Zillow and Opendoor have announced a multi-year partnership that combines two real estate category leaders to transform how people start their “move”. Their partnership will allow home sellers on the Zillow to seamlessly request an Opendoor offer to buy their current home. The question is, is this a fresh start for Opendoor or is a way for these two real estate behemoths to cheat and steal from consumers like Opendoor was accused of doing by the Federal Trade Commission.
The FTC, in its complaint against Opendoor, alleged that Opendoor pitched potential sellers using false, misleading and deceptive information. Most of the sellers who sold their homes to Opendoor made many thousands of dollars less than they would have made if they sold their homes using traditional means. Under a proposed FTC administrative order, Opendoor will have to pay a $62 million fine and stop its deceptive tactics; stealing from its consumers.
When Opendoor opened its doors it promised to revolutionize the real estate market but in reality it built its business using old fashioned lies and deception about how much consumers could make by selling their homes on their platform. There is nothing innovative about cheating and scamming consumers.
Selling a home is full of uncertainty for many folks who would rather focus on the next chapter of their lives than on the stress of moving. With the process of moving already being stressful and full of uncertainty why would intelligent consumers put themselves in a situation where they could end up being the next victims of Opendoor and Zillow and loosing thousands of dollars to these large corporations if they utilize the marketing and business methods that were used in the FTC complaint against Opendoor?
Opendoor and Zillow are not the only options for informed, intelligent consumers. Consumers may come out way ahead utilizing local honest home buying companies that have established reputations. A simple Google search and you can find dozens of these companies.
These companies may have all the bells and whistles of a Zillow or an Opendoor but most will have multiple selling solutions and they will have all the local contact of any type of real estate service you may need, anything from lenders to title companies to contractors to movers and some of these company representatives are licensed Realtors. What they won’t have is deceptive marketing practices, scam fees and multimillion FTC fines against them.
Progressive Real Estate Solutions
Selling House – Selling Home – Selling Land