Instant, online buying of homes in Sacramento resumes after COVID-19 paused acquisitions
Opendoor announced Tuesday it has resumed i-Buying operations in Sacramento and all of its 21 markets after pausing internet acquisitions in March because of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Zillow resumed its internet homebuying program earlier this month.
Billed as an alternative to the traditional real estate model, Opendoor allows homeowners to sell their house – at a market price – with a little more than a click of a mouse on the online real estate company’s website.
Zillow and Opendoor charge homeowners a variable service fee that can be slightly higher than the typical 6 percent fee real estate agents charge. That fee is based in part on the company’s estimate of how hard it will be to resell the house.
The primary benefits of this instant homebuying, or I-Buying, are speed, convenience and certainty.
With social distancing measures in place, homebuyers can use Opendoor’s self-touring feature, unlocking the home at their convenience through an app, or watch a virtual tour.
Opendoor also surveyed home buyers and sellers about the currently challenging real estate market. It found:
▪ Some 53% of respondents said that COVID-19 has influenced their decision to move.
▪ When asked to describe where they intend to move, nearly 75 percent of people said they plan to move to another large or mid-sized city.
▪ Sacramento ranked as one of the top destination cities across all demographics of survey respondents.
▪ Most players in the market, 62% of buyers and 63% of sellers, believe that things have already returned to normal in their housing market or will within the next six months.
▪ And self-tours are gaining popularity, with twice the number of buyers (43%) comfortable touring unoccupied homes compared to only 21% who felt comfortable touring occupied homes
San Francisco-based Opendoor sampled buyers and sellers across the following six markets, totaling 480 respondents: Phoenix, Atlanta, Las Vegas, Nashville, Charlotte, Raleigh-Durham. The second survey collected responses from roughly 2,000 consumers across 15 of the largest American cities, including Sacramento.
This story was originally published August 18, 2020 at 11:05 AM.
