Opendoor vs Orchard: Who Buys It If It Does Not Sell

How this was sourced. Facts verified against Orchard’s own FAQ and Opendoor’s help center on September 9, 2026. We did not use either company’s page about the other — see the last item in the gaps below for why. Both change terms without notice: confirm anything that matters directly with them, and hold Zoom Casa to exactly the same standard.

Start here

One of them buys the house. The other one lends against it.

Opendoor is a buyer. It prices the house, purchases it with its own money, and takes on whatever the resale does. Once you have closed, the market is not your problem.

Orchard’s main programs work the other way round. You keep owning the house and list it on the open market with an Orchard agent, while an “equity advance provider” — a third party Orchard does not name — fronts money so you can buy the next house before this one sells. The upside is real: an open-market sale can beat a single cash offer, and you set the price. The exposure is equally real, and it is the reason this page leads here rather than with a fee table.

Because the obvious question is what happens if it does not sell, and Orchard’s own answer is narrower than its homepage. The marketing says the sale is guaranteed. The FAQ says that depending on your provider you may extend the listing by 60 days or sell to the provider — and then: “if you choose to sell your home to your provider, you’ll remain responsible for your equity advance loan.” No price for that purchase is published anywhere on the site.

That is not a scandal and we are not presenting it as one — it is how a bridge product works, and Orchard publishes more about its fees than most of this category does. It is simply the question the comparison actually turns on: while the house is on the market, who is carrying it? With Opendoor, they are. With Orchard, you are, with help. Everything below follows from that.

Side by side

What each company actually says.

	Opendoor	Orchard	Zoom Casa
What the company is	The buyer. Opendoor purchases the home directly, then resells it on the open market.	A brokerage. On its main programs you keep owning the house and list it on the open market with an Orchard agent; a separate “equity advance provider” fronts money so you can buy the next house first.	The buyer, with the resale attached. Zoom Casa purchases the home, resells it, and returns the remaining balance to you.
What it costs you	No fixed percentage published. Opendoor’s help center states outright that it “does not publish a fixed service charge percentage” — the charge varies by market and home and appears in your offer breakdown.	Published, and unusually specific for this category: “we typically charge a 3% listing brokerage fee… and a 3% buying brokerage fee.” Move First adds “a program fee starting as low as 1.9%… The exact program fee varies by provider.” Cash Offer Marketplace is “between a 5% and 6% brokerage listing fee,” and the Cash Offer + Upside option costs “an additional 7% service fee.” Closing costs are put at “around 1% of the sale price.”	A single program fee in the 5-10% range, taken out of the resale proceeds rather than paid up front, and itemised on your net sheet before you sign.
Who is on the other side	Opendoor. You know from the first minute who is buying and on what terms.	Not Orchard. Its FAQ refers throughout to “your equity advance provider” — a third party whose identity, and whose terms, are not published. Orchard also runs a Cash Offer Marketplace whose partners it names: “including Opendoor, Offerpad, and Homeward, plus hundreds of local investors.”	Zoom Casa, until it resells.
The guarantee, if the house does not sell	Not applicable — there is nothing to fail to sell. Opendoor has bought it.	This is the row to read twice. The marketing says “guarantee your sale… it will sell no matter what.” The published mechanism is narrower: “If your home hasn’t sold by the end of your listing timeline with your equity advance provider… Depending on your provider, you may be able to extend your listing period for another 60 days, or choose to sell your home to your provider to clear it of any remaining liability. Keep in mind that if you choose to sell your home to your provider, you’ll remain responsible for your equity advance loan.” No guaranteed price, floor or formula is published anywhere.	Not applicable — the purchase happens up front, and the resale is Zoom Casa’s risk rather than yours.
Who keeps the resale profit	Opendoor, on a standard cash offer. Its “Cash Now, More Later” option is the exception: you choose how much cash to take at closing, Opendoor renovates and resells, and it says “if there are any profits after fees and costs, 100% goes to your client.” The formula is not published. It also states the upfront cash is guaranteed with “no clawback or repayment.”	You do, on Move First and List with Orchard — because you never stopped owning the house and you set the list price. On the cash-offer route, the “Cash Offer + Upside” option returns “any upside made above your initial cash offer amount” in exchange for that additional 7% service fee.	You — the remaining balance comes back to you when the home resells, minus the one program fee.
How the number is produced	A questionnaire produces an estimated value in minutes; an assessment follows (self-assessment photos through the Key App, about 30–60 minutes, or an in-person walkthrough), and the final offer is prepared 5–7 business days later. Opendoor states the offer “can go up or down” after the assessment.	Address first, then a person. Orchard advertises a valuation “in minutes” but publishes no instant automated figure — its FAQ says “we’ll be in touch to set up a free consultation to finalize your valuation.” The address form is the gate.	Enter an address and see the full net sheet immediately — no email address required, and nothing to accept to see the math.
Work on the house before it sells	Only inside Cash Now, More Later, and it is Opendoor’s house by then: it “manage[s] and fund[s] repairs with pre-approved contractors, at no upfront cost,” with costs “deducted from resale proceeds at the second payment.” On a standard offer, repairs come off as a condition adjustment, which Opendoor states are “not quotes from contractors — they are Opendoor’s internal estimates.”	Concierge, with “no out-of-pocket costs to use the service” and “nothing due until closing.” The published scope is cosmetic — flooring, carpet, paint, minor siding and trim, pressure washing, odour remediation, pest control, junk removal. No roof, HVAC or structural work is listed. Payment is by equity advance, by financing through a named partner, or up front. No cost cap and no financing rate are published.	Pre-Sale Home Prep can fund the work instead of discounting for it, repaid out of the eventual sale.
Timelines	21–60 days to close, with the seller choosing the date. Opendoor states a closing date “longer than 30 days” may incur an extra fee.	Closing “takes 30-45 days on average” once an offer is accepted; “most of our listings sell in under 30 days.” The 60-day extension is published — the initial listing window it extends is not.	as fast as 10–15 days.
Where they work	Claims the whole contiguous US: “every postal code in the lower 48 states where single-family homes are available.” Two other live Opendoor pages still say “50+ markets” — see the gaps below.	Twelve metros for selling, published as a list: Atlanta, Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, Denver, Houston, Nashville, Orlando, Phoenix, San Antonio, San Diego, Seattle and Tampa Bay. Buying is available in a wider set of states. Orchard also notes “not all Orchard cash offer partners are available in all of our markets.”	All 50 states + Puerto Rico + DC.
What they will not take	No mobile or manufactured homes, no 5+ unit multi-family, no land. Some condos qualify, some do not. No published price floor or cap; age limits “vary by location,” with “pre-1930 in some markets” the only figure given.	For Move First only: “the home you are selling must be a single-family home,” a “minimum credit score of 620,” the home “must not currently be listed on the market,” and a valuation “between $150,000 and $2,000,000.” Then: “Other restrictions apply.” No eligibility criteria are published for their other three programs.	Typically works with homes in the $300K-$5M range; eligibility is confirmed on the net sheet.
What you can see before giving your details	A home value estimator that returns a range with “no account or obligation required,” and a home sale calculator. Both sit entirely outside the gate.	Three calculators — home sale proceeds, mortgage, and rent versus buy — all ungated. What is gated is the valuation itself: the address form is step one and the number comes from a consultation.	The full net sheet, on your address, before we ask for a way to contact you.

