Is This the Death of iBuyer? Opendoor’s Shakeup Is Revealing

9/8/25
Update: Opendoor Stock is Soaring. Up around 900% to about $7.00 in the last 90 days from its low at $0.51.

8/22/25
Opendoor, the largest real estate iBuyer, just made headlines again. CEO Carrie Wheeler is out this week, and interim leadership is stepping in as activist investors and meme-stock traders push the company in a new direction. But is this the death of iBuyer or a signal for its future success? In this article, I’ll lay out what industry experts are saying, tell you what this means for realtors and take a stab at predicting the future.

Disclaimer: I am (and have been) an Opendoor investor… for 5 years. So, on paper, Ive lost an actual boat load as the stock dropped and would love for the company to find a solution that accelerates growth, helps the industry, assists with home ownership and … yeah, grows my bank account so I can hire a better stock advisor than my own gut.

Wheeler resigned, under significant and growing pressure in the last 2 weeks. She had reduced burn, and trimmed the company to prepare it for the next phase. But, reportedly she never bought a share of Opendoor stock herself … showing her lack of faith in the long term plan.
This isn’t just about a CEO swap. It’s about the death of the original iBuyer dream. Buying homes fast, improving them with paint and carpet and flipping / reselling them quickly. The plan was to scale that model nationwide. However, that vision has been battered by interest rates, thin margins, and the sheer weight of holding BILLIONS of residential inventory.

Why This Matters

For years, I believed that iBuying was supposed to make real estate more efficient. But the reality is simple: holding houses is expensive, flipping them at scale is risky, and today’s capital markets don’t have patience for razor-thin profits.

My friend Rob Hahn nailed it in his recent Substack post. His argument? Opendoor may need to reinvent itself around seller financing or rent-to-own models. Instead of flipping homes quickly, Opendoor could assume mortgages, carry properties longer, and create recurring income streams. This would look something more like Blackstone than Zillow Offers.

That’s a huge shift. It means moving from a transaction-based, high-turnover model to a patient-capital, cash-flow model. IMO it also is a cash printing plan: MRR (monthly reoccurring revenue) beats one time deals any day.

OpenDoor Mortgage

Opendoor bought it’s first mortgage asset in 2019, and called it OpenDoor Home Loans. (creative eh?). Then they purchased Red Door in 2021, to do 60 second approvals (to compete with Rocket Mortgage). Rob’s plan hinges on the premise that they “do mortgages” and service them. But today that looks foggy. Prior to Wheeler’s cost cutting tenure, then CEO (and cofounder) Eric Wu terminated the mortgage program in 2022. Now – could they open that file back up? I think it would take some grit – but they may also just AQUIRE another.

That is to say, Rob’s plan makes a lot of sense to me – but it turns out that how they execute is not a simple layup. They have to rebuild the team first.

The Investor Angle

The timing isn’t accidental. Opendoor’s stock is up more than 200% in a month, and 768% since its low in June of this year. This is due to the change in leadership and fueled by retail traders and activist investors like Keith Rabois and Eric Jackson and today, due to better-than-expected July home sales data.

But underneath the stock chart hype is a clear message: the old iBuyer playbook isn’t working.

Investors want a lighter, tech-enabled marketplace model—less risk, less inventory, more data and financing plays. Wheeler’s departure clears the way for that pivot.

The Road Ahead

So, is this the death of ibuyer? What has Opendoor really revealed? If Opendoor embraces seller financing or rent-to-own, it won’t look like the iBuyer we’ve known. It will look more like an institutional landlord or a hybrid between a lender and a marketplace. That could preserve the dream of making real estate more efficient, but it requires patience, capital, and a willingness to admit iBuying as we knew it is gone.

The next CEO isn’t just inheriting a company. They’re inheriting a transformation.

What It Means for Agents

For agents, this shift could actually open doors (see what I did there?). If Opendoor leans into rent-to-own or seller financing, they’ll need local expertise to price properties, manage transitions, and handle relationships with homeowners. iBuying seemingly tried to cut buyer agents out of the process; this new chapter may end up pulling them back in.

When the model shifts from speed to sustainability, trusted relationships, not algorithms, are the real differentiator. But – that is our industry in a nutshell.