Zillow Offers, the direct-to-consumer homebuying and selling platform from the Seattle-based real estate tech titan, is coming to Miami, Minneapolis, Nashville, Orlando and Portland later this year. Zillow said it will operate in all those markets by the fall.
Through the platform, a buyer requests an offer from Zillow. If the buyer accepts Zillow’s offer, the company directly buys the home, prepares it for showings with some light sprucing up and then quickly re-lists it for sale.
Zillow Offers first launched as Zillow Instant Offers in Phoenix in April and has since grown to Las Vegas, Atlanta, Denver, Charlotte and Raleigh. The company has additionally announced plans to launch in Riverside, California, and in Houston, and Dallas in 2019.
Jeremy Wacksman. Credit: Zillow
“Since launching Zillow Offers just nine short months ago, we have been continually excited by the strong demand from homeowners throughout the country and are constantly getting asked when Zillow Offers will come to their market,” Zillow Brand President Jeremy Wacksman said in a statement.
“It’s clear people want a convenient, stress-free way to sell their home, and real estate professionals are eager to work with us to leverage Zillow Offers as a way to build their local businesses,” Wacksman added. “With today’s announcement, we are excited to continue to rapidly scale Zillow Offers throughout the country and we are well on our way to delivering a simple, on-demand real estate experience to consumers in at least 14 markets this year.”
As Zillow has in past markets, it will recruit local real estate brokerages to work on both sides of the transaction on its behalf in all markets in which it operates. Zillow will also provide certain agents who advertise through their Premier Agent program with leads of sellers that opt not to take Zillow’s offer. Those partnerships are typically announced closer to launch.
In the third quarter of 2018, Zillow purchased 168 homes and sold 36, generating $11 million in revenue, however, CEO Spencer Rascoff noted Zillow purchased 130 homes and sold 32 homes in October alone, on a third-quarter earnings call. Zillow has yet to announce when its fourth-quarter earnings call will be, but it will likely provide more insight into the results of Zillow’s first year buying and selling homes.