WASHINGTON – The Federal Trade Commission took action Aug. 1 against online home buying firm Opendoor Labs Inc. for cheating potential home sellers.
Customers were tricked into thinking they could make more money selling their home to Opendoor than on the open market using the traditional sales process, the FTC charged.
The FTC alleged that Opendoor pitched potential sellers using misleading and deceptive information, and in reality most people who sold to Opendoor made thousands of dollars less than they would have made selling their homes using the traditional process.
Under a proposed administrative order, Opendoor will have to pay $62 million and stop its deceptive tactics.
According to The Oklahoman, an Oklahoma City real estate broker using public tax records and information from the Multiple Listing Service reviewed the amounts Opendoor paid for homes compared to how much the iBuyer sold those homes for. Among the 53 Opendoor purchases she researched, the biggest disparity was a house that Opendoor sold for $55,000 more than they paid for it.
Opendoor “promised to revolutionize the real estate market but built its business using old-fashioned deception about how much consumers could earn from selling their homes on the platform,” said Samuel Levine, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.
Opendoor, headquartered in Tempe, Arizona, operates an online real estate business that, among other things, buys homes directly from consumers as an alternative to consumers selling their homes on the open market. Advertised as an “iBuyer,” Opendoor claimed to use cutting-edge technology to save consumers money by providing “market-value” offers and reducing transaction costs compared with the traditional home sales process.
Opendoor’s marketing materials included charts comparing their consumers’ net proceeds from selling to Opendoor versus on the market. Those charts almost always showed that consumers would make thousands of dollars more by selling to Opendoor.
In fact, the complaint states, the vast majority of consumers who sold to Opendoor actually lost thousands of dollars compared with selling on the traditional market, because the company’s offers have been below market value on average and its costs have been higher than what consumers typically pay when using a traditional real estate agent.
The FTC investigation found that Opendoor also violated the law by misrepresenting that:
Opendoor used projected market value prices when making offers to buy homes, when in fact those prices included downward adjustments to the market values.
Opendoor made money from disclosed fees, when in reality it made money by buying low and selling high.
Consumers likely would have paid the same amount in repair costs whether they sold their home through Opendoor or in traditional sales.
Consumers likely would have paid less in costs by selling to Opendoor than they would pay in traditional sales.
Opendoor has agreed to a proposed order that requires the company to pay $62 million, which is expected to be used for consumer redress.
The order also prohibits Opendoor from making the deceptive, false, and unsubstantiated claims it made to consumers about how much money they will receive or the costs they will have to pay to use its service.
The order also requires Opendoor to have competent and reliable evidence to support any representations made about the costs, savings, or financial benefits associated with using its service, and any claims about the costs associated with traditional home sales.
When the FTC issues a consent order on a final basis, it carries the force of law with respect to future actions. Each violation of such an order may result in a civil penalty of up to $46,517.