Compare Open Listings and Opendoor

For Sellers

Not Applicable
0
No Rates
Open Listings does not offer listing services to consumers.

For Sellers

Cash Offers
15%-20%
Home Equity
Opendoor does not provide real estate listing representation. Instead, the company buys homes directly, repairs and resells them to consumers or companies that rent them to tenants. Opendoor makes an offer equal to 80%-85% of home value accounting for fees and any cost of the repairs and resale.

For Buyers

Buyer’s Savings
50%
Commission Rebate
When Open Listings represents buyers, it contributes 50% of its total Buyer's Agent Commission (2.5%-3%) as a way to financially compete for buyer’s business. Home buyers do not pay any taxes on the amount, the refund amount is always tax-free.

For Buyers

Not Applicable
0
No Rates
Opendoor does not provide real estate services to home buyers. Opendoor does resell some of the homes it buys on the open market, just like any other real estate investor aiming for the highest return on investment.
Question: What is the difference between Open Listings and Opendoor?
Answer: Open Listings is a buyer’s real estate agent and a referral fee network while Opendoor is a direct home cash buyer that buys select homes off-market with cash offers and resells them at a profit to homebuyers
Compare Open Listings and Opendoor for home buying and selling. HomeOpenly is an impartial and an open resource focused on trending real estate services, portals and start-ups.

First published: 17 February 2019
Last updated: 25 April 2021

Buying and Selling with Open Listings

WARNING: Unlawful Kickbacks, Broker-to-Broker Collusion, False Marketing, Wire Fraud, Price Fixing.

Open Listings is a broker-to-broker collusion scheme, where "partner agents" unlawfully agree to pay massive kickbacks to receive your information and engage in market allocation, consumer allocation, false advertising, unlawful kickbacks, wire fraud, and price-fixing practices in violation of, inter alia, 18 U.S.C. § 1346, 18 U.S.C. § 1343, 15 U.S.C. § 1, 15 U.S.C. § 45, 12 U.S.C. § 2607, 12 C.F.R. § 1024.14. As a consumer, you will always significantly overpay for Realtor commissions subject to hidden kickbacks and pay-to-play steering promoted in this scheme.

United States federal antitrust laws prohibit consumer allocation and blanket referral agreements between real estate companies.

Be smart; do not allow your information to be "sold as a lead" to a double-dealing Realtor in exchange for massive commission kickbacks paid from your future home sale, or your future home purchase.


A multi-state broker rebates buyer part of the commission it receives. In some cases, Open Listings acts as an Internet referral service where it sets rebates for independent real estate brokers that do not work for Open Listings directly.

Open Listings Pricing

Open Listings offers home buyers a 50% commission rebate. Open Listings also requires a $5,000 minimum commission. Minimum commission requirement negates refund for homes priced under 150,000 USD.

Listing Services

  • This Service Does Not Represent Sellers

Buyer's Agent Services

  • Find the Property
  • Accept and Deliver All Offers and Counteroffers
  • Recommend Other Professionals
  • Attend Inspection Services
  • Schedule Private Showings
  • Negotiate Needed Repairs
  • Closing Duties

Open Listings Editor's Review:

In some cases, Open Listings represents clients directly. However, Open Listings Referral Network (Partner Agents) is a referral process that connects buyers with third-party real estate agents in exchange for an undisclosed commission split or a referral fee.

A Partner Agent who is employed by, or works with their own brokerage gets referred by Open Listings at their own discretion, as a blind match. Open Listings keeps referral fee amount hidden and does not disclose the split amount it receives from real estate agents who operate under their own license – this practice is highly deceptive and is designed to deceive consumers into thinking that Open Listings is the brokerage they are actually working with.

By engaging with Open Listings consumers authorize them to share personal information and home search history with any Partner Agent, regardless if a consumer wants to work with an Open Listings agent directly.

When shopping for a Real Estate Agent, the price alone is not as important as being able to make an informed choice about representation. Open Listings Referral Network is a poor choice for Real Estate Agents and consumers due to lack of transparency.

Open Listings’ operations as a referral network result in an inefficiency known as reverse competition and possible price fixing. Such practice may result in a lower quality of service or higher commissions.

