FTC Approves Final Order against Opendoor Labs, Preventing Company from Misleading Consumers about Cost Savings of Using the Online Real Estate Listing Service

Following a public comment period, the Federal Trade Commission has finalized a consent order against Opendoor Labs, Inc. designed to prevent the online real estate business from deceiving consumers about how much money they could save by selling their home to Opendoor, as opposed selling on the open market.

The final order requires Opendoor to pay $62 million, which is expected to be used for consumer redress; prohibits it from making the deceptive, false, and unsubstantiated claims to consumers about how much money they will receive or the costs they will have to pay to use its service; and requires it to have competent and reliable evidence to support any representations made about the costs, savings, or financial benefits associated with using its service, and any claims about the costs associated with traditional home sales.

Opendoor, headquartered in Tempe, Arizona, operates an online real estate business that, among other things, buys homes directly from consumers as an alternative to consumers selling their homes on the open market. Advertised as an “iBuyer,” Opendoor claimed to use cutting-edge technology to save consumers money by providing “market-value” offers and reducing transaction costs compared with the traditional home sales process.

According to the FTC’s complaint, the company cheated potential home sellers by tricking them into thinking that they could make more money selling their home to Opendoor than on the open market using the traditional sales process. The FTC alleged Opendoor pitched potential sellers using misleading and deceptive information, and in reality, most people who sold to Opendoor made thousands of dollars less than they would have by selling their homes using the traditional process. 

The Commission vote approving final consent order was 4-0.