Opendoor Technologies (OPEN) Risk Factors

The FTC began conducting an investigation into Opendoor in August 2019. The inquiry related primarily to statements in our advertising and website comparing selling homes to us with selling homes in a traditional manner using an agent and relating to statements that our offers reflect or are based on market prices. We began discussing resolution of this matter with the FTC in December 2020. After extensive negotiations, we agreed to enter into a consent order resolving all aspects of the inquiry, which became final on October 21, 2022. Pursuant to the consent order, we did not admit any wrongdoing and are required to possess competent and reliable supporting data prior to making statements regarding the costs, savings, repair costs, or financial benefits of our services related to assisting consumers selling homes. The consent order also required that we pay $62 million (an amount previously accrued) and that we retain certain records and submit a compliance report to the FTC. If we fail to comply, or are alleged to be in noncompliance with the consent order, we could be subject to additional regulatory or governmental investigations or civil actions, which may result in significant monetary fines, judgments or other penalties that could have a material adverse effect on our business.

We operate in highly regulated businesses through a number of different channels across the United States. As a result, we are currently subject to a variety of, and may in the future become subject to additional, federal, state and local statutes and regulations in various jurisdictions (as well as judicial and administrative decisions and state common law), which are subject to change at any time, including laws regarding the real estate, settlement services, insurance, construction, mobile and internet based businesses and other businesses that rely on advertising, as well as data privacy and consumer protection laws, and employment laws. These laws are complex and sometimes ambiguous, and can be costly to comply with, require significant management time and effort, require a substantial investment in technology, and subject us to supervisory audits, claims, government enforcement actions, civil and criminal liability or other remedies, including suspension of business operations. We buy and sell homes, provide real estate brokerage services, provide title insurance and settlement services, provide other product offerings, and have historically provided mortgage lending and brokerage services, which results in us receiving or facilitating transmission of personally identifiable information. This information is increasingly subject to legislation and regulation in the United States. These laws and regulations are generally intended to protect the privacy and security of personal information, including borrower Social Security numbers and credit card information that is collected, processed and transmitted. These laws also can restrict our use of this personal information for other commercial purposes. We could be adversely affected if government regulations require us to significantly change our business practices with respect to this type of information, if penetration of network security or misuse of personal information occurs, or if the third parties that we engage with to provide processing and screening services violate applicable laws and regulations, misuse information, or experience network security breaches. In order to provide the broad range of products and services that we offer customers, certain of our subsidiaries maintain title insurance and escrow, property and casualty insurance, construction, and real estate licenses in certain states in which we operate. These entities are subject to stringent state and federal laws and regulations and to the scrutiny of state and federal government agencies as licensed businesses. As a buyer and seller of residential real estate through our business, we hold real estate brokerage licenses in multiple states and may apply for additional real estate brokerage licenses as our business grows. To maintain these licenses, we must comply with the requirements governing the licensing and conduct of real estate brokerage services and brokerage-related businesses in the markets where we operate. We may be subject to additional local, state and federal laws and regulations governing residential real estate transactions, including those administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the states and municipalities in which we transact. Further, due to the geographic scope of our operations and the nature of the products and services we provide, certain of our other subsidiaries maintain real estate brokerage, property and casualty, and title insurance and escrow, and construction licenses in certain states in which we operate. Each of these licenses subjects our subsidiaries to different federal, state, and local laws and the scrutiny of different licensing authorities, including state insurance departments. Each subsidiary must comply with different licensing statutes and regulations, as well as varied laws that govern the offering of compliant products and services. For certain licenses, we are required to designate individual licensed brokers of record, qualified individuals and control persons. Certain licensed entities also are subject to routine examination and monitoring by the CPFB (for title and escrow) and/or state licensing authorities. We cannot assure you that we, or our licensed personnel, are and will remain at all times, in full compliance with local, state and federal real estate, title insurance and escrow, property and casualty insurance, real estate licensing and consumer protection laws and regulations, and we may be subject to litigation, government investigations and enforcement actions, fines or other penalties in the event of any non-compliance. As a result of findings from examinations, we also may be required to take a number of corrective actions, including modifying business practices and making refunds of fees or money earned. In addition, adverse findings in one state may be relied on by another state to conduct investigations and impose remedies. If we apply for new licenses, we will become subject to additional licensing requirements, which we may not be in compliance with at all times. If in the future a state agency were to determine that we are required to obtain additional licenses in that state in order to operate our business, or if we lose or do not renew an existing license or are otherwise found to be in violation of a law or regulation, we may be subject to fines or legal penalties, lawsuits, enforcement actions, void contracts, or our business operations in that state may be suspended or prohibited. Our business reputation with consumers and third parties also could be damaged. Compliance with, and monitoring of, these laws and regulations is complicated and costly and may inhibit our ability to innovate or grow. If we are unable to comply with these laws or regulations in a cost-effective manner, it may require us to modify certain products and services, which could require a substantial investment and result in a loss of revenue, or cease providing the impacted product or service altogether. Furthermore, laws and regulations and their interpretation and application may also change from time to time and those changes could have a material adverse effect on our products and business.