Once Open Listings refers a customer to a Partner Agent, that agent, not Open Listings, represents the customer from the initial meeting through closing. Open Listings dictates that Partner Agent rebates 50% of their commission in order to receive a referral, while Open Listings takes a commission cut after the transaction is complete.

In the United States, all independent brokerage fees are always negotiable and each real estate agent establishes its own policy for a fee structure, amount of commissions, and issuing rebates to consumers.

Price fixing is prohibited by antitrust legislation. To fix, control, recommend, suggest or maintain commission rates, rebates, and fees for other agents' services is an improper practice.

Open Listings does not represent home sellers, but the company was acquired in 2018 by a direct home cash buyer: Opendoor.

Opendoor does not represent home sellers either, it is a real estate investor who buys homes from consumers and resells them at a profit; this practice is known as house-flipping.

When working with Open Listings, consumers may be pressured to use Opendoor by their Open Listings real estate agent. There is absolutely no requirement for anyone using Open Listings when buying a home to sell their home to an Opendoor.

As buyer’s agent Open Listings’ job is to represent consumers when making a purchase of a new home, it should not advise consumers on their existing home listing, unless a separate listing agreement exists.

Real estate agents are required by law to place their client’s interest before their own. Consumers are encouraged to read our full review for Opendoor before using the house-flipping service.

Where does Open Listings operate?

Open Listings currently operates in select areas across California, Washington, Texas, and Illinois..

Buying and Selling with Opendoor

Opendoor is a multi-state VC-backed real estate investor that operates across highly specific locations. Where available Opendoor mainly focuses on homogenous homes built after 1960 with a value between $125,000 and $500,000.

In determining the offer, Opendoor discounts from the estimated retail value after home is fully renovated.

Opendoor Pricing

Opendoor makes money with a difference between buying and selling each home. This difference is a combination of fees and home value appreciation between what Opendoor buys and seller each home for. Sellers can expect to receive 80%-85% of their home value from this type of sale after any fees, cost of the minor repairs, and resale.

Listing Services

  • This Service Does Not Represent Sellers

Buyer's Agent Services

  • This Service Does Not Represent Buyers

Opendoor Editor's Review:

Opendoor will buy a home at a price that is below market value due to necessary repairs, renovation, and other factors. After Opendoor buys the home, it renovates and resells it for a profit to other buyers or companies that rent homes to qualified tenants. With low offer price, comes a convenience of an all-cash closing when selling a home. Opendoor claims to provide convenience, speed, and certainty of a fast sale. Dubbed as an iBuyer, Opendoor makes an offer on a house within days or hours, but this offer is highly conditional. Each offer Opendoor makes is just an estimate until it makes a home inspection.

At the inspection, Opendoor will often find reasons to lower its original offer when it finds items that need repair or if it has made a mistake in its original valuation. When the company is unable to make an offer, it simply redirects consumers to a random real estate agent in exchange for an undisclosed referral fee. Opendoor offers fast home sales, but these are typically accompanied by higher fees (starting at 6% and rising to 12% for more risky properties.)

Opendoor only makes offers to select homes in select regions. Opendoor claims that it provides market offers, but we find this not be true. Search for past Opendoor transactions makes it clear that company also makes money with home appreciation difference (typical appreciation of 5.5% to 12.5%) between what it buys houses for and what it sells them for in addition to service fees. The main disadvantage of using Opendoor is high losses in homeowners' equity.

Opendoor is a "heavy" model, backed by a large amount of VC capital ready to buy homes in all-cash transactions. As any real estate investor, Opendoor is susceptible to losing money in any given transaction. This model is susceptible to a number of risk factors, high operational costs and a continued need for higher-than-average Return on Investment (ROI) with each flip. Opendoor is not legally bound to represent consumers, its main legal obligation is to its shareholders.

Opendoor's fast transaction and easy move-out experience typically come at an extremely high price because this model incurs "double" transaction costs during the purchase, holding period, rehab work and final sale that includes real estate agent fees. Opendoor pays real estate agent commissions like any other buyer and seller of real estate, so these costs must be accounted for in the company's fee structure. The facts continue to point against Opendoor’s claims that it offers fair value for the houses it buys.

Moreover, because most homes in the United States are financed, homeowners own only partial net equity in their home. Banks receive the same amount of the remaining mortgage sum regardless of how any given home is sold, whereas only homeowners' net equity is lost in transaction fees paid to Opendoor.

