How selling her home to Opendoor helped a writer keep her deadlines

With the youngest of her three children in college, Miriam Glover was ready to sell her home of 14 years in Grand Prairie, a growing Dallas-Fort Worth suburb.

The house was too big. Miriam loved it, but with three bedrooms, two baths, and an office, it was simply too much house for a single woman. As a writer, she wanted something that appealed to her creative side. She liked the Spanish, old-world feel of the apartment complex she chose, with its wrought iron details and waterfall near the entrance, with a more urban Dallas setting.

“Transferring from a house to an apartment wasn’t just linear. I was embracing a new lifestyle,” Miriam said.

Getting her house ready to sell and dealing with strangers traipsing through the property for viewings gave her pause. Since she worked from home, the process was going to disrupt not just her personal life but her livelihood.

“I didn’t want to be uprooted while I was in a writing zone,” she said.

Miriam knew the home-selling drill. Before a divorce years earlier, she and her then-husband had sold two homes.

“I remember when the kids were younger, and we had our house listed for sale. We could be in the middle of dinner or doing something and not be in a suitable mindset to quickly clean and leave the house for a showing,” Miriam said.

Another way to sell a home

Miriam invited a real estate agent who was a friend to assess her property. Replace the flooring to prep for sale, she was told. Stain the kitchen cabinets, add a new backsplash and repaint. Miriam hired a contractor.

Not long after, she and her youngest daughter spotted an Opendoor sign while driving. The name rang a bell for Miriam, who had heard one of the company’s radio ads. Her daughter did some research, and told her mother it was a legitimate option—a hassle-free online method to sell a home that would allow her to skip the renovation, cleaning, and showings of a traditional home sale.

A reassuring process

Miriam admits she was skeptical and nervous about selling online, but was attracted to the simplicity, flexibility, speed, and stress-free process Opendoor offered.

Her Opendoor Home Advisor Morgan, immediately put her at ease.

“There was a lot on my plate, and Morgan answered every question I had,” Miriam said. It had been so long since she sold a house, for example, that she wasn’t sure if she was supposed to leave the refrigerator. (Take it, Morgan said.)

“Having that relationship, where it is an actual individual — even though you’ve never met them — really helped give me comfort about the process,” Miriam said.

One of the best surprises: Morgan told her to stop the renovations. They weren’t necessary, as Miriam no longer needed a show-ready house. Opendoor would get it ready after buying it from her. The stress, and the expense of renovations, melted away.

“Having that relationship, where it is an actual individual — even though you’ve never met them — really helped give me comfort about the process.”

Miriam completed the sale of her home just three hours after the home assessment was completed. In retrospect, she probably didn’t need to close quite that fast. Still, the quick turnaround had a major benefit: She avoided having to make a mortgage payment and a rent payment in the same month.

Opendoor, she said, was accommodating of her timeline and she appreciated the professionalism of the home assessor — the only person Miriam actually met in person from Opendoor.

In the end, Miriam felt her home sale with Opendoor was not only reassuring and positive, but also profitable. Opendoor’s offer had been higher than what her realtor friend’s estimation of the home’s value was, plus she didn’t have to spend money out of pocket for renovations to get the home show ready.

“There was an entire team working with me. I never felt like I was alone,” she said. “If I had a question I picked up the phone and someone answered it.”