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How Zillow disrupted the real estate industry
CNBC· 2025-11-17 14:48
Core Insights - Zillow is the leading real estate portal in the U.S. with approximately 250 million unique monthly visitors and offers detailed information on around 165 million homes [1][2] Business Model - Zillow generates revenue by providing leads to real estate agents, taking up to 40% of the commission if the lead results in a sale [3] - In 2024, Zillow reported annual revenues of $2.2 billion, with residential real estate activities accounting for 71% of its revenues [5] Product Offerings - The company features the "Zestimate," a machine learning algorithm that estimates home values, with a median error rate of 2% for active listings and 7.1% for off-market homes [2] - Research indicates that Zestimates can increase seller profits by 4.16% by allowing sellers to set higher prices and wait for buyers who value the property [2] Market Position and Competition - Zillow's strong market position has drawn criticism from competitors, including a lawsuit from Compass challenging Zillow's listing standards [6][7] - The Federal Trade Commission has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Zillow and Redfin over a partnership that could lead to market consolidation in rental listings [8][9] Legal Challenges - Zillow and Compass are set to meet in court regarding the preliminary injunction related to listing requirements [8] - State attorneys general have also filed lawsuits alleging that Zillow's partnership with Redfin could result in higher prices for apartment owners, which may be passed on to renters [9][10]
How Zillow Makes Money
CNBC· 2025-11-12 17:01
Zillow is the most popular real estate website in the United States. The company has transformed the way people buy, sell, and rent homes, or at least dream about that kind of thing. >> We are one of the first apps on the iPhone, and that really created the category.>> Realtor. com, Zillow, some of the other aggregation sites that are out there provided an experience for consumers that wasn't there before. Zillow, what they have an advantage on is just the scale of traffic that they've got is quite substant ...