Zillow: Agent Commissions & Portal Economics

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We are a bit confused about the US model for residential real estate. It's very different from the model in other countries, especially in Europe, particularly in how customers purchase homes, the platforms, and their models. It's quite different. We would like to understand from first principles how the main US platform work and the consumer behavior in the US, including the process of buying a house and the roles of the buyer agent and the listing agent. It's a brief call, but touching on the main points would be fantastic. So, if we can move on to the questions, that would be great. To start, can you briefly elaborate on why Zillow gets a lot of traffic compared to competitors in a country where inventory is not exclusive because of the MLS system? Was it a first-mover advantage, or could you elaborate a little on that?

Much of it is about being a first mover. If you rewind the clock, the Zestimate was their key to attracting attention initially. We're talking about 10 to 15 years ago. People were fascinated with the idea of knowing what their house was worth compared to what they paid. They love to dream about different situations, and Zillow captured that back in the day. At that time, there wasn't an easy-to-use platform on the Internet for this purpose. They were in the right place at the right time, gaining a lot of attention and building continuity with their product.

This is a snippet of the transcript, sign up to read more.

We are a bit confused about the US model for residential real estate. It's very different from the model in other countries, especially in Europe, particularly in how customers purchase homes, the platforms, and their models. It's quite different. We would like to understand from first principles how the main US platform work and the consumer behavior in the US, including the process of buying a house and the roles of the buyer agent and the listing agent. It's a brief call, but touching on the main points would be fantastic. So, if we can move on to the questions, that would be great. To start, can you briefly elaborate on why Zillow gets a lot of traffic compared to competitors in a country where inventory is not exclusive because of the MLS system? Was it a first-mover advantage, or could you elaborate a little on that?

The issue, and where confusion arises, is that all the listing data is syndicated to multiple places. Listings in my neighborhood on Zillow are also on Redfin, Homes.com, and Realtor.com. It's puzzling why Zillow gets so much more traffic than all the others combined. There's no differentiation in terms of the actual data accuracy. Zillow used to have issues with data accuracy on listings, largely due to how the feeds came to the site. However, they all have the same inventory, and people have their own preferences. It's hard for any one group to recapture additional market share because it doesn't really exist.

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Is this challenge specific to Zillow, or do others like Homes.com and Realtor.com have the same type of problems?

Agents want to either double-end the deal, representing both parties, or use the listing as free marketing to get buyer leads and consultatively sell that shopper on a different listing if needed. Andy Florance from CoStar, who runs Homes.com, is very much in the camp of "my listing, my lead," which is an old Keller Williams philosophy.

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