
The first thing you want to do is understand how the market in your area is doing. You don’t have to become a full expert, but you should be able to identify when the prices are booming and when they’re flat.
2. Rework Your Home
If you don’t want to get a lot of cash deducted for repairs, then it’s best you do them yourself! Take a walk around your home and examine what needs fixing or improving. Most housework can be fixed with a bit of DIY work.
3. Clean the Home and Stage It
Finally, before you send any pictures, you must ensure that the person seeing them can imagine himself living there.
Hence, you’ll need to clean every speck of dust lying around and ensure nothing looks out of place.
You can also stage the place with good lighting and a few plants to make it look more comfortable and inviting.
Frequently Asked Questions
Now that you know everything about Opendoor and its offers, it’s time to look at what the public wants to know most!
Quick Recap
The difference between final and preliminary offers left many wondering: how accurate is Opendoor preliminary offer?
And it makes sense; few people know the service fees, repair costs, and market volatility. These are all factors that can cause a difference in the final offer.
However, the accuracy isn’t too bad once you know what to take into account. You can also get a nice initial offer by cleaning up your home and repairing any damage before the appraisal.