Typically Opendoor uses the following factors when determining the offer: existing condition of the home including repairs needed, time it will take to finish needed repairs, value of a home compared to other comparable homes in the area, real estate commission required to resell, costs associated with maintaining a home during repairs, including taxes, payments, insurance, utilities and homeowner dues.

Today, there are a number of highly qualified real estate agents who offer competitive listing rates and flat fee listings across the United States. Unless a situation absolutely requires a quick sale, HomeOpenly recommends that consumers first consider using a licensed real estate agent working on competitive terms to properly list their homes on the open market before turning to Opendoor option.

Some real estate agents are now offering Concierge services that include painting, landscaping, and other services that help consumers place their home on the open market without upfront costs and high loss to home equity.

Conflicting Incentives for Consumers

Opendoor, when it acts as a real estate investor, further offers 1% of the purchase price back at closing to work with an Opendoor Home Advisor to buy an Opendoor home. According to the company, Opendoor must not be obligated to pay any buyer's agent commissions for this promotion to apply. Having to require such terms limits consumer's ability to use an independent buyer's agent in a transaction. In effect, Opendoor offers a buyer an incentive to forgo independent representation in exchange for a 1% discount. Consumers should never be financially incentivized by a real estate investor to limit their representation when buying real estate from them.

In contradiction to this incentive, Opendoor Terms of Service directly state that: "in making you an Opendoor Offer, Opendoor is not acting as your real estate agent or broker. Opendoor is merely acting as, or on behalf of, a purchaser of real estate. As a seller, you have the right, and it is your responsibility, to independently evaluate and decide whether to accept the Opendoor Offer."

Company further states: "Buyer represents that she has had ample opportunity to obtain legal and other professional counsel of its choosing and that it is relying solely on its own independent judgment and that of its own professional consultants, if any, in entering into the purchase contract and purchasing the property."

From one side, Opendoor offers consumers an incentive in an exchange for "not being obligated to pay any buyer's agent commissions," but from another, requires buyers to "represent that they have had an ample opportunity to obtain legal and other professional counsel." These two propositions contradict each other.

Conflicting Incentives for Listing Agents

Further, Opendoor improperly offers financial incentives to listing agents to help convince consumers to take lower-priced offers from the company, instead of listing homes on the open market. iBuyer offers, accounting for fees and reduced market value, are systematically the most expensive way to transfer ownership.

In this scheme, a listing agent is offered a financial incentive from Opendoor to bring their client to the company for a pre-market offer. No real estate investor (iBuyer) should be able to offer any financial incentive to a third-party representative to persuade consumers to accept their low offers. By offering a fixed financial incentive (currently set as 1% fee of the whole transaction) to listing agents upon acceptance of an Opendoor offer, the company acts to create a conflict of interest between a listing agent and their (present, or potential) client.

A listing agent, in this case, has to choose between having to properly represent a consumer to sell thier home in the open market subject to a competitively negotiated commission, or getting a quick pre-fixed "incentive cash" for handing them off to Opendoor.

Opendoor can change this incentive amount at any time. Today, the company offers 1% incentive of the entire home sale to the listing agent, tomorrow, the company decides to set this incentive at 2%, 3%, 4%, 5% or some other pre-fixed amount, as it likes.

Such incentives are a form of price-fixing and directly affect listing agents' ability to work with their clients on fair terms. Further, these incentives remove listing agents' and consumers' abilities to negotiate home sale representation fees (listing commissions) in a competitive setting.

Opendoor Brokerage

Opendoor is a parent company of Opendoor Brokerage, but they are two distinctly different legal propositions. Opendoor is a real estate investor (iBuyer) and Opendoor Brokerage is a licensed real estate broker. For this reason, HomeOpenly maintains two separate reviews for these entities. All user reviews and the editor's review for Opendoor Brokerage are located here.

Where does Opendoor operate?

Opendoor currently operates in select areas across Phoenix, Dallas-Fort Worth, Las Vegas, Atlanta, Orlando, Raleigh-Durham, San Antonio, Charlotte, Nashville, Tampa, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Houston, Sacramento, Riverside, Denver, Portland, and Austin..