• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Exclusive

An hour in the Oval Office with President Trump.

An hour in the Oval Office with President Trump.

An hour in the Oval Office with President Trump.

An hour in the Oval Office with President Trump.

An hour in the Oval Office with President Trump.

An hour in the Oval Office with President Trump.

An hour in the Oval Office with President Trump.

An hour in the Oval Office with President Trump.

An hour in the Oval Office with President Trump.

An hour in the Oval Office with President Trump.

Tech

How to Trade In Your House

By
Kia Kokalitcheva
Kia Kokalitcheva
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Kia Kokalitcheva
Kia Kokalitcheva
Down Arrow Button Icon
March 9, 2016, 9:00 AM ET
109350668
For sale sign in yard of housePhotograph by Martin Barraud — Getty Images/OJO Images RF

Many home buyers need to sell their current house before they can complete their purchase, or even think about their next home.

Unfortunately, orchestrating both transactions can be complicated and often results in those who sold a home having to temporarily live in a rental home or hotel in between the transactions.

San Francisco startup Opendoor, which aims to make home buying and selling easier and faster, on Tuesday debuted a service that lets customers “trade in” their home for another one. As the term suggests, it’s designed for homeowners who are selling their current home in order to purchase and move into a new one.

“Some sellers won’t accept your offer if it’s contingent on your selling your other home,” Opendoor co-founder and CEO Eric Wu told Fortune of the challenges home buyers often face.

As Wu explained, the service was born out of existing customer needs and requests. More than half of Opendoor’s customers are selling their homes to the company because they’re looking for a new house, he said. To help with this, the startup makes them an offer for their current home, works with their next home’s real estate, title, and escrow agents to process everything, and lets them pick the date they want the sale to close so they can receive the funds when they need them.

Note that Opendoor’s trade-in customers must be selling a home in one of the company’s current markets—Phoenix and Dallas—though the home they want to purchase can be located anywhere in the U.S. It also slashes its fee by 2% if the seller purchases his or her next home through its service.

Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter.

Founded in 2014, Opendoor debuted its home-selling service in Phoenix in late 2014, and has since expanded to Dallas. The company has built its own pricing model, which mines public and private data to generate a fair offer price within minutes of the seller’s submission through its website. It charges 0-6% more than a traditional real estate agent and uses a credit line from an undisclosed financial institution to purchase the homes. Opendoor says one-third of home sellers who receive an offer from it accept. It then handles all the paperwork, and even the minor fixes and upgrades on the homes.

For buyers, it has designed a self-serve home-viewing system that lets buyers visit a listing at any time, which it claims results in 50 showings per home listing.

For more on real estate, watch:

That convenience and easy process is what impressed Opendoor trade-in customer Greg Starr of Phoenix the most. In early January, Starr began looking for a new house. By Feb. 5 (he estimates the entire process took roughly 27 days) he had moved into his freshly touched-up new home.

“It was just such a nice, easy process,” Starr told Fortune in a phone interview. “We sold a house before and it was hell,” he added.

In particular, Starr appreciated being able to offload his house to Opendoor without going through the hassle and inconvenience of showing it to prospective buyers. He and his wife were also able to avoid having to live at an extended-stay motel while looking for their new home, something they originally expected to have to do before they stumbled upon Opendoor when they contacted a home listing’s agent.

“They went over there, appraised it, and then came back with an offer, and it was right on what I was hoping, and then a bit more,” Starr said with a laugh about Opendoor’s offer for his previous home.

Currently, Opendoor buys about $25 million worth of homes in Phoenix every month and $10 million worth in Dallas. By the end of the year, the company hopes to expand to three additional markets. To date, Opendoor has raised $110 million in funding.

About the Author
By Kia Kokalitcheva
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Tech

murdochs
CommentaryMedia
OpenAI paid $100 million for a talk show. James Murdoch is eyeing an even bigger deal. The hot new asset class is humanity
By Lin CherryMay 17, 2026
16 hours ago
dennis
CommentaryAI agents
Freshworks CEO: why agile enterprises are winning the AI race — and what they did differently
By Dennis WoodsideMay 17, 2026
16 hours ago
A man with a headset sits at a desk in a call center.
EconomyAutomation
The AI boom hasn’t stopped U.S. companies from hiring cheap offshore labor, and overseas call center employment is still skyrocketing
By Sasha RogelbergMay 17, 2026
17 hours ago
Zillow CEO doubles down on remote-work model: ‘There is talent everywhere in this country’
Workplace Cultureremote work
Zillow CEO doubles down on remote-work model: ‘There is talent everywhere in this country’
By Marco Quiroz-GutierrezMay 17, 2026
17 hours ago
Stressed job seeker
SuccessGen Z
Gen Z is right about the job hunt—it really is worse than it was for millennials, with nearly 60% of fresh-faced grads frozen out of the workforce
By Emma BurleighMay 17, 2026
17 hours ago
A 45,000-person labor strike at Samsung’s memory chip plants could throw a wrench into the AI boom
EconomySamsung
A 45,000-person labor strike at Samsung’s memory chip plants could throw a wrench into the AI boom
By Catherina GioinoMay 17, 2026
20 hours ago

Most Popular

Microsoft AI chief gives it 18 months—for all white-collar work to be automated by AI
AI
Microsoft AI chief gives it 18 months—for all white-collar work to be automated by AI
By Jake AngeloMay 16, 2026
2 days ago
The Bezos family just donated $100 million to help achieve one of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s top campaign promises
Politics
The Bezos family just donated $100 million to help achieve one of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s top campaign promises
By Jake AngeloMay 12, 2026
5 days ago
The top foreign holders of U.S. debt may soon dump Treasury bonds and bring their money back home, potentially spiking borrowing costs
Economy
The top foreign holders of U.S. debt may soon dump Treasury bonds and bring their money back home, potentially spiking borrowing costs
By Jason MaMay 17, 2026
11 hours ago
Former top Russian official admits the country is over Putin and can 'imagine a future without him' — even elites bail as Kremlin seizes their assets 
Politics
Former top Russian official admits the country is over Putin and can 'imagine a future without him' — even elites bail as Kremlin seizes their assets 
By Jason MaMay 16, 2026
1 day ago
'No one was coming to save me': How Reese Witherspoon built a $900 million company from a problem Hollywood wouldn't fix
Success
'No one was coming to save me': How Reese Witherspoon built a $900 million company from a problem Hollywood wouldn't fix
By Sydney LakeMay 17, 2026
18 hours ago
SpaceX heads into a record-shattering IPO with the 'deepest moat that exists today' as investors vow to 'never bet against Elon'
Innovation
SpaceX heads into a record-shattering IPO with the 'deepest moat that exists today' as investors vow to 'never bet against Elon'
By Jason MaMay 16, 2026
2 days ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.