iBuyers, Zillow, and 'the lemons problem'

The Indicator from Planet Money

NPR

Business

4.7 • 9.5K Ratings

🗓️ 8 November 2021

⏱️ 9 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

With troves of data at their disposal, iBuyers like Opendoor, Redfin and Zillow have been trying to make money buying homes online and selling them — quickly. Armed with high-tech algorithms, what could go wrong? Lemons, for one thing.

Transcript

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0:00.0	NPR.
0:07.8	Welcome to The Indicator from Plenty Money.
0:09.7	I'm your host, Adrian Mah.
0:11.8	And I'm Stacey Vanick Smith.
0:13.6	You know Stacey, selling your home can be a real pain.
0:16.9	Oh yeah.
0:18.4	Just listen to some of these frustrated home sellers.
0:21.6	Tell me about it, I just spent hours cleaning and making repairs to get my house market
0:25.6	ready.
0:26.6	I just had a buyer pull out because of financing and don't get me started on agent fees.
0:31.5	Oh no.
0:32.5	There's gotta be a better way.
0:35.1	And now there is a better way.
0:37.5	Sell your home to an eye buyer.
0:39.6	The eye is for instant.
0:41.6	We use algorithms to calculate your home's worth and make you an offer so you can sell
0:45.8	your home for cash in a matter of days.
0:49.9	Wow, that's amazing!
0:51.1	Thanks, Buying Buyer.
0:53.4	Does it come with Ginsu knives?
0:55.0	That is the question.
0:56.6	So Ibuyers, these are companies like Open Door, Redfin,
	...

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