Orinda, CA, is poised to ban certain short-term rentals after a shooting at an Airbnb listing left five dead in the town, the town’s mayor told Inman. The massacre, which took place on Halloween at an Airbnb rental property, highlighted how tech companies are struggling to cope with undesired uses of homes listed on their […]
How to Tell Clients iBuyers Cost Them Money
A new study by Collateral Analytics found that sellers end up paying between 13 and 15 percent more when working with iBuyers. The first step in quelling an iBuyer is to help consumers understand that iBuyers are actually iInvestors. The term iBuyer, for the most part, means a direct-to-consumer homebuying and selling service. They generally […]
Why iBuyer Threat Is Overblown
IBuyers like Opendoor, Offerpad and Zillow Offers could be hugely successful, yet amount to a negligible market presence, said NRT CEO Ryan Gorman at the Inman Connect real estate industry conference in Las Vegas. Gorman broke down why he believes iBuyers aren’t an existential threat to the livelihoods of real estate agents, in a session entitled “Don’t […]
Franchise in iBuyer Market
In May, Keller Williams will launch Keller Offers, a move that the real estate industry has long expected from the company, since founder Gary Keller teased it in a closely-watched public appearance last year, but this is the first time it has been officially reported. Keller Offers will initially launch in the Dallas/Fort Worth market, […]
Go iBuyer Targets Multi-Family Properties
Focus Is to Buy, Raise Rents, Re-sell Properties A growing number of companies are rushing to let homeowners offload their homes to investors online for cash. Collectively, they are known as iBuyers, and now a new startup, Go iBuyer, has entered the fray with the goal of purchasing, renovating, and re-selling entire multifamily properties in Los […]
Opendoor Buys/Sells Online
Opendoor, a San Francisco startup that buys and sells homes online, has raised an additional $325 million from investors (including venture capital firms, homebuilding giant Lennar and Invitation Homes, the nation’s largest single-family home landlord). Opendoor has been described as a flipper, but it’s not trying to make money by purchasing then rehabbing homes. It […]