When Opendoor returned to homebuying in May following a hiatus prompted by the coronavirus pandemic, it did so with the introduction of its new “Home Reserve” platform, an offering that would allow the iBuyer to list sellers’ homes while purchasing and reserving their next home with all-cash offers.
Now, the company is looking for real estate agents to serve as “founding Opendoor Agents at Opendoor Brokerage,” who, an Opendoor spokesperson explained, would power the company’s Home Reserve platform. The posting is for an independent contractor agent in the Phoenix, Arizona, market.
“Hanging your license with Opendoor Brokerage as an independent contractor means you are eligible for a consistent, steady stream of highly motivated seller & buyer clients,” the job post reads. “You will be able to service more buyers and sellers every year by being able to offer products no other brokerage can.”
“In addition to motivated clients and excellent income potential, Opendoor Brokerage will provide support so you can improve and grow your craft from the appointment to the close,” the posting continues. “We want to unlock a world where you can focus on providing an outstanding experience for your clients.”
The Opendoor spokesperson said the listing is for independent contractors to support the home reserve product announced earlier this year.
The well-funded direct to consumer homebuying and selling real estate tech company hasn’t been shy about its intentions. In 2018, the company acquired Open Listings, a discount brokerage with a team of salaried in-house real estate agents and partner agents that offers homebuyers a 50 percent rebate on a buyer’s agent commission.
The latest move comes as the line between brokerages and iBuyers continues to blur, said Mike DelPrete, a real estate tech advisor and Inman contributor.
“The biggest evolution of the iBuyer business model in four years quietly occurred last week: Opendoor and Offerpad launched traditional brokerage listing services,” DelPrete wrote in a piece republished by Inman in June. “Both companies will now list homes directly, alongside their core instant-offer businesses, underlining the growing convergence of iBuyers and the traditional industry.”
In June, Offerpad announced it was launching a real estate solutions division, allowing clients to be able to list their homes for sale with licensed Offerpad employees as well as utilize the company’s concierge services to prep the home for market.
It’s also the culmination of a fear that many in the real estate industry have expressed in the past: well-funded real state tech companies going from iBuyer to brokerage. When it was revealed in August 2018 that Zillow had a broker’s license in Arizona, multiple agents criticized the company, despite its insistence that it had no plans to represent buyers and sellers and that the broker’s license was merely a formality required to operate Zillow Offers.
When Offerpad announced its new platform in June, one commenter said, “As an agent this is terrifying.”
