Real estate regulators in North Carolina have disciplined Opendoor over several disclosure issues on the homes the iBuyer listed for sale.

According to Opendoor, this is the first time it has been disciplined in the state. The iBuyer launched its services in North Carolina in 2018.

The North Carolina Real Estate Commission detailed the disciplinary actions in its April bulletin. As a result of the disclosure issues, on March 10, 2022, the NCREC suspended Opendoor’s brokerage license in the state, however, as the bulletin notes the commission stayed the suspension the same day. This means that Opendoor’s license and the firm can continue its operations in the state.

“Opendoor Brokerage is still an active brokerage in North Carolina,” an Opendoor spokesperson wrote in an email to RealTrends. “We look forward to continuing to service customers in the state, eliminating the friction they have been enduring in the traditional real estate transaction for decades. Our intent is to provide transparency to buyers and their brokers in order to facilitate an informed decision.”

Opendoor currently has over 3,000 homes listed for sale in North Carolina.

The NCREC bulletin highlights disclosure errors on three specific properties. On one property, the Opendoor “broker” failed to ensure that the seller client had addresses all the material issues noted on a previous buyer’s home inspection report before re-listing the property. The Opendoor broker also failed to disclose any outstanding material items that were not corrected, the NCREC said. In addition, the broker initially advertised the property as having an outdoor pool, and hardwood and tile floors, which it did not.

With the second property, the bulletin states that the broker failed to pull the home’s septic permit prior to listing the property. As a result, the broker listed the property as a five-bedroom home, when the septic permit only allowed for three bedroom occupancy, the NCREC bulletin says.

Finally, in the third transaction, an Opendoor vendor “buried parts of the outdoor pool beneath the back yard instead of removing it all from the property.” The home seller has since taken the home off the market and excavated and removed all of the item buried in the yard. In addition, the bulletin states that: “The listing agreement with Opendoor Brokerage LLC’s broker failed to include her license number and failed to comply with Commission rules by not placing the fair housing language in a clear and conspicuous manner.”

The NCREC did not immediately return a request for comment.

Like other iBuyers on the market, Opendoor came under scrutiny after Zillow killed off its iBuying program in early November of 2021. In 2021, the company recorded a net loss of $662 million, a 161% increase over its 2020 net loss and well above Zillow’s 2021 net loss of $528 million.

However, these losses came as the firm rapidly expanded, entering over 20 new markets in 2021. In addition, Opendoor resold 21,725 of the homes it bought in 2021, up 119% from 2020. It had $5.7 billion in unsold real estate inventory at the time of its full year 2021 earnings call with investors.

On Tuesday, Opendoor announced it was launching its iBuying operation in parts of north and central New Jersey, as well as parts of New York, including Long Island and sections of the lower Hudson Valley. Earlier this year the iBuyer announced the launch of is San Francisco Bay Area market. Opendoor is currently operational in many major markets across the country, including New York, New Jersey, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Miami and Los Angeles.

The post Opendoor runs into regulatory trouble in North Carolina appeared first on RealTrends.