Property portals are now websites where you can find apartments and houses. However, Zillow is undergoing a tremendous change, to become a website where you sell your home. A considerable move, with what consequences?
About Zillow
Zillow is the number one property portal in the United States. Essentially, it is the leading real estate and rental marketplace, the best website to find your next home.
From Real Estate Website… To E-Commerce
However what is interesting is Zillow’s revolution. To understand this revolution, the best is to compare what they were, and what they are becoming.
What Zillow Was Before
Still today, Zillow is famous for being this website on which you can browse for properties. “We’ll help you find a place you’ll love” is their promise. With an agent finder, a home loans section, and the traditional Buy, Rent, Sell. But that’s not very interesting. Now let’s look at the future.
What Zillow Is Becoming: an iBuyer
As Zillow’s CEO Richard Barton explains it on CNBC, they are creating the biggest e-commerce website you can imagine for real estate. Instead of having to find a real estate agent, organize visits, why not “skip the hassle” and sell to Zillow?
Zillow offers to buy your home. Nothing less.
So far, Zillow Offers has transacted on about 2,500 homes. The company has “forecasted revenue of $20 billion on home sales in three to five years”, and earned “$1.3 billion in total revenue last year” (PYMNTS.com).
The Past VS The Future
Another interesting observation can be made from Google, looking at how Zillow, and Zillow Offers, present themselves.
First, Zillow: “Real Estate, Apartments; Mortgages & Home Values”.
Then, Zillow Offers: “Sell Your Home With Zillow Offers”.
Which value proposition is stronger? Browse listings, or sell your home? While it’s clear why Zillow wants to move towards this model, to go from a $1 billion dollar revenue, to $20 billion dollars within five years, it’s a huge move.
As their CEO puts it, now is a time when property portals can decide whether they want to cross the chasm, or disappear. Will other property portals follow this bold move?
