Dallas-ites looking to buy or sell homes have a new option: Zillow’s online platform Zillow Offers is launching in the city today, taking the year-old program to its ninth market nationwide and its second market in Texas after Houston.
Zillow Offers gives consumers the option of an all-cash quick close transaction in exchange for paying Zillow a service fee – which averaged 7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2018 – and often taking slightly less than what the home might get if listed on the open market.
“Zillow Offers is helping transform the real estate transaction by giving consumers more of what they what – a seamless, convenient way to sell and buy a home, and on a timetable that they control,” Zillow Brand President Jeremy Wacksman said in a statement. “With such a dynamic and fast-growing housing market, Dallas is a natural place to expand this service next.”
Zillow will work with The Rhodes Team, a local Texas-based real estate team affiliated with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices PenFed Realty Texas, to represent it on both sides of the transaction and will give Zillow Premier Agent customers (agents who join Zillow’s paid online advertising program) seller leads if the seller opts not to take Zillow’s offer and chooses to list traditionally.
Now, with the launch of Zillow Home Loans, consumers on both sides of the transaction can experience and end-to-end transaction experience if they opt to get financing through Zillow. Sellers can sell their home quickly and get pre-approved for a mortgage through Zillow Home Loans, adding certainty to the process, Zillow says.
Buyers can use Zillow Home Loans to get into a new home on their timetable, as Zillow lets its buyers pick their move-in date.
Dallas joins Phoenix, Las Vegas, Atlanta, Denver, Charlotte, Raleigh, Houston and Riverside. The platform will also be in Miami, Minneapolis, Nashville, Orlando and Portland by the fall of 2019, according to Zillow.
Since launching the platform a year ago, Zillow now gets a request for an offer every five minutes. In 2018, it purchased 686 homes and sold 177 of them.
