How Opendoor helped a growing family find their future home

Jennifer Greene, a high school history teacher in metropolitan Phoenix, loved the updated 1960s suburban home she shared with her husband and their 3-year-old twin daughters. But she knew her family would need a larger space where her daughters could grow through their middle school and high school years.

Greene and her family live in Tempe, Arizona, a beautiful and artistic city just east of Phoenix. Jennifer grew up in the area, and her parents and two sisters live in the same neighborhood.

“It’s centrally located for everything,” Jennifer said. Her husband works in downtown Phoenix, and she works in Queen Creek, located 30 minutes southwest. The couple met while they were students at nearby Arizona State University.

They wanted to stay in the neighborhood, so Jennifer looked at homes within a couple of miles, along with her parents.

“My parents are serial open house people,” she said. Jennifer said she toured about 20 homes over six months, waiting to find a place that she’d fall in love with.

“All I know is, when you walk into a home and you don’t get excited, then it’s not the right one,” she said.

When she finally found the right place, a late-1970s house located only two-and-a-half miles from her current home, she knew she needed to move quickly.

“I was like, ‘this is the right one,’” she said. “This is the right size, I like the floor plan — all the things that I needed were here.”

Just one problem: her current home wasn’t ready for sale.

A guaranteed buyer at a fair price

Although her home was structurally and mechanically sound, she knew she’d need to make cosmetic updates to sell it, such as freshening the paint and replacing the carpet. With preschool twins at home, Jennifer didn’t want the stress and hassle of prepping her home for sale and hosting open houses. She considered renting out the house, since it was located near ASU, in an area with high rental demand from college students. But she knew that can also take a lot of work.

“I don’t have time for that, and I don’t want to pay a management company to handle it,” she said.

She’d heard about Opendoor through an advertisement, and fell in love with the concept.

“If it’s a guaranteed buy, then at least I have that,” she said. “No open house. I don’t have to manage repairs. [I like] its timeframe — being able to do it quickly.”

She also liked that Opendoor wouldn’t turn her former home into a rental property, but would sell it to a new family in the neighborhood.

She requested a quote and received an offer that she described as “fair.”

“No open house. I don’t have to manage repairs. [I like] its timeframe — being able to do it quickly.”

“I really did feel it was a reasonable price,” she said. She calculated the final number that she wanted to pocket from the sale of her home, after subtracting fees, repairs and other selling costs. Selling to Opendoor would give her that amount.

Jennifer also requested a quote from a competitor in Phoenix. They gave her an offer that was $25,000 lower.

Smooth, easy transaction

Jennifer worked with Alana from Opendoor, who answered her questions about the process quickly and throughly.

“She was always punctual about getting back to me,” Jennifer said, adding that the transaction costs and fees were clear. After an inspection, Opendoor submitted a list of minor repairs that were needed that also looked reasonable.

Jennifer said she loved “the fact that I didn’t have to go anywhere or meet someone at a certain time.”

“Everything was so easy,” she said. She’s recommended Opendoor to several other teachers at her school, emphasizing the fairness of Opendoor’s offer price. As schoolteachers, she says, they need to make sure they sell their homes for a good price, to recoup all they can of their investment.

Today, the family is comfortably settled in their new home, where they’ll raise their daughters.

“I would say we’re easily here for 10 to 15 years,” she said.