Up to 85% up front, less reserves. The remaining balance (minus a one-time program fee) is paid when the home resells on the open market. Final terms are issued in writing — not all properties qualify.

Sources, in order of first use: Opendoor on its service charge, on why an offer changes, on condition adjustments, on the offer timeline, on where it buys, on Cash Now, More Later, on its ungated estimator; Orchard’s FAQ (fees, the sale guarantee, Concierge, eligibility, coverage), Move First, List with Orchard, the Cash Offer Marketplace, and their proceeds calculator.

What we couldn’t confirm

The things other comparison pages make up.

Every comparison page has gaps. Most fill them with a confident-sounding number. Here are ours, left open — including the one that is about somebody else’s comparison page.

The guaranteed price behind Orchard’s guarantee. The homepage promises the house “will sell no matter what,” and no floor, percentage of market value, or formula is published anywhere for what the backstop purchase would actually pay. This is the largest gap on either site and it sits under the biggest promise.
Who Orchard’s “equity advance provider” is. The FAQ refers to it repeatedly, says terms vary by provider, and never names one. The party that funds your move and may end up buying your house is not identified.
Orchard’s initial listing window. Only the 60-day extension is published — the period being extended is not. It is the clock the whole guarantee runs on.
What Orchard Concierge costs. The scope is published in detail and the pricing is not: “your renovation expert will share a breakdown of all costs with you before you begin any work.” No cap, no rate card, and no financing rate for the partner-financed route.
Orchard’s FastTrack pricing, and eligibility criteria for List with Orchard, FastTrack and the Cash Offer Marketplace. Published for Move First only.
Opendoor’s service fee as a percentage. It does not publish one — its help center says so in terms. Any “Opendoor charges 5%” you read elsewhere is not coming from Opendoor.
Opendoor’s price limits and exact home-age cutoff. No minimum or maximum is published; age is described only as varying by market.
How much “Cash Now, More Later” actually returns, and when. Opendoor says 100% of profits after fees and costs, publishes an example it labels a simplified illustration, and does not publish the formula, the renovation-cost threshold, or how long the second payment takes.
Opendoor’s true market count. Its help center claims every postal code in the lower 48; its own home sale calculator page and its own Orchard comparison page both still say “50+ markets.” We are not going to choose between two of a company’s own claims on its behalf.
Whether Opendoor’s published figures for Orchard’s fees are current. Opendoor runs a comparison page stating a 2.4% Orchard program fee with a $9,000 minimum, an extension fee, and a 120-day listing period. We could not find any of the three on Orchard’s own pages — Orchard publishes a program fee “starting as low as 1.9%,” no extension fee, and no initial listing window — and that page’s market list for Orchard does not match the list Orchard itself publishes. We are not saying who is right. We are saying the two do not agree, and that it is a question worth putting to both.

