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Opendoor has had a wild ride.
After bursting onto the scene nearly a decade ago, the iBuying giant spent years as a well-funded Silicon Valley darling and real estate disruptor. Then, as times got harder and others — Zillow, Redfin — bowed out of the cash offer space, Opendoor had to contend with questions about the iBuying model. Finally, for the last couple of years, Opendoor has been grappling with the same punishing market dynamics that are bedeviling every real estate company.
All of which is to say, Opendoor has now existed through several distinct chapters in real estate history — and still it’s chugging along.
To better understand just how the company plans to thrive in today’s market, Intel caught up with CEO Carrie Wheeler shortly after the company reported its latest earnings. Wheeler took the helm at Opendoor just about a year ago, and this week was honored among Inman’s Best of PropTech award winners on Wednesday.
The takeaway from the conversation with Wheeler is that she believes Opendoor is well-positioned to thrive moving forward. Among other things, she touted Opendoor’s growing partnerships and said that in the near future, the company will significantly increase the number of homes it buys.
What follows is a version of that conversation that has been edited for length and clarity.
Intel: You just reported earnings. Talk to me about the big takeaways and highlights.
Carrie Wheeler: One would be market share gains in the quarter against what continues to be a declining U.S. housing market.
Two, we performed in line and ahead with prior guidance, which we attribute to a lot of work, operational excellence, some pricing improvements, on the platform side cost savings, and good risk management in this…