We receive, store, and process personal information and other customer information ("personal information"). There are numerous federal and state laws, as well as regulations and industry guidelines, regarding privacy and the storing, use, processing, and disclosure and protection of personal information, the scope of which are changing, subject to differing interpretations, and may be inconsistent among countries or conflict with other rules. Additionally, laws, regulations, and standards covering marketing and advertising activities conducted by telephone, email, mobile devices, and the internet, may be applicable to our business, such as the TCPA (as implemented by the Telemarketing Sales Rule), the CAN-SPAM Act, and similar state consumer protection laws. In addition, there has been a notable increase in class actions in the U.S. where plaintiffs have utilized a variety of laws, including state wiretapping laws, in relation to the use of chatbots, cookies and other tracking technologies. We generally seek to align our practice with industry standards and are subject to the terms of our own privacy policies and privacy-related obligations to third parties. We strive to comply with all applicable laws, policies, legal obligations and industry codes of conduct relating to privacy and data protection to the extent possible. However, it is possible that these obligations may be interpreted and applied in a manner that is inconsistent from one jurisdiction to another and may conflict with other rules or regulations, making enforcement, and thus compliance requirements, ambiguous, uncertain, and potentially inconsistent. Any failure or perceived failure by us to comply with our privacy policies, privacy-related obligations to customers or other third parties, or our privacy-related legal obligations, or any compromise of security that results in the unauthorized access to or unintended release of personally identifiable information or other customer data, may result in governmental enforcement actions, litigation, or public statements against us by consumer advocacy groups or others. Any of these events could cause us to incur significant costs in investigating and defending such claims and, if found liable, pay significant damages. Further, these proceedings and any subsequent adverse outcomes may cause our customers to lose trust in us, which could have an adverse effect on our reputation and business. Any significant change to applicable laws, regulations or industry practices regarding the use or disclosure of personal information, or regarding the manner in which the express or implied consent of customers for the use and disclosure of personal information is obtained (including for advertising purposes), could require us to modify our products and features, possibly in a material manner and subject to increased compliance costs, which may limit our ability to develop new products and features that make use of the personal information that our customers voluntarily share. For example, the California Consumer Privacy Act (the "CCPA"), which took effect on January 1, 2020, imposes obligations and restrictions on companies regarding their collection, use, and sharing of personal information and provides new and enhanced data privacy rights to California residents. The CCPA, like other comprehensive state privacy laws, imposes a severe statutory damages framework. Additionally, we are subject to the California Privacy Rights Act (the "CPRA"), which expands upon the CCPA. The CCPA and CPRA require covered companies to, among other things, provide new disclosures to California consumers, and affords such consumers new privacy rights such as the ability to opt-out of certain sales of personal information and expanded rights to access and require deletion of their personal information, opt out of certain personal information sharing, and receive detailed information about how their personal information is collected, used and shared. The CCPA provides for civil penalties for violations, as well as a private right of action for certain security breaches that may increase security breach litigation. Further, Virginia enacted the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (the "VCDPA"), Colorado enacted the Colorado Privacy Act (the "CPA"), Connecticut enacted the Connecticut Data Privacy Act (the "CTDPA") and Utah enacted the Utah Consumer Privacy Act (the "UCPA"), other comprehensive state privacy laws, that became effective in 2023. The CCPA, CPRA, VCDPA, CPA, CTDPA and UCPA may increase our compliance costs and potential liability, particularly in the event of a data breach, and could have a material adverse effect on our business, including how we use personal information, our financial condition, the results of our operations or prospects. A number of other proposals exist for new federal and state privacy legislation that, if passed, could increase our potential liability, increase our compliance costs and adversely affect our business. Any of the foregoing could materially adversely affect our brand, reputation, business, results of operations, and financial condition.

