Key Takeaways
- Opendoor purchased 4,865 homes in the third quarter of 2026, up 316% from 1,169 a year earlier, but sold only 2,728.
- Its inventory more than doubled to 7,596 homes worth $2,568 million, and its net loss widened to $218 million from $90 million.
- Gross margin fell to 3.7% from 7.2% even as revenue rose 12% to $1,022 million.
- The company says it is behind on its goal of reaching adjusted net income positive by the end of 2026, and it expects a fourth-quarter adjusted EBITDA loss of $70 million to $85 million.
Opendoor Technologies reported its third-quarter 2026 results on November 5, 2026, for the quarter ended September 30, 2026.
The headline numbers pull in opposite directions. The company bought homes at more than four times last year’s pace, yet its loss more than doubled.
Buying Surged. Selling Did Not.
Opendoor purchased 4,865 homes in the quarter, up from 1,169 in the third quarter of 2025. It sold 2,728 homes, up only 160 from 2,568 a year earlier.
That works out to about 1.8 homes purchased for every home sold. Another 1,780 homes were under contract to purchase at the end of the quarter, up from 526 a year earlier.
| Measure | Q3 2026 | Q3 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $1,022 million | $915 million |
| Homes purchased | 4,865 | 1,169 |
| Homes sold | 2,728 | 2,568 |
| Homes in inventory | 7,596 | 3,139 |
| Inventory value | $2,568 million | $1,053 million |
| Gross margin | 3.7% | 7.2% |
| Net loss | $218 million | $90 million |
Signed acquisition volume represented an estimated 0.56% of market share in its addressable U.S. market, compared with an estimated 0.13% a year earlier. The company put that at roughly 4.4 times the prior-year level.
The buying happened into a weakening market. Zillow’s October report showed newly pending sales fell 16.8% year over year, and mortgage rates only recently eased to 7.18% after spending October at higher levels.
The Margin Tells the Real Story
Revenue rose 12% year over year to $1,022 million, and it rose 16% from $883 million in the second quarter. Gross profit still fell to $38 million from $66 million.
The release recorded a current-period inventory valuation adjustment of $53 million. That is the accounting charge taken when homes still in inventory are worth less than what the company carries them at.
On the company’s adjusted measures, the picture was steadier. Contribution profit rose to $34 million from $20 million, and contribution margin improved to 3.3% from 2.2%.
- Adjusted EBITDA loss: $31 million, compared with $33 million a year earlier
- Adjusted net loss: $66 million, compared with $61 million a year earlier
- Marketing expense per acquired home, trailing twelve months: $2.8 thousand, down 57% from $6.5 thousand
- Operations expense per acquired home, trailing twelve months: $4.0 thousand, down 36% from $6.3 thousand
- Mortgage originations: up more than 400% quarter over quarter
One resale signal improved against last year and worsened against last quarter. Homes listed for more than 120 days were 18% of listed inventory, down from 51% a year earlier and below the 30% the company cited for the overall market, but up from 9% in the second quarter.
That mix matters when sale prices are falling while asking prices rise, because a growing pile of unsold homes meets buyers slowly.
Chief Executive Officer Kaz Nejatian framed the year as a rebuild. “It’s been one year since we embarked on Opendoor 2.0 and I’m more confident in this company today than I was a year ago. We’re building a stronger, more capable company for the long term,” he said.
What Beginner Investors Should Take From This
The fresh lesson here is not that buying more is bad. It is that acquisitions and exits are two different skills, and only one of them produces revenue.
- Track your buy-to-sell pace. Opendoor bought about 1.8 homes for every one it sold. A small investor who buys three properties while selling none has the same imbalance, with far less cash behind it.
- Underwrite the exit price, not the purchase. A gross margin that falls from 7.2% to 3.7% shows how fast a thin spread disappears when resale prices soften after the buy.
- Set a days-on-market tripwire. Opendoor reports the share of listings past 120 days. Pick your own limit before you buy, and cut the price when a property crosses it instead of hoping.
- Efficiency does not cancel holding risk. Opendoor cut marketing cost per acquired home by 57% and still widened its net loss, because cheaper buying does not pay the carrying costs of 7,596 unsold homes.
The near-term test is already set. The company said, “We are currently behind but we intend to catch up,” on its drive to adjusted net income positive by the end of 2026, measured on a twelve-month go-forward basis.
For the fourth quarter, it expects revenue to grow at least 40% year over year, contribution profit dollars to decline from the third quarter, and an adjusted EBITDA loss of $70 million to $85 million. It also expects about $90 million of stock-based compensation.
Opendoor held $910 million in cash and cash equivalents at September 30, 2026. Whether the buying bet pays off now depends on how fast those 7,596 homes sell, and at what prices.
Data source: Opendoor Technologies, third quarter 2026 financial results, released November 5, 2026 via GlobeNewswire. Buy-to-sell pace is a simple division of the homes purchased and homes sold figures in that release.
