With billions saved — and misplaced — Opendoor resides by the creed “go large or go house.” But even after a dreary This fall, the iBuyer persists, which often is the largest takeaway, Mike DelPrete writes solely for Intel.
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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 state of affairs 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 plenty of different venture-funded disruptors, are burning billions of {dollars} to develop new enterprise fashions – and the shortage of profitability simply doesn’t matter.
- Probably the most noteworthy reality 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 at the start of the yr.
- That’s a money burn of $934 million – large losses, however a state of affairs that Opendoor was in a position to climate with out elevating further capital (or going bankrupt).
Like many firms, Opendoor is racing to chop its working bills as shortly as attainable.
- In November, it laid off about 18 % of employees, and only in the near past introduced it had diminished its run-rate bills by roughly $110 million.
- Working bills are trending considerably decrease – a constructive signal for a corporation seeking to preserve money (be aware: gross sales, advertising and marketing and operations flex up and down primarily based on the variety of house 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 houses for a loss.
- Properties that Opendoor bought in Q3 and This fall are performing a lot better, with constructive gross margins.
- Sure, however: The primary houses to promote all the time have one of the best gross margins – over time, with worth 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 capability 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 large or go house.”
- After experiencing its single largest problem in a difficult historical past, Opendoor persists – which often is the largest takeaway from a brutal yr.
Mike DelPrete is a strategic adviser and world knowledgeable in actual property tech, together with zavvie, an iBuyer supply aggregator. Join with him on LinkedIn.