Opendoor, the direct-to-consumer homebuying and selling startup, announced Tuesday it’s expanding its trade-up program with the addition of two new partners. Now homeowners can sell their homes and more seamlessly move into a newly built home from Century Communities or Gehan Homes, in addition to previous partners.
Opendoor first launched the pilot program, called the Opendoor Builder Trade In Program, in Las Vegas with Lennar in early 2017. During the pilot phase, the company worked with Lennar to help homeowners in the city sell their homes to Opendoor and “trade up” for one of Lennar’s move-in-ready homes.
Nate Harbacek | Photo credit: LinkedIn
Customers for this program visit a homebuilder office, find a home from a builder that they want to move into immediately or find a lot in progress that’s expected to be ready in a certain timeframe. They get an estimate for how much Opendoor would buy their existing home for in 24 hours, and then, if they decide to move forward, select a closing date between 10 days and nine months from that time.
“In the last five years, we’ve met with and spoken to countless families, couples and individuals selling a home or buying a new one,” Opendoor head of corporate development Nate Harbacek wrote in a blog post. “The message is often the same. Homeowners who are looking to move into a new home have a tremendous hurdle to overcome: they need to sell their existing home before they can buy a new one.”
“This is especially true when people are considering the purchase of a newly built home,” Harbacek added. “Trying to time the sale of a current home with the construction and closing of a newly built home can put a huge strain on families, often resulting in the hassle of moving twice, the financial burden of a double mortgage, and sometimes the reality of having to put their dream home on hold.”
Since launching the program, Opendoor has grown it to include 19 of the top 25 homebuilders in the country. Those partnerships, according to Harbacek, have delivered over $1.5 billion in total sales for the top 25 homebuilders in the country.
Century Communities is considered a top-10 U.S. homebuilder, according to Opendoor. The company operates in 17 states. Gehan Homes is an award-winning builder, working in Texas and Arizona.
