Is Opendoor Quietly Building the Amazon of Housing Transactions?

The question around Opendoor Technologies Inc. OPEN is no longer whether iBuying can work, but whether Opendoor’s rebooted strategy can transform housing transactions into a scalable, software-driven marketplace—much like Amazon did for retail.

Under new CEO Kaz Nejatian, Opendoor has repositioned itself as a technology and AI company rather than a balance-sheet-heavy home trader. Management is shifting away from wide spreads and macro bets toward a “market-maker” model focused on transaction velocity, tighter pricing, and repeatable unit economics. The company is aggressively embedding AI across the workflow—from automated inspections and pricing to title, escrow, and resale optimization—to shorten cycle times and reduce costs.

This approach mirrors Amazon’s early playbook: prioritize speed, efficiency, and customer experience first, then layer on higher-margin services. Opendoor is already doing this by bundling adjacent offerings such as mortgage, warranties, and trade-in programs, with the longer-term ambition of enabling third-party buyers and sellers to transact directly on its platform, lowering capital intensity over time.

Financially, the business is still in transition. Third-quarter 2025 reflected deliberate volume restraint and legacy inventory pressure, but Opendoor exited the quarter with a leaner cost base, improving acquisition momentum, and a clear roadmap to adjusted net income breakeven by the end of 2026. The recently announced warrant dividend further signals management’s intent to align upside with shareholders as execution improves.

Opendoor is not yet the Amazon of housing—but it is increasingly being built like one.

Competing Visions for an Amazon-Like Housing Platform

Alongside Opendoor, two public peers most relevant to the “Amazon of housing” thesis are Zillow Group ZG and Offerpad Solutions OPAD. Both are pursuing tech-enabled transaction models, though with different strengths and constraints.

Zillow Group remains the dominant top-of-funnel platform in U.S. housing. The company’s vast consumer traffic, pricing data and Zestimate engine give Zillow Group unmatched visibility into buyer and seller intent. While Zillow Group exited direct iBuying, it has doubled down on being the marketplace layer—monetizing transactions through Premier Agent, mortgage, and closing services. That asset-light, platform-first posture contrasts with Opendoor’s inventory-led model but still targets an Amazon-like role as the default entry point for housing transactions.

Offerpad is closer to Opendoor operationally. The company focuses on streamlined iBuying with tighter geographic concentration, faster turns, and add-on services such as renovations and seller financing. Offerpad lacks Opendoor’s scale and AI ambition, but its emphasis on discipline and simplicity makes Offerpad a direct execution benchmark in the race to industrialize home transactions.

OPEN Stock’s Price Performance, Valuation & Estimates

Shares of Opendoor have skyrocketed 111.3% in the past six months against the industry’s decline of 19.7%. It has also outperformed the broader Zacks Computer and Technology sector, as shown below.

OPEN 6-Month Price Performance

From a valuation standpoint, OPEN trades at a forward price-to-sales (P/S) multiple of 0.77, significantly below the industry’s average of 4.02.

P/S (F12M)

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for OPEN’s 2026 loss per share has narrowed to 21 cents in the past seven days, as shown below. Also, the estimated figure indicates a narrower loss from the year-ago estimated loss of 24 cents per share.
 

OPEN currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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