Talk:Zillow

Simple infobox update
Hello! This is my first request on Wikipedia, so here's a quick introduction to myself: I'm Haley and I am the communications contact for Zillow. My financial conflict of interest has been disclosed above at the top of this page and on my user page. I will also include a reminder of my COI in future posts.

I’d like to start with updates to the key people in the infobox, as those are a few years outdated. Below are suggestions and citations for bringing these details up-to-date:
 * Move Rich Barton (CEO) to the top of the list of Key people
 * Change Lloyd Frink's title from (President) to (Executive Chairman)
 * Replace Stan Humphries (Chief Economist) with Susan Daimler (President)

I'm looking for editors without a conflict to review and make these changes if they agree with my suggestions. Let me know if I can help, or if you have any questions. Thank you! ZillowHaley (talk) 18:13, 26 April 2023 (UTC)
 * ✅ Ptrnext (talk) 02:21, 27 April 2023 (UTC)
 * Thanks so much for your help, User:Ptrnext. If you're interested in helping on a few other updates, I hope to post another request soon and certainly welcome your input. Thanks! ZillowHaley (talk) 18:37, 28 April 2023 (UTC)

History section update
Hi, this is Haley again, the communications contact for Zillow. I'm back with a new request about revising the History section. Right now the historical information about Zillow is spread throughout numerous sections (Business model, History, Acquisitions, Website features, etc.). This seems frustrating for readers, as someone who jumps to the, say, Business model section is probably looking for contemporary operational details, whereas right now the first paragraph is historical information about a short-lived newspaper partnership from 2009. That's not to say that historical context can't be useful, but these sections appear to have developed incrementally as editors kept adding new information over time without reframing past material, and as a result the passages in question don't read as encyclopedic treatments of the topic. In addition, a number of these historical claims also lack citations or link to 404 pages.

To help fix this problem, I put together a revised History section draft that consolidates much of the historical material from throughout the article, presents claims in a chronological fashion, and updates all of the sourcing. I also split the material up into three different subsections (Early history, Expansion and growth, and 2015 to present).

Early history
Rich Barton got the inspiration for Zillow while at Microsoft, where he had founded Expedia.com from within the company. Barton believed that a consumer-facing site could transform the real estate industry in the same way that Expedia had the travel industry. "The web [had] been around for now nine years or 10 years, but still I couldn't get pictures of homes and complete listings and prices and addresses," Barton told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. "It was just obvious to us. We were trying to answer a simple question. What is that house worth? What should we offer if we wanted to buy it?"

In December 2004, Zillow was incorporated in Washington. Barton and co-founder Lloyd Frink, a former Expedia executive, self-funded the company, which operated out of a downtown Seattle office with 20 employees.

Zillow's website was launched on February 8, 2006, and included a home-valuation tool that anyone could use. Other features at the time included information about home sale history and charts and graphs comparing home value appreciation with other towns or states. The site crashed on the morning it launched because its servers were unable to handle the volume of traffic.

In July 2006, Zillow announced a $25 million second-round investment. By then the company had grown to 118 employees. In December of that year, the Zillow website included features allowing users to put homes for sale online.

Expansion and growth
In April 2008, Zillow launched a mortgage marketplace. Later that month, the Zillow iPhone app was released. Apps for Android iOS and Windows Mobile soon followed.

In 2010, Zillow became profitable for the first time. In September of that same year, Spencer Rascoff was named CEO of the company. Rascoff was formerly Zillow's COO and VP of marketing, and before that had been at Expedia. Rich Barton stayed as executive chairman.

Rascoff has previously expressed a desire for Zillow to go public. On April 18, 2011, Zillow filed for a $5.1 million initial public offering. On July 20, the company began trading under the symbol “Z” on the Nasdaq stock market.

Zillow made its first acquisition in 2011 by purchasing Postlets, a digital real estate listing and distribution platform. Several more acquisitions of online real estate companies followed, with Zillow purchasing Rentjuice and Hotpads in 2012, StreetEasy in 2013, and Trulia, a major competitor, in 2015 in a $2.5 billion deal.

2015 to present
Following the Trulia acquisition, Zillow began operating under the name Zillow Group, which comprised four real estate brands: Zillow, Trulia, StreetEasy, and HotPads.

In April 2018, Zillow announced it would begin buying and selling homes through a new business, Zillow Offers, in partnerships with local brokerages and agents. In June of that same year, Zillow signed a partnership with Century 21 Canada to begin listing Canadian properties on the site, marking the first country outside the United States to be covered by the company.

In February 2019, Rich Barton returned to the CEO role, replacing Rascoff. In May of that year, the company announced it would be expanding its home-buying business, Zillow Offers, to new markets.

In February 2020, Zillow's stock was up 18% after hitting a four-year low. In March of the same year, the company announced a cut in expenses by 25%, and paused hiring due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In July 2020, Zillow became one of the first companies to let employees keep working from home indefinitely. In March 2021, Zillow stated it had hired about 1,500 employees over the past twelve months. The company then announced plans to increase the workforce by 40% by hiring more than 2,000 employees nationwide by the end of the year.

