Interesting business model, risky, but if it works - it’s definitely innovative.
The other aspect of this is that there are a lot of other companies that are doing the exact same thing in several markets including the elephant in the room Zillow which recently changed their business model overnight to involve buying/sellling property themselves.
It’s clearly a capital intensive business so this fundraise makes sense. However, it remains to be seen what efficiencies these firms can get at scale and whether those efficiencies are meaningful enough to differentiate from other services that increasingly offer a similar buying/selling experience.
Down the line, there could be consolidation in the space. I could see Opendoor being acquired or a lot of the smaller firms consolidating into some bigger entity that competes with Zillow, Opendoor etc.
Anyway, probably still too early to tell which way the winds are blowing.
