With billions saved — and misplaced — Opendoor resides by the creed “go huge or go dwelling.” But even after a dreary This fall, the iBuyer persists, which could be the largest takeaway, Mike DelPrete writes solely for Intel.
This report is obtainable solely to subscribers of Inman Intel, an information and analysis arm of Inman providing deep insights and market intelligence on the enterprise of residential actual property and proptech. Subscribe at present.
Final week Opendoor posted its This fall monetary outcomes, revealing mega losses alongside early indicators of a attainable turnaround.
Mike DelPrete
Why it issues: In 2022, Opendoor skilled a completely devastating check of its enterprise mannequin – a worst case situation occasion – and survived.
Behind the numbers: Opendoor posted a web lack of $1.4 billion in 2022, on high of already sizable historic losses.
- Opendoor, and lots of different venture-funded disruptors, are burning billions of {dollars} to develop new enterprise fashions – and the shortage of profitability simply doesn’t matter.
- Essentially the most noteworthy truth is that Opendoor misplaced $1.4 billion in 2022 and remains to be working (albeit with a brand new CEO).
Money is king: Manufactured monetary metrics apart, Opendoor has loads of (however not limitless) money reserves.
- Opendoor ended 2022 with $1.3 billion in money, money equivalents, and marketable securities – down from $2.2 billion firstly of the yr.
- That’s a money burn of $934 million – large losses, however a situation that Opendoor was in a position to climate with out elevating extra capital (or going bankrupt).
Like many corporations, Opendoor is racing to chop its working bills as shortly as attainable.
- In November, it laid off about 18 % of workers, and only in the near past introduced it had lowered its run-rate bills by roughly $110 million.
- Working bills are trending considerably decrease – a optimistic signal for a corporation seeking to preserve money (be aware: gross sales, advertising and operations flex up and down based mostly on the variety of dwelling gross sales).
Mike DelPrete
The point of interest upon which the way forward for the enterprise rests is when Opendoor will flip the nook and cease promoting properties for a loss.
- Houses that Opendoor bought in Q3 and This fall are performing a lot better, with optimistic gross margins.
- Sure, however: The primary properties to promote all the time have one of the best gross margins – over time, with value reductions, gross margins fall – as expertly illustrated by Datadoor.io.
Mike DelPrete
What to look at: Money, money, money – Opendoor’s future as a going concern rests on its capacity to fund loss-making operations.
- With $1.3 billion within the financial institution and the worst behind it, the corporate seems to have loads of runway.
The underside line: Opendoor is taking part in a high-stakes sport of disruption.
- With billions within the financial institution and billions in losses, the corporate resides by the creed “go huge or go dwelling.”
- After experiencing its single largest problem in a difficult historical past, Opendoor persists – which could be the largest takeaway from a brutal yr.
Mike DelPrete is a strategic adviser and world professional in actual property tech, together with zavvie, an iBuyer provide aggregator. Join with him on LinkedIn.
