Following its merger with a Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings Corp. II, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), Opendoor officially filed its S-4 filing announcing its intention to become a public company.
The filing reveals the company’s ambitions, as well as, for the first time, that Opendoor is currently being investigated by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over its advertising.
Within the filing, Opendoor reveals that, in 2019, the company received a civil investigative demand from the FTC “seeking documents and information relating primarily to statements in our advertising and website comparing Opendoor’s offers to purchase homes to selling in a traditional manner using an agent and statements pertaining to Opendoor’s offers reflecting or being based on market prices.”
The company said, in the filing, that as of October 1, the investigation was ongoing.
The filing also reveals the company’s ambitions to become a digital “one-stop-shop” for buyers and sellers of residential real estate. In the filing, Opendoor says it believes it has just scratched the surface and that it’s “in the early stages of the digital transformation of real estate.”
“We are on a mission to empower everyone with the freedom to move,” reads Opendoor’s mission statement included in the filing. “Our innovations in technology and operations will enable our customers to buy or sell a home with only a mobile device and with more convenience, control and cost savings than ever before.”
“Opendoor will deliver an end-to-end home selling, buying and ownership experience that is self-service, delightful and low cost.”
Opendoor’s top competitor Zillow has spoken of similar goals in the past, since CEO Rich Barton re-took the reigns of the company.
Opendoor is currently live in 21 markets, but the filing reveals the company believes it could scale to 100 markets, which make up 90 percent of home sales between $100,000 to $750,000.
“Our goal is to build the largest, most trusted platform for residential real estate and empower millions of Americans with the freedom to move,” reads the statement in the filing.
Opendoor posted $1.9 billion in revenue in the first six months of 2020, according to the filing. It’s a slight decline from the $2.2 billion the company posted in 2019, although it’s likely due to the headwinds of COVID-19, which forced the company to suspend its homebuying operation for a brief period.
The company posted a net loss of $118 million in the first six months of 2020, compared to a net loss of $157 million in the first six months of 2019. For the entire year of 2019, Opendoor sold nearly 19,000 homes and generated $4.7 billion in revenue.
