Buying and selling with Opendoor adds up to a dream home for this Texas accountant

Like many first-time homeowners, Ginelle Cross suffered buyer’s remorse.

At first, her Lewisville, Texas, home impressed Ginelle with its size, but she soon found herself wishing for a more updated abode. As a first-time buyer, Ginelle didn’t immediately realize all of the upgrades needed for her 1985 home. She didn’t sink money into renovations since she knew it wasn’t her forever home.

After four years, an engagement to her long-time boyfriend motivated Ginelle to get serious about selling. Ginelle, an accountant, also believed the market in 2017 was finally right to net a profit on the sale, but she worried about balancing showings with her full-time job.

The Ultimate Convenience

Curious about more efficient options than the traditional realtor-driven open-house process, Ginelle searched online for simplified home-selling.

“I was Googling, ‘I want to sell my house without the hassle’ and ‘how to sell a home conveniently’,” she said. “And that is how Opendoor came up on my radar.”

Finding the business model intriguing, Ginelle explored the Opendoor forums and “fell in love” with the idea of an Opendoor trade-in as a way to maximize both her time and dollars.

“I was Googling, ‘I want to sell my house without the hassle’ and ‘how to sell a home conveniently’,” she said. “And that is how Opendoor came up on my radar.”

Opendoor is different because the company facilitates home sales via an online home assessment, emails, texts, and calls with Opendoor Home Advisors.

Ginelle found herself a big fan of the virtual business model. “The staff was very accommodating, very relatable,” she says. “It didn’t feel like a professional transaction. It felt like a personal one.”

“We definitely won in the end,” she says, “We literally would not have gotten the house if it hadn’t been for Opendoor.”

A Competitive Advantage

Ginelle received what she felt to be an above-market offer on her home from Opendoor, but she struggled finding a new place. She had her heart set on Little Elm, a neighborhood near popular Frisco, Texas, where she could reap the benefits of living near Frisco at a more affordable price. Unfortunately, at the start of her search, there weren’t any homes available in Little Elm.

Ginelle took a break to visit her family in Florida, although she still kept tabs on the market in Little Elm. Ginelle’s Opendoor Home Advisor, Ali, also watched for potential properties. Upon Ginelle’s return to Texas, Ali told her about an Opendoor pre-market listing in Little Elm. Because Opendoor provides early access to many Opendoor homes coming on to the market, Ginelle was able to buy her dream home in a competitive area.

Ginelle “dropped everything” to look.

Opendoor listings aren’t owner-occupied, which means potential buyers can spend as much time in the homes as they like. Ginelle took advantage of this, spending a few moments sitting on the floor in the middle of the home to envision what it’d be like living there. Instinctively, she felt it was the right home, and she submitted an offer that day.

Real Estate Redemption

Ginelle felt unsure of what would happen after she closed, but found herself pleasantly surprised by the efficiency of the Opendoor process.

“People have fears when closing, and if things aren’t done, they won’t hear from the seller ever again. But from closing and even after, Opendoor kept checking in,” Ginelle said.

Her favorite part of the process was landing her dream home in her preferred neighborhood, without the time and energy involved with a traditional buying-and-selling process. “Buying my first home was stressful, ” Ginelle said. “The flexibility of this process gave us peace of mind.”