According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the loss of iBuyers is bad news for the house flippers of Las Vegas. Zillow and Opendoor have both announced they are no longer making offers on homes for sale, limiting options for owners strapped for cash. Las Vegas is especially vulnerable due to its reliance on travel and tourism. All the casinos in the state have closed, retail is locked up and conventions have been rescheduled.
There are still plenty of unknowns, including how long businesses will remain closed to contain the virus’ spread. But Southern Nevada’s housing market now faces risky terrain, given the region’s potentially staggering job losses. Real estate pros expect sales to tumble amid the turmoil.
San Francisco-based Opendoor — which said last month that it bought nearly 860 homes in the Las Vegas area last year — told the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Monday that it is “temporarily pausing new instant home offers” because of the public health crisis.
Arizona-based Offerpad said it is “not currently providing offers to new sellers,” and Seattle-based Redfin Corp. has said it temporarily stopped buying homes because of the outbreak.
“With whole cities shutting down nearly all commerce, no one can say what a fair price is right now, so we’re not making any instant offers,” Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman said in a statement, adding that the company expects to resume its offers “only when the market becomes more predictable.”
