Americans are short on time, and real estate isn’t helping.

The average person spends the majority of their life working and sleeping – leaving only a fraction of time for things like family, friends, hobbies, self-care, and errands.

With time being so limited, it’s no wonder people are increasingly placing more value on how they spend it. Many Americans are prioritizing time over money, Gen Z is challenging the traditional 9-5 schedule, and others are choosing flexible work schedules over higher salaries. Technology is already helping consumers save time in many areas of their lives – from paying bills online and scheduling virtual doctor visits to ordering groceries and hailing a ride. But what about real estate? 

Buying or selling a home can be an arduous, lengthy process – and our latest report reveals just how much time it’s costing people. We surveyed 1,000 recent home buyers and sellers to uncover America’s “Home Move Tax,” or the true time loss consumers face with the traditional real estate model, and how it’s impacting work, sleep, relationships, personal health, and more.

Want to read the full report? Download here.

Clocking in: nearly half a billion dollars lost in work time 

From cleaning and staging your home to managing repairs and accommodating showings, selling a home is such a commitment that the vast majority (71%) of respondents believe the process is like a second job. And employed buyers and sellers are resorting to using precious PTO to check boxes off the moving to-do list – equating to over $430 million worth of work time spent by homeowners preparing their homes to sell.* 

• 46% needed to take an entire day (or days) off of work

• 40% had to leave early or come in late

• 35% resorted to taking time off in the middle of the day

Quiet quitting? No, quiet moving – 13% of buyers and sellers even took time off without their job knowing it. 

On the busiest days of the process, Americans who bought or sold a home within the last seven years spent 34% of their waking hours solely on the home buying or selling process. Considering 47% say they have less than 35 hours a week for spare time and 12% say they have no free time at all, this is extremely significant. 

Emotional labor: 85% of sellers lose sleep over moving 

No work, and no play. Not only are people’s professional lives impacted by selling a home, but so are their personal ones. Recent home buyers and sellers say they spend eight hours on pre-showing preparations – losing precious time with loved ones, lacking “me time,” and even stressing out their pets. 

• 59% of recent home buyers and sellers report that they missed out on time with their loved ones 

• 40% report lacking time to spend time on their hobbies to unwind and de-stress

• 31% were not able to spend time on their own personal wellness, such as working out or meditation

• 74% of pet owners say their furry, feathery, or scaly loved ones had a hard time while moving.

Sellers are also losing Zs, with 85% staying up at night worrying about their home sale. The biggest stressor? More than 40% wonder if the offer will fall through – a worry that is completely valid given roughly 20% of transactions fall through** and an increasing number of homes are being removed from the market without selling. Another 37% are sad to say “goodbye” to their home and 32% are awake pondering over leaving memories behind. This is no surprise to us, as we recognize a home is a time capsule for some of life’s greatest (or hardest) moments.  

Reclaiming your time with Opendoor

Virginia resident Sharonda Johnson was looking for a bigger home to accommodate herself and her daughter. As a single working parent, she was worried about how much time it would take to prepare her home for sale, and more specifically, about managing repairs — something 32% of respondents say they also lose sleep over. 

She also didn’t want to have to take time off work to accommodate showings. Thankfully, she turned to Opendoor for a more flexible solution – a solution that didn’t interfere with work and enabled her to push back her closing date as she searched for a new home. 

“Those maintenance issues from my old home kept me up at night. That was so stressful. I can sleep better now! I’m excited to be stress-free for a while so my daughter and I can just enjoy life. Now, I don’t have to wake up in the middle of the night worried about something being wrong in the house. “ 

Selling directly to Opendoor empowers homeowners like Sharonda to skip the traditional process and save precious time, closing three times faster on average. Sellers enter their address and a few details about their home to receive an initial estimated offer. To finalize the offer, Opendoor conducts an intake and condition scoping process where the seller conducts a video call or in-person visit to assess the home. If they are happy with the offer, sellers choose their closing date and move on to their next chapter. Yes, it’s that simple – and that fast. 

Free time is hard to come by, and while moving is an exciting process, it shouldn’t bog people down. Whether buying or selling, Opendoor will help you reclaim your time, so you can sell fast and live more. Curious just how much time you could save? Use our Time Savings Calculator to find out. 

Megan Meyer Toolson is Opendoor’s President of Sell Direct and Services.

Methodology

The Opendoor Home Move Tax Survey was conducted by Wakefield Research among 1,000 nationally representative US recent home buyers/sellers, "recent" defined as having bought or sold a home within the past seven years, between June 21 and July 8, 2024, using an email invitation and an online survey.

*To get this illustrative number of $430 million dollars in work time to prepare a home to sell, we used the median hourly salary in the U.S. ($28.58), and multiplied it by the minimum number of work hours a home seller would lose if they took at least one day off (8 hours). We then multiplied that number by 46% – as our data reveals that 46% of home buyers/sellers took a day(s) off of work – of the 4.09 million home transactions 2023. ($28.58 hourly rate x 8 hours off work) x 1,881,400 home buyers and sellers who missed work = At least $430,163,296 of missed work.

**This data point was determined by examining all MLS homes in Opendoor’s 50 markets and those within its buying criteria during the month of July.