Is i-Buying the wave of the future in real estate?

Posted By Wally Reule @ Mar 1st 2021 10:05am In: Miscellaneous

Lately it seems like you can't watch TV for more than an hour without seeing a commercial touting the benefits of selling a home through an internet based service. Although I believe there are many good reasons not too go this way, that is not what this blog is about. Instead, this is just a look at how well this business model is performing. This information comes from the Cromford Report.

Despite its name recognition, Zillow has been unable to capture much market share from the other iBuyers in Phoenix and appears to be stuck at little more than one sale per day. Zillow represents 16% of the iBuyer market, which itself was under 3% of the total market by unit count. In hindsight the peak iBuyer penetration was in August 2019, when they acquired 560 homes between them. Based on current trends, it looks very doubtful that they could return to that level of activity in the near to medium term. Opendoor overtook OfferPad in January on both purchase and sales volumes, but remains a much smaller business than it was this time last year with sales down 65%.

Estimated current market share based on unit counts:

Opendoor - 1.5%
OfferPad - 1%
Zillow - 0.5%

For more detail, read this article by Mike Delprete.

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