On that last one, for anyone who wants to check the work: Opendoor’s comparison page and Orchard’s FAQ, side by side. We deliberately built this page without using either company’s account of the other, and that pair is the reason the rule exists: a company’s page about a competitor is a secondary source with a byline, however first-party the domain looks. The same applies to this page — every claim on it is linked back to the company it is about, precisely so you do not have to take our word for any of it.

Common questions

Choosing between the two models.

What is the main difference between Opendoor and Orchard?

Opendoor buys your house. Orchard, on its main programs, does not — you keep owning it and list it on the open market with an Orchard agent, while a separate lender fronts money so you can buy the next house first. So the question is not really which company pays more. It is whether you want certainty now at a price, or the open market’s price with somebody bridging the gap and a loan in your name while you wait.

What happens if my house does not sell with Orchard?

Their own FAQ is the thing to read here, and it is narrower than the marketing. If the home has not sold by the end of your listing timeline with your equity advance provider, you may — depending on the provider — extend for another 60 days, or sell the home to that provider. And then the sentence that matters most: “if you choose to sell your home to your provider, you’ll remain responsible for your equity advance loan.” No price for that backstop purchase is published anywhere. Ask what it would be, in writing, before the house goes on the market rather than after.

How much does Orchard charge?

More clearly than most of this category, which is worth saying. Orchard publishes a 3% listing brokerage fee and a 3% buying brokerage fee; Move First is described as a brokerage fee to buy and sell (“typically 6%”) plus a program fee “starting as low as 1.9%,” with the exact figure varying by provider; the Cash Offer Marketplace is put at a 5–6% brokerage listing fee, with the Cash Offer + Upside option adding a 7% service fee. Closing costs are put at around 1%. What is not published is Concierge pricing, FastTrack pricing, or the terms of the provider whose program fee “varies.”

Does Opendoor charge 5%?

Opendoor does not publish 5%, or any fixed percentage. Its help center states that the service charge varies by market and home and is shown in your individual offer breakdown. The 5% figure is repeated widely on comparison sites but does not come from Opendoor — so treat any page quoting it as a fact with caution, including when the page is selling you something.

Are Opendoor and Orchard competitors or partners?

Both, and it is one of the odder facts in this category. Orchard names Opendoor as one of the cash-offer partners in its own marketplace. Opendoor runs a partner page with Orchard. Opendoor also runs a comparison page headlined “Skip Orchard’s high fees and long timelines.” None of that is hidden — all three are on their own websites — but it does mean that a seller comparing them may end up routed from one to the other, and that neither company is a neutral source about the other. Neither are we.

Is Orchard vs Opendoor a different question from Opendoor vs Orchard?

No — it is the same comparison typed in either order, and this page answers both. Which name you put first tends to reflect which one you found first, not anything about your house.

Why does Zoom Casa have a page about these two?

We compete with both, and every claim above links straight to the company’s own published page it came from, with the date we checked it, so you can verify any line in a click. We did not use either company’s page about the other, even where it was the easiest material available — a company’s page about a competitor is a secondary source with a byline. Where something is not published, we say it is not published rather than filling the gap with a number that sounds authoritative.

Opendoor and Orchard are independent companies, are not affiliated with Zoom Casa, and do not endorse it. Their names and trademarks belong to them and are used here only to identify and compare the services. Company statements are quoted from their own public pages as of September 9, 2026. Net-sheet previews are illustrative; final offer terms are issued in writing on a term sheet. Program availability varies by state. Past results don't guarantee future outcomes — not all properties qualify. Up to 85% up front, less reserves. The remaining balance (minus a one-time program fee) is paid when the home resells on the open market. Final terms are issued in writing — not all properties qualify.

Opendoor vs Orchard — and who owns the risk while you wait.