Main Content

The End of the iBuyers?

iBuyers are companies that buy homes for cash and flip them for a profit. They took over a large part of the real estate market in the last few years, beating out would-be homeowners with quick cash offers. They helped to contribute to the huge rise in home prices.

Two years ago, I mentioned on the Shawn and Matt show that it is hard to flip homes in multiple markets and stay profitable. One market slip and you could lose millions. High tides float all boats, and the tide has retreated.

Redfin Corp. is closing its iBuying business and laying off employees again for the second time in almost five months as the possibility of a prolonged US housing slowdown continues to spread throughout the market.

In a blog post published on Wednesday, the brokerage announced that it would layoff around 860 employees or roughly 13% of its workforce.

Opendoor just posed 3rd quarter losses of nearly $1 Billion!

Zillow closed its iBuying sector last year as they were overpaying for properties based on their own algorithms. Any real estate agent could have told them that their algorithms were off.

In this episode, Matt and I talk about Redfin quitting the iBuying business, a new service called Final Offer, and a converted schoolhouse for sale for $700k.