On Thursday evening, we broke Real Estate Reporter Julia Falcon’s story about Zillow reneging on home purchase agreements because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Here are some of your reactions:
- “There is little honor amongst thieves. Zillow is making use of this to exit a bad business that only works in booming markets.” – Realtor in Salem, Massachusetts
- “As a Realtor, I say ‘Yippee!’ We’ll take good care of the people Zillow and others kick to the curb. The sellers will likely be better off for it.” – Realtor in Westminster, Colorado
- “I’m not the victim of an iBuyer canceling a contract…I’m the iBuyer’s competition! If you hear from any homeowners in need of a cash offer on their home, I may be able to help.” – Real estate investor in San Diego
- “They are going to mess up this market! It is not sustainable, none are making money and they are going to collapse with a correction in the market.” – Realtor in Atlanta
- “Great article on Zillow. Shows the lack of their value position. No one says they should overpay, but to not buy when there will be more opportunity for iBuyers than ever shows they don’t know what they are doing. Bye-bye…” – Real estate broker in Beverly Hills, California
- “I really appreciate your newsletter and hopefully from a professional perspective you will keep the profanity out.” – Loan originator in Foothill Ranch, California (Pardon any French, dear readers.)
We’ve heard rumors of other iBuyers reneging on purchase agreements like Zillow. If you and/or your client have been on the raw end of Zillow, OpenDoor, Offerpad, or any other iBuyer canceling a contract due to coronavirus, please let me (dsanchez@housingwire.com) or Julia Falcon (jfalcon@housingwire.com) know.
In other news, several real estate companies are reporting a spike in demand for virtual home showings, which begs the question: Do real estate agents provide an essential service?
Finally, Associate Magazine Editor Kelsey Ramirez explores how one sector of the housing economy is mostly carrying on with business as usual. This article is premium content, and can be accessed by subscribing to HW+. Readers of OpenHouse can get 50% off by using coupon code “diegointrodiscount”.
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