Introduction
Zillow Group’s business model is rooted in a single core principle: to empower consumers with information, inspiration and knowledge around the place they call home and connect them with the best local professionals who can help. We employ a highly effective multi-screen strategy that leverages our portfolio of mobile apps and websites to provide consumers the digital tools they need when they are looking to buy or rent a house or apartment as well as when they are seeking local home improvement professionals to help them keep their homes in tip-top shape. Our brands Zillow®, Trulia® and StreetEasy® — which collectively represent the largest portfolio of websites for real estate search, rentals and mortgages — reach more than one-third of U.S. monthly Internet users. In addition, through our partnerships program, we enable our advertising customers to connect with these in-market consumers on hundreds of additional top real estate websites for agents, brokers or landlords located across America’s 100 largest markets.”
Zillow Group business model explained
Zillow Group is a real estate company, the parent company of Zillow and Trulia. The company has been around since 2006, but it wasn’t until 2015 that Zillow Group began to change its business model from traditional real estate listings aggregator to a multi-brand real estate company.
Zillow Group’s business model is rooted in a single core principle: to empower consumers with information, inspiration and knowledge around the place they call home, and connect them with the best local professionals who can help.
Our business model consists of five elements: consumer-facing content; advertising solutions for real estate professionals; advertising solutions for advertisers; consumer-facing digital display advertising products; and premium subscription products for consumers.
Advertising revenue from Premier Agents (a key element)
The Premier Agent program is also a key element of Zillow Group’s business model. The program, which was launched in 2014, allows real estate agents to pay for Premier Agent status on Zillow.com and other sites within the Zillow Group portfolio (such as Trulia and HotPads). Agents are selected by algorithm after they’ve earned a certain number of reviews on their listings. Once selected, they must be active members of the Zillow Group community with at least six verified listings per month.
In return for paying $99 per month—which covers all services provided by Zillow Group—Premier Agents can include up to 12 photos per listing; have unlimited access to ads; receive custom templates that allow them to add special touches like testimonials or client logos; and gain access to analytics tools that help them track leads generated through each listing.
The benefits aren’t just limited to agents either: It’s easy for people searching for homes on any site within the Zillow Group portfolio—whether it be its flagship website or one of its niche sites—to see whether a particular agent is subscribed as a Premier Agent without ever having heard about him before or seeing his face in person (and if he has visible wrinkles around his eyes or bags under them because he hasn’t slept in days!). Similarly, if someone does recognize an agent from seeing her face somewhere else online but wants more information about her business practices before hiring her services, she’ll be able to access reviews from previous customers who’ve worked with this particular agent before coming across negative feedback online.”
Revenue from transaction services (mortgage)
Zillow Group’s mortgage revenue is a key part of its business model. Mortgage revenue has grown over the past three years and is projected to continue growing in the future.
Revenue from property owners (rentals)
As you can see, Zillow Group makes most of its money from property owners.
In fact, people who rent out their homes or apartments through Zillow Group earn about $1 million in revenue each year.
So how does Zillow help these property owners? It does this by providing them with information and connecting them with local professionals. For example, if you’re looking for a good realtor in Los Angeles, California and want to know more about what neighborhoods are best for your needs, you can go online and search for one on the site’s database—it’ll show you all the information you need without ever having to leave home! Also considering that realtors have often been known as being difficult to work with because they don’t always give straight answers (or sometimes won’t even return phone calls), this is great news since it allows renters or home buyers an easy way out by just searching online instead of having face-to-face interactions which could potentially lead nowhere fast.”
Revenue from third-party partnerships
Zillow Group’s revenue comes in part from third-party partnerships.
- Zillow Group has a partnership with Trulia that allows users to search for homes on both sites. The two companies share revenue when someone buys a home after searching through their websites.
- Zillow Group also has partnerships with StreetEasy, Zillow Mortgage Marketplace, and Zillow Rentals (which helps people find apartments). These relationships generate money for the company by helping consumers access more valuable information about buying or renting property than they could get working on their own or using another website’s proprietary data sources alone
Revenue from non-real estate verticals (new construction/home improvement)
- Zillow’s new construction and home improvement verticals are growing.
- Zillow’s new construction vertical is growing faster than Zillow’s home improvement vertical.
Conclusion
We are proud of our business model, which is at the heart of everything we do. It has enabled us to grow our company over time and be successful in the changing environment of digital real estate. We hope this blog post has helped you understand how Zillow Group operates and its role in providing consumers with access to information about homes for sale or rent, as well as local home improvement professionals who can help them keep their homes in tip-top shape.
