A close call: How Dori Brown saved her closing with Opendoor

With only four days left before closing, Dori Brown was in the home stretch. She’d selected a lender, chosen her real estate agent, and even found the perfect home in her son’s school district. Then the unexpected happened.

“Four days before I was supposed to close on the house I found out that my lender was out of the loop. I was forced to change lenders just a few days before closing.”

Dori was blindsided. She’d been under the impression that her lender and her agent had been communicating throughout the transaction. Now she was worried that she might lose the house, and that would mean starting her search over from the beginning.

She raced to find a new lender, and luckily she found one, but there was a catch: she was going to have to sell her current house. Dori had lived in her San Antonio home for years. She was open to the idea of selling it, but that wasn’t exactly part of the plan.

“I was planning to sell after I bought the new home. Because I ended up having to change my loan type, I had to sell the house before we could do the new loan. So I had to sell quickly.”

Around that time she received a letter in the mail from Opendoor, and realized that it was exactly what she needed. Despite the tight timeline, she did her due diligence, calling Opendoor and two competitors to learn more and make an informed decision. A clear winner stood out to her.

“ After looking at these other two companies, I just felt more comfortable with Opendoor. I really felt it was a godsend at the time. ”

An office manager at a CPA firm, Dori takes a break from numbers and spreadsheets by DJing for a gospel radio station. Recently, she was asked to be a part of a ministry TV show. She originally set out to purchase a new home because her son is getting older, and they both felt that they could use some more space.

Since this was her first home, parting with it was bittersweet. She had the home built and lived in it through her 20s. It was where she bought her first computer, where she got her first dog, and where she made countless memories with her family.

“ That was my son’s first home. So being a parent, especially a single parent, having that stability for your child—that means a lot. ”

After living in the house for 23 years, she acquired quite a few possessions. That made selling feel like a big, stressful ordeal. It meant she was going have to move things out, pay for a storage unit, and declutter the home. Plus, a previous agent had recommended she stage the home to find a buyer.

Given the timing, none of that was realistic. And even if she did have the time, she was worried that putting her home on the market would result in weeks or months of stress.

“There were a few houses that I looked at in the process that had been on the market over 100 to 150 days. One house was on the market over 200 days.”

With Opendoor, she was able to sell without ever listing. She was even able to change her close date more than once and rent the house back temporarily while she wrapped up her new home purchase. The experience blew her away.

“If I ever had to do it again, I would use Opendoor. Without hesitation.”

There were a few things in particular that Dori really appreciated about the experience. She liked how she could track her sale from a dashboard, and how everything was plainly spelled out from the start, like the expected repair costs. She was especially impressed by the home assessment.

“Opendoor came in with a team of people from HVAC, to exterminators, to roofers, to general inspectors. They came in with a lot more care and concern. Because selling your house is an emotional time.”

Of course it didn’t hurt that Opendoor was able to complete the sale fast enough to satisfy her lender and the seller of her new home. “Opendoor bought at market-value,” she said. “They didn’t seem like they were trying to get one over on you.”

Through every step of the sale, Dori’s Home Advisor, Katie, was there to help, and that made a world of difference. “I was under so much stress, and anytime I called her or emailed her I got a lot of relief. I didn’t have to wonder when she was going to get back to me. She was really a sweet person to work with.”

With the sale and the new home purchase behind her, Dori is already looking forward to the future.

“I’m just excited about making it the next chapter. Making it a home.”