Have you ever tried to order a suit online? On paper, it should be a fair trade.
You punch in your measurements, a machine cuts to those numbers, and what arrives should fit well enough.
However, a tailor who sees you in person works differently, catching the shoulder that sits a little lower than the other one. As a result, you’re likely to get a different fit — often, a better one.
When it comes to buying houses, Opendoor built a real business on the first approach.
If you’ve been reading Opendoor reviews and trying to work out whether the number on your screen is a fair one, you’re in the right place.
We’ll cover where the company came from, what it charges, and whether it’s the right local buyer if you’re selling your house for cash in Idaho and Washington State.
What Is It and How It Started
Let’s get down to who this company is.
Opendoor launched in March 2014 with four founders, namely Eric Wu, Keith Rabois, Ian Wong, and JD Ross.
Each of them had hit the same wall from a different seat. So seeing an underserved need, the home-buying quartet pooled enough capital and engineering talent to knock it down.
The Problem They Set Out To Solve
If you’ve ever tried to list a house traditionally, it’s a process filled with uncertainty, from the moment you list to the time a realtor gets in touch with you about realtor commissions. You’d also have to wait months without so much as an offer hitting your inbox. It all has to do with pricing.
Opendoor’s founders built pricing software that reads recent sales and property details, then hands back a cash number in a day or two.
That approach is what the industry now calls iBuying, and Opendoor got there first.
Selling a House in Washington
Where They Operates Today
The company runs out of San Francisco with its main operations base in Tempe, Arizona. It bought its first house in Phoenix in December 2014 and went public on the Nasdaq six years later.
Currently, Opendoor says it buys single-family homes in every postal code across the lower 48, with Seattle among its more recent additions.
What Sellers Say
When we did our research, we found that ratings for Opendoor vary.
In the spirit of accuracy and impartiality, we looked at four separate platforms rather than leaning on one.
Each of them verifies reviews differently, which explains why the scores don’t line up.
Reviews.io
If you want Opendoor’s strongest numbers, you’ll find them here, sitting at a 4.40 average rating across 3,452 reviews and 86% of reviewers recommending the company.
One Phoenix seller wrote that a single inspector spent roughly 20 minutes at her house, and the official offer arrived the next day. She chose a closing date 45 days out and never had to call her HOA or the electric company.
Trustpilot
Trustpilot puts Opendoor at four stars overall from 835 reviewers. A theme runs through the positive ones you’ll read there, which is that the schedule held.
One seller described everything between contract and closing as efficient and professional, and noted that the closing attorney’s staff answered questions after business hours.
Customer Reviews
Opendoor also publishes verified seller reviews on its own site, routed through a third-party platform first and sorted by city, so you can find one near your market.
A seller in Orlando called it the easiest real estate transaction they’d ever handled, with no showings and no contingent terms attached.
Sellers in Minneapolis, Indianapolis, and Oklahoma City left similar accounts, which is reassuring news if Opendoor is on your radar.
Better Business Bureau
Opendoor is a BBB holding an A+ rating. The company displays that seal in its own site footer.
The accreditation means it’s compliant with BBB’s standards for trust, which is a useful signal when you’re checking whether a buyer is who they claim to be.
Fees, Commissions, and Possible Costs
Reviews are only part of the story. If you’re like most sellers, you’ll also be concerned about potential costs of listing or selling to Opendoor.
Opendoor’s service charge used to be a flat 5%, and it isn’t anymore. The company now sets that charge per offer based on your market and your property.
What Comes Out of Your Offer
Three deductions stand between the offer price and your net.
First comes the service charge, which covers Opendoor buying, holding, and reselling the house. Repair credits come off after the home assessment, and those can move a fair amount depending on what the inspector flags.
On top of both, you’ll still owe standard seller closing costs, generally landing somewhere between 1% and 3%.
What You Do Not Pay
Those deductions don’t happen in a vacuum, though. A traditional sale carries its own stack, and Opendoor’s own math puts total selling costs at 10% to 15% of the sale price once you add commissions, closing costs, prep work, and concessions.
If you’re selling a $400,000 house, that’s $40,000 to $60,000 gone before your mortgage even gets paid off.
But when you sell directly, you’ll clear the listing agent commission, the staging bill, and every month of carrying costs while the house waits for a buyer.
Yes. Absolutely!
The Question: Is Opendoor Legit?
Like us, the short answer is “yes.”
Opendoor has been around for years and even trades publicly on the Nasdaq. The company is also rated A+ by the BBB and has served over 307,000 homeowners since 2014.
It sets itself apart by selling speed. You pick a closing date21 to 60 days out, while a traditional listing averages three to four and a half months from list to close.
Alternatives
You’ll likely have come across several options in search of a willing and local buyer in Idaho and Washington State.
Offerpad
Offerpad runs a similar iBuyer model with a wider closing window, generally 8 to 90 days. Sellers who need a long runway between closing and their next move often find that flexibility easier to plan around.
HomeVestors
Better known as the We Buy Ugly Houses franchise, HomeVestors takes properties in rougher shape than most iBuyers will touch. Their offers reflect that condition, and the local franchisee’s judgment carries real weight in whatever number you’re quoted.
A Traditional Listing With a Local Agent
Traditional home selling seems like a safe bet. However, you should expect costs like repairs, realtor commissions, and even a prolonged sale if your property has these common selling obstacles.
The Easy Home Buyer
Then, there’s us.
As one of the top Spokane and Coeur d’Alene companies, we buy houses for cash, including the ones national models turn away.
Our home-buying process is among the most straightforward in the areas we serve, and you get a number without any obligation attached.
Why Inland Northwest Sellers Work With Us
Opendoor publishes its eligibility rules, which is more transparency than most buyers bother with. Read them closely, and you’ll find the outline of what the model can’t take.
Unfortunately, the company’s own property guidelines rule out several categories outright, including:
- Mobile and Manufactured Homes: Single-wide, double-wide, permanent foundation or not, we’ll make you an offer.
- Houses With Foundation or Structural Damage: Cracks and settling don’t disqualify your property with us.
- Fire and Water Damaged Properties: We’ve bought houses carrying serious scars and handled the repairs ourselves.
- Homes With Tenants Still in Place: You won’t need to coordinate a move-out before we can close.
- Vacant Land and Unfinished Builds: A lot with no house on it still has value worth quoting.
- Older Homes: We don’t run a cutoff year on what we’ll consider.
Is the house or property you’re selling any of the above? Look no further if you’re looking for a local buyer who sees value in it, no matter the condition, status, or season.
Our founder started the company in 2019 for local sellers like yourself, and our team brings more than 150 years of combined experience living and working near Coeur d’Alene neighborhoods.
Our location also makes us the go-to company for Idaho market trends, which means we know the fairest offers for you and your property. We buy over 200 houses a year, restore them, and put them back into the local housing supply as places families can afford.
Spokane Washington
Get an Idea of the Value With Our Free Cash Offer
Opendoor can be a decent choice. But why choose a nationwide company when there’s a home-buying team near you who can give you a fair offer?
We buy in any condition and cover the closing costs ourselves, which lets us close in as little as seven days.
Get a cash offer today, and find out how much you can get for your Idaho and Washington home.
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