Opendoor Buys Doma Tech to Cut Refinance Costs

Property technology leaders Opendoor and Doma are joining forces to address the high costs and complexity of home loan refinancing.

Opendoor, known for its direct home buying and title services, is acquiring part of Doma, a company specializing in automating real estate closings through technology. Doma employs machine learning and artificial intelligence to accelerate and reduce expenses for title, escrow, and underwriting services.

"We're in the process of completely rebuilding and automating, like most of the other pieces of technology that Opendoor is working on ... to eliminate time and money for customers," stated Lucas Matheson, president of Opendoor.

Since 2024, Doma's innovative technology has been part of a Fannie Mae pilot program designed to lower title insurance costs on eligible refinances. This program has been extended through 2027.

Under the Fannie Mae initiative, certain refinance transactions identified by Doma as having low title risk can proceed without requiring lender's title insurance or an attorney's opinion letter. This has applied to approximately 80% of refinance candidates assessed so far.

While title insurance is a key expense, the overall closing costs for refinancing encompass other services like escrow setup, mortgage payoff, and transfer fees. These can still involve manual processes, add days to the closing timeline, and contribute thousands of dollars to the total cost.