THE BASIS POINT

Zillow’s future vision ramping up fast, and it’s good news for homebuyers & sellers

 
 

Zillow reported first quarter earnings today, and the seeds it planted when it reported fourth-quarter earnings a few months ago are starting to sprout.

In Q4, Zillow said it will go beyond just connecting you with lenders and realtors, and now also buy the home you’re selling as well as finance the new one you’re buying.

Once this vision fully ramps, you can use Zillow directly for selling, buying, and financing. Or, you can use them to connect you with local lenders and realtors.

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Heres’s how that’s playing out in real life:

-Zillow made $1.3 billion in revenue last year, of which $80 million was connecting you to lenders and $898.3 million was connecting you to realtors. This has been their main business until now.

-Zillow plans to nearly double revenue from this main business from $1.3 billion to $2 billion over the next 3 to 5 years.

-They also plan to grow their new home buying and selling business from $52.3 million in 2018 revenue to $20 billion over the next 3-5 years.

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Here’s how they are tracking since announcing these ambitious growth plans last quarter:

-They made $454.1 million in revenue in Q1, trending up from $365.3 million in Q4.

-It’s only the first quarter, but so far this tracks well against the $1.3 billion in 2018 revenue.

-Zillow sold 414 homes in Q1, up from 141 homes in Q4, and made $128 million off those sales.

-Zillow bought 898 homes in Q1, up from 499 homes in Q4.

-For perspective, Zillow bought 686 homes in total in 2018 starting in April. And to get to their $20 billion revenue target over the next 3-5 years, they plan to buy up to 5000 homes a month.

-The company’s mortgage business made $27 million in revenue in Q1.

-But Zillow still makes most of its money connecting you with lenders and realtors—it made $298.3 million doing that in Q1.

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So what does all this mean for you?

Zillow is getting bigger and better at making every part of the home buying, selling, and financing process easier for you.

If you’re in the right market, you can find your dream home on Zillow, sell your current home to Zillow, and get a Zillow mortgage to buy your new home.

Everywhere else, you can still find your dream home on Zillow and they’ll hook you up with a talented local realtor and lender to help make the home buying and selling process smoother.

Zillow is still helping the lending and real estate industries serve you. That’s the majority of its business as described above.

Its interest in home selling and financing is to make all of homeownership easier for you.

We’ll go deeper on this last point shortly, so stay tuned and read our previous coverage of Zillow below that tells you everything you need to know so far.

Also, here’s our rendering of what the Zillow homepage might look like one day as keeps evolving into the Netflix of Homes.

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Reference:

Zillow just told us what the future of buying a home looks like (The Basis Point)

Zillow Is Now The Netflix Of Homes (The Basis Point)

2 ways your friendly neighborhood Zillow can get you a mortgage (The Basis Point)

– Zillow just became the mortgage and real estate industry’s biggest frenemy (HousingWire)

Zillow Q1 2019 Earnings (Zillow)

Zillow Q4 2018 Earnings (Zillow)

 

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