Opendoor adds Doma title tech assets in new acquisition

Opendoor Technologies is acquiring assets belonging to title fintech Doma in a deal that arrives just weeks after the real estate company re-entered mortgage lending. 

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The agreement adds Doma’s title automation search capabilities to Opendoor’s closing and escrow platform. Opendoor, known for its home-flipping model that quickly delivers cash to sellers, pointed to Doma’s active involvement in a federal title-alternative program as one of the top incentives behind the acquisition. 

“With it, we become part of delivering Fannie Mae’s title acceptance program at scale: a program that eliminates unnecessary lender’s title insurance policies for eligible refinance transactions, putting real money back in homeowners’ pockets and cutting the time it takes to close,” wrote Lucas Matheson in a LinkedIn post.

“Doma built the technology that makes the risk decision. We close the transaction,” Matheson added.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. With the merger, 85 Doma employees will move to Opendoor. The news was first reported by CNBC. 

Doma has been a longtime advocate of title-waiver acceptance programs and turned into an active business partner of the Fannie Mae pilot introduced during the Biden administration. Fannie Mae’s program eliminated the title insurance requirement on certain refinance transactions, allowing for alternatives such as attorney letters in its place.  

While Fannie Mae faced pressure from title-insurance supporters to end the pilot, with some expecting the Trump administration to terminate it altogether, federal housing officials opted to instead extend the program through 2027.  

The acquisition of Doma’s closing and escrow businesses comes after housing researchers predicted that mortgage rates would continue to steadily decline through 2026 and result in a pickup in refinance volumes. Leading economists note that if average 30-year rates came in below 6.25% consistently, refinances would bring tangible financial benefits for as many as 1.4 million homeowners. 

After a brief dip below 6% in February, though, the 30-year fixed average quickly reversed course at the onset of the Iran War, with the Freddie Mac benchmark hitting a six-month high of 6.38% last week. 

Opendoor and Doma involvement in the mortgage industry

The acquisition also arrives after Opendoor’s February return to mortgage lending with the launch of a new loan product currently in a trial phase. With an eye-popping 4.99% starting interest rate, the product was created in 10 weeks, Opendoor claimed, noting it could offer such a noticeable discount thanks to savings from its technology and processing.  

The Tempe, Arizona-based real estate firm previously ran its own mortgage division, Opendoor Home Loans, which it established in 2019. The unit closed in 2022 just before rising mortgage rates sent origination volumes plummeting after the Covid-era housing boom.  

Once two of the most talked about property fintechs, both of which aimed to disrupt the home finance industry, Opendoor and Doma ran into significant business headwinds in the wake of the mid-decade housing slowdown accompanied by a spate of unwelcome headlines. 

After going public in 2021, Doma leaders agreed to sell the company to Title Resources Group three years later, and has since operated as a separate unit within TRG led by founder Max Simkoff.  During its brief run as a publicly traded company, Doma had to scale back its ambitions to expand into other areas. Furthermore, the company failed to turn a profit.

Meanwhile, Opendoor agreed to a $39 million penalty to settle a four-year-old shareholder lawsuit in early 2026. In the suit, plaintiffs argued the company misrepresented the ability of its algorithms and technology to forecast and create a more profitable and efficient buying-and-selling process compared to traditional real estate firms. After a public offering in late 2020, shares of Opendoor stock fell by over 80% in a little over 18 months following an initial trading price of $31.47. 

Founder Eric Wu stepped down from the CEO post in late 2022 and was replaced by Carrie Wheeler, who herself was ousted last summer after a series of significant earnings losses. 

Opendoor, though, turned into one of the beneficiaries of the meme-stock frenzy late last year, as retail investors propped up its stock value to as high as $9.07 per share in September. Equity value has since fallen back below $5.00, with the company seeing a brief boost in late February following a better-than-expected earnings report. 

Opendoor opened trading on March 31 at $4.55 per share.