Disruption in Denver

Real estate startup Opendoor continues to expand its national footprint after opening up shop successfully in Denver in October 2018.

Opendoor makes bids on qualifying homes, then repairs (if necessary) and lists the property through closing. “If you fit our parameters, there is a good chance we will buy your house,” P.J. O’Neil, the San Francisco-based company’s general manager in Denver, tells The Denver Post. More than 2,000 local property owners have contacted the startup, and Opendoor, for its part, has 70 homes currently under contract, with a few currently listed for sale. The biggest risk for the company is how long a property takes to sell, especially in a cooling market.

So what does Opendoor consider a good fit? “We are buying beautiful homes, not ugly homes,” O”Neil said. It defines those as ones built after 1960 that don’t need a lot of work, only minor refreshes like a coat of paint or new carpet. It also prefers production-scale homes, where comparable sales are available, to custom homes. And it wants homes priced below $600,000.

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