Under our asset-backed financing facilities, the amount we are permitted to borrow against a given property generally begins to step down after we have owned that property for approximately six months, and ultimately steps down to zero after 12 months. These holding time-based reductions in permitted borrowing amount may result in a requirement to pledge additional properties or cash as collateral or, in some cases, to repay outstanding debt financing with respect to a given property prior to our sale of that property. If we were to hold a significant portion of our homes in inventory for more than six months, this could result in a material reduction in the amount of debt financing available for those homes and a corresponding reduction in our unrestricted cash balances. These considerations could also incentivize us to sell inventory homes for prices that do not allow us to meet our margin targets or to fully cover our costs to repay our borrowings with respect to those properties.

A significant portion of our expenses are fixed and do not vary proportionately with fluctuations in revenues. We need to maintain and continue to increase our transaction volumes to benefit from operating efficiencies. When we operate at less than expected capacity, fixed costs are inflated and represent a larger percentage of overall cost basis and percentage of revenue. Due to our fixed cost base, our operating results can vary significantly based on transaction volumes in any given period. For example, our fixed costs have not decreased proportionately to our decreasing revenue, beginning in the second quarter of 2022. This contributed to increased losses in 2022 and 2023 when transaction volumes declined.

We primarily acquire homes directly from consumers and there can be no assurance of an adequate supply of such homes on terms that are attractive to us. A reduction in the availability of or access to inventory, including due to macroeconomic conditions, could have a material adverse effect on our business, sales, and results of operations. Additionally, we evaluate thousands of potential homes daily using our proprietary pricing model. If we fail to adjust our pricing to stay in line with broader market trends, or fail to recognize those trends, it could adversely affect our ability to acquire inventory. Our ongoing ability to acquire homes is critical to our business model. A lack of available homes that meet our purchase criteria may have adverse effects on our ability to reach our desired inventory levels, our desired portfolio diversification, and our results of operations. For example, during 2023, historically low listing volumes, due in part to macro uncertainty in the housing market and elevated mortgage rates, constrained the supply of homes on the market and limited our access to desirable inventory. Increases in transaction costs to acquire properties, including costs of evaluating homes and making offers, title insurance and escrow service costs, changes in transfer taxes, and any other new or increased acquisition costs, would have an adverse impact on our home acquisitions and our business.

A critical component of our business model is managing inventory exposure and balancing growth, margin, and risk. Our purchases of homes are based in large part on our estimates of projected demand. If actual sales are materially less than our forecasts, we would experience an over-supply of inventory. An over-supply of home inventory will generally cause downward pressure on our sales prices and margins and increase our average days to sale. Our inventory of homes purchased has typically represented a significant portion of total assets. Having such a large portion of our total assets in the form of non-income producing home inventory for an extended period of time subjects us to significant holding costs, including financing expenses, maintenance and upkeep, insurance, property taxes, homeowners' association fees, and other expenses that accompany the ownership of residential real property and increased risk of depreciation of value. Disruptions in the supply chain for the materials, such as paint and carpet, and constraints in the market for labor necessary to restore and resell home inventory could lengthen the period of time during which we must hold home inventory. In addition, the value of homes in inventory may decline, and we could experience losses as a result, which in the aggregate could be detrimental to our business and results of operations. For example, due in part to macroeconomic factors such as increased interest rates and lower consumer confidence stemming from recession risk, in the second half of 2023, market clearance rates slowed, which resulted in reduced pace of our resales. As a result, we reduced home-level prices to stay inline with our clearance rate targets, which adversely affected our results of operations. Furthermore, if we have excess inventory or our average days to sale increases, as was the case in the second half of 2022 alongside home price value decreases, the results of our operations may be adversely affected because we may be unable to liquidate such inventory at prices that allow us to meet margin targets or to recover our costs.

The homes in our inventory generally are not occupied during the time we own them prior to resale. As a result, certain of our homes have incurred damage such as water and plumbing damage that was not promptly addressed as a result of the home being vacant. Further, when a home is listed for resale, prospective buyers or their agents typically can access our homes instantly through our technology without the need for an appointment or one of our representatives being present. In certain circumstances, we also allow sellers to continue to occupy a home after we have purchased the home for a short period of time. Having visitors or short-term occupants in our homes entails risks of damage to the homes, personal injury, unauthorized activities on the properties, theft, rental scams, squatters and trespassers, and other situations that may have adverse impacts on us or the homes, including potential adverse reputational impacts. Additionally, all of these circumstances may involve significant costs to resolve that may not be fully covered by insurance, including legal costs associated with making repairs to the homes or removing unauthorized visitors and occupants. If these increased costs are significant across our homes inventory, both in terms of costs per home and numbers of homes impacted, this could have an adverse material impact on our results of operations.

