It appears that Opendoor has preemptively caved in to the Federal Trade Commission, agreeing to a consent order. As is usually the case, the Complaint was filed along with the Consent Order agreement earlier today. I initially thought, “Oh wow, this is bad for Opendoor.” Then I read the Complaint and the Consent Order, and … Read more
Zillow released its Q1, 2022 iBuyer report a few days ago and well, it was kind of drowned out by the CPI print and the ensuing market collapse, including mortgages going over 6%. There are some interesting things in the report, but I have a simple and quick question. And it’s not a rhetorical question; … Read more
Three years ago, I wrote a post titled, “The Case for iBuyer Becoming the Default.” It came up in my social media feeds, thanks to the hard work of my social media manager. And the timing couldn’t have been better, since I’ve been thinking that I need to reassess iBuying as a category in light … Read more
I’m still traveling around the country, but wanted to jot something down real quick from a random hotel room in Houston. Based on this story in Business Insider about Project Ketchup, I’m expecting fantastic things from Opendoor’s earnings call. [Note: I own OPEN in my personal portfolio.] All of the jubilation from the industry about … Read more
Ben Thompson at Stratechery, the man responsible for setting Zillow on its path into iBuying, has published a newsletter discussing Zillow’s exit from iBuying. He’s very generous to Rich Barton and to Zillow, and eats a bit of crow. I rarely find anything in Thompson’s writings and opinions to disagree with, because he is one … Read more
I was in mid-air when the Zillow Q3 earnings release happened. By the time I had landed, there were dozens of texts, emails, and of course, social media postings. There were and are a lot of hot takes. I’m reasonably convinced that all or most are wrong in some significant way. Many are laughably shallow. … Read more
When Opendoor reported its 2020 results, I was so impressed that I went out and broke my own self-imposed rule and bought some shares. It’s a small position but it is a position, and I’m long Opendoor. Well, the Q1 results lead me to believe I’ve made the right choice, despite the markets disagreeing with … Read more
Late last week, Rob and I connected and, once again, he gave me some feedback on my work. His latest recommendation is that I familiarize myself more with the current broker landscape. His June 2018 Red Dot on Zillow, Redfin and Realogy is where I have begun taking a deep dive. While I don’t expect … Read more
Opendoor reported its Q4 and full year 2020 results a week ago, and I couldn’t get to looking closer at them until now. What I’m seeing is impressive as hell. It’s so impressive in fact that I broke my own self-imposed rule and decided to go long on Opendoor. So yeah, take everything I write … Read more