Even in a cooling market, Opendoor's buyer agent commissions -- the fee paid to a buyer's agent when a house is sold -- remain significantly lower than market averages.

Why it matters: Leveraging its powers of scale, Opendoor is pushing down buyer agent commissions in order to reduce its expenses -- a trend that began in early 2020.

• Opendoor's buyer agent commissions range from 0.5 to 1 percent lower than the market average (typically, but not always, three percent).
  
  

• At scale, this could save the company over $50 million in commission fees annually.

Dig deeper: The data above, collected from Datadoor.io, looks at over 9,000 listings in Opendoor's 20 largest markets as of September 2, 2022.

• There were also 226 listings with buyer agent commissions above three percent -- typically on houses that are struggling to sell.

The bottom line: Opendoor is deftly turning the buyer agent commission into a competitive advantage to optimize its business model.

• The lower fees save the company millions, without affecting its ability to efficiently sell houses.
  
  

• Read more: Big Tech Coming After Agent Commissions in a Big Way