Our success depends in part on us not infringing upon the intellectual property of others. Our competitors and other third parties may own or claim to own intellectual property relating to the real estate industry. In the future, third parties may claim that we are infringing on their intellectual property rights, and we may be found to be infringing such rights. Any claims or litigation could cause us to incur significant expenses. If such claims are successfully asserted against us, it would require additional damages or ongoing licensing payments, prevent us from offering our services or require us to comply with unfavorable terms. Even if we were to prevail, the time and resources necessary to resolve such disputes could be costly, time-consuming, and divert the attention of management and key personnel from our business operations. We have been previously subject to trademark infringement claims. These claims allege, among other things, that aspects of our trademarks infringe upon the plaintiffs' trademarks. While these prior claims have not been material and have all been resolved, there may be additional claims in the future where, if we are not successful in defending ourselves against these claims, we may be required to pay damages and may be subject to injunctions, each of which could harm our business, results of operations, financial condition and reputation.

Our success and ability to compete depends in part on our intellectual property and our other proprietary business information. We seek to control access to our proprietary information by entering into a combination of confidentiality and proprietary rights agreements, invention assignment agreements and nondisclosure agreements with our employees, consultants and third parties with whom we have relationships. While these agreements will give us contractual remedies upon any unauthorized use or disclosure of our proprietary information, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to detect such unauthorized activity, or if detected, that our rights under these agreements will be effective in controlling access to, or use and distribution of, our proprietary information, intellectual property or technology. We also have numerous trademarks and patents to protect certain aspects of our intellectual property. However, we may be unable to secure intellectual property protection for all of our technology and methodologies, or the steps we take to enforce our intellectual property rights may be inadequate. Furthermore, third parties may knowingly or unknowingly infringe our proprietary rights, third parties may challenge proprietary rights held by us, and we may not be able to prevent infringement or misappropriation of our proprietary rights without incurring substantial expense. If our intellectual property rights are used or misappropriated by third parties, the value of our brand and other intangible assets may be diminished and competitors may be able to more effectively mimic our products and methods of operations. Any of these events would have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, and financial condition.

We use open source software in our services and will continue to use open source software in the future. Use and distribution of open source software may entail greater risks than use of third-party commercial software, as open source licensors generally do not provide support, warranties, indemnification or other contractual protections regarding infringement claims or the quality of the code. To the extent that our services depend upon the successful operation of open source software, any undetected errors or defects in this open source software could prevent the deployment or impair the functionality of our platform, delay new solutions introductions, result in a failure of our platform, and injure our reputation. Some open source licenses contain requirements that we make available source code for modifications or derivative works we create based upon the type of open source software we use, or grant other licenses to our intellectual property. If we combine our proprietary software with open source software in a certain manner, we could, under certain open source licenses, be required to release or license the source code of our proprietary software to the public. Although we monitor our use of open-source software to avoid subjecting our platform to conditions we do not intend, we cannot assure you that our processes for controlling our use of open-source software in our platform will be effective. From time to time, we may be subject to claims claiming ownership of, or demanding release of, the source code, the open source software and/or derivative works that were developed using such software, requiring us to provide attributions of any open source software incorporated into our distributed software, or otherwise seeking to enforce the terms of the applicable open source license. These claims could also result in litigation, require us to purchase a costly license or require us to devote additional research and development resources to re-engineer our software or change our products or services, any of which would have a negative effect on our business and results of operations.

Customers and potential customers access our products primarily through our website and mobile applications. Our ability to attract, retain and serve customers depends on the reliable performance and availability of our website, mobile application, and technology infrastructure. Furthermore, we depend on the reliable performance of third-party networks and mobile infrastructure to provide our technology offerings to our customers and potential customers. The proper operation of these third-party networks and mobile infrastructure is beyond our control, and service interruptions or website unavailability could impact our ability to service our customers in a timely manner, and may have an adverse effect on existing and potential customer relationships. Our information systems and technology may not be able to continue to accommodate our growth and are subject to security risks. The cost of maintaining such systems may increase. Such a failure to accommodate growth, or an increase in costs related to such information systems, could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations and could result in a loss of customers.