Opendoor Purchases Four Times as Many Homes as Revenue Rises, but Turnaround Faces New Tests

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Opendoor bought 4,865 homes in the third quarter, more than four times the number acquired a year earlier, as the publicly traded homebuyer accelerated a turnaround strategy built around higher transaction volume and lower costs per property.

In its November 5 earnings release, the company reported $1.022 billion in revenue, up 12% from $915 million a year earlier and 16% from the second quarter. Purchases rose 316% from 1,169 homes in the third quarter of 2025. The speed of the acquisition increase is striking, although buying more homes alone does not demonstrate that the properties will eventually be sold at attractive margins.

The scale-up came with deteriorating reported earnings. Opendoor recorded a $218 million GAAP net loss, compared with $90 million a year earlier, while gross profit declined to $38 million from $66 million. Gross margin fell to 3.7% from 7.2%. The company sold 2,728 homes during the quarter, considerably fewer than the 4,865 it purchased, and finished September with 7,596 homes in inventory valued at $2.568 billion. Adjusted net loss, a non-GAAP measure, was $66 million. Management acknowledged that it is behind its goal of reaching positive adjusted net income on a forward twelve-month basis by the end of 2026, and projected a fourth-quarter adjusted EBITDA loss of $70 million to $85 million. Those figures temper the headline growth in acquisitions.

Opendoor estimated that signed acquisitions represented 0.56% of its addressable U.S. market, compared with 0.13% a year earlier. The market-share estimate is based on the company’s own definition of the addressable market, and should not be read as a share of all U.S. home sales.

Lower costs, higher inventory exposure

Management reported that trailing 12-month marketing spending per acquired home fell to approximately $2,800 from $6,500 a year earlier, a 57% decline. Operations expense per acquired home fell 36%, from approximately $6,300 to $4,000. These are company-defined efficiency measures calculated across rolling annual periods; they are not equivalent to reported net income or cash generated from property sales.

Another metric warrants attention. At September 30, 18% of Opendoor’s listed homes had been on the market for more than 120 days, up from 9% in the previous quarter, though well below 51% a year earlier. The company compared that with 30% for the broader market. The sequential increase suggests that inventory aging remains an important risk as acquisitions accelerate. A home held longer than expected can incur carrying expenses and may require a price reduction.

Opendoor said fixed operating expenses were $37 million, compared with $35 million in the second quarter. Its mortgage originations increased more than 400% sequentially, although the release’s selected highlights did not provide a comparable dollar amount in that statement. The growth rate should therefore be considered alongside the underlying scale of the business rather than taken as proof of a mature mortgage channel.

Expansion meets a difficult resale market

The company’s model requires it to price properties accurately at acquisition, finance them during ownership and resell them after repairs, marketing and transaction costs. That creates exposure to home-price movements and time on market. The risks are especially relevant in an environment of elevated mortgage rates, when buyers can become more selective and homes may take longer to sell.

Chief Executive Kaz Nejatian characterized the results as progress under the company’s Opendoor 2.0 program. The operating measures support a conclusion that Opendoor is purchasing substantially more homes and spending less per acquired home on certain functions than a year earlier. They do not, on their own, resolve questions about long-term profitability, inventory valuation or how the strategy would perform during a sustained housing slowdown.

Investors and industry participants will be watching whether resale velocity keeps pace with acquisitions, whether aging inventory begins to rise further and how margins evolve as the business scales. For sellers, the expansion could mean wider access to an immediate-sale option, but the economics of an individual offer still depend on the price and fees compared with a conventional listing.

Primary source: Opendoor third-quarter 2026 financial results, November 5. Related WRE coverage: Opendoor’s October leadership change.