Has anyone encountered this new realty company Open Door?

[Gerald Hand]

I came across this phenomenon a couple weeks ago when neighbors a few doors up from us disappeared one day and the next was a sign in their yard For Sale by Open Door. We live in the DFW area.

The concept is pretty interesting- they buy my house and then list it. When you are ready to look at it, you come up and contact the local rep and they let you in via remote to explore the house on your own and on your schedule. Pretty cool. Or so I thought.

My experience thus far having viewed 5 homes and noting price/sf on several others is it seems they are not understanding the nuances of each neighborhood (some more desirable b/c of age of home or school ratings) nor are the homes, in my opinion, move in ready. They often need a good cleaning and all certainly need paint. Despite these deficiencies they are listing the homes at top dollar value, in our case around $155/sf for a 2 level that has not been touched or updated in almost 20 years. 

Is anyone else seeing these pop up in their area? Are you experiencing the same? What is their business model? Surely the carrying costs have to be astronomical.