In November 2021, CEO Barton announced the company would shutter the home-buying part of the business, sell its existing inventory, and lay off 25% of its employees. When Barton announced the company would cease purchasing homes, Zillow owned about 7,000 houses. The division responsible for acquiring and selling homes, Zillow Offers, resulted in the company losing $420 million in the third quarter of 2021.

In February 2022, Zillow revealed a new “housing super app” strategy during an earnings call.

I know that this draft is considerably longer than the current History section, but again the idea here is that the other sections can subsequently be stripped down. That's something I'd like to work on in the future, especially with the Acquisitions and Website features sections which feel far too detailed. It would also make sense for this revised History draft to be the first section in the article instead of Business model, which as noted above currently features dated and uncited information.

I understand that I have a clear conflict of interest here as I work for Zillow and that editors will want to closely review everything I'm proposing to ensure it aligns with content guidelines. I am certainly not a Wikipedia expert, but I did spend a lot of time familiarizing myself with how business entries are structured and what kind of sourcing is appropriate.

Please let me know what you think. I'd love to work with all of you to improve this article, which I hope you'll agree is kind of a mess right now ZillowHaley (talk) 21:06, 12 June 2023 (UTC)
 * ✅ with a few changes (such as copyedits, cleanup and the like). Nythar  (💬-🍀) 04:28, 13 June 2023 (UTC)
 * Thank you so much for taking the time to review and implement the changes! I will have another request posted soon if you are interested in reviewing that as well. ZillowHaley (talk) 20:26, 14 June 2023 (UTC)
 * No problem; post a request at any time. Nythar  (💬-🍀) 21:09, 14 June 2023 (UTC)

Business model request
Hello, Haley from Zillow here. I'm back with another request, this time about the Business model section.

The current version of this section includes a lot of outdated, unsourced claims. There is, unfortunately, *nothing* there about Zillow's current business model, which is the kind of information a reader would presumably hope to find in a section with that title. As such, I've put together a revised version focused on the company's contemporary operations and structure:

Business model
Zillow Group Inc is a real estate marketplace company that provides information and services related to selling, buying, renting, and financing through its platform, which is accessible through a website and mobile application. In 2022 the company announced a "housing super app" business strategy in which the Zillow platform would facilitate all components of the home buying, selling, and renting process, from initial property searches to closing to moving. This new business model is structured around five pillars of growth: touring, financing, expanding seller solutions, enhancing partner network, and integrating services. Zillow executives have stated that by focusing on these growth metrics, the company can increase both the total number of customer transactions and the revenue per customer transaction.

Prior to 2023, Zillow's business operations were organized into three segments: Internet, Media, and Technology (“IMT”), Mortgages, and Homes.

Acquisitions
Zillow has pursued acquisitions of companies that serve to expand its user base, provide new assets and services, or generally accelerate growth. The company made its first acquisition in 2011 when it purchased Postlets, a digital real estate listing and distribution platform. In 2015, Zillow purchased Trulia, a major competitor, in a $2.5 billion deal. At that time, Zillow and Trulia combined to account for 70 percent of online real estate searches.

As you can see, this draft includes an Acquisitions subsection and is thus intended to replace both the current Business model and Acquisitions sections. The Notable acquisitions table includes only companies notable enough to have their own Wikipedia entries—with the exception of VRX Media and Mortgage Lenders of America, as those two deals were quite significant and attracted considerable media coverage. The Postlets acquisition is addressed in the introduction to this subsection, which is intended to contextualize these deals as a reflection of Zillow's business model.

After expanding the History  section so much with my last request, I wanted to streamline these two sections and remove details that didn't feel significant, even in a historical context. In my next edit request I'd like to address the Website features  section, and that may be a good place to fold in some of this excised material.

As I stated above, I understand that I have a clear conflict of interest as I work for Zillow, so I'm asking impartial editors to review what I've put together. Please let me know what you think. ZillowHaley (talk) 23:30, 26 June 2023 (UTC)
 * Done Cherrell410 (talk) 18:35, 27 June 2023 (UTC)

Thank you so much, Cherrell410, for swapping in the new Business model section. Alas, I seem to have made a few citation errors, I think because I used some of the same sources in the History section and a bot changed the parameters. Here's an updated version with those errors corrected:

Business model
Zillow Group Inc is a real estate marketplace company that provides information and services related to selling, buying, renting, and financing through its platform, which is accessible through a website and mobile application. In 2022 the company announced a "housing super app" business strategy in which the Zillow platform would facilitate all components of the home buying, selling, and renting process, from initial property searches to closing to moving. This new business model is structured around five pillars of growth: touring, financing, expanding seller solutions, enhancing partner network, and integrating services. Zillow executives have stated that by focusing on these growth metrics, the company can increase both the total number of customer transactions and the revenue per customer transaction.

Prior to 2023, Zillow's business operations were organized into three segments: Internet, Media, and Technology (“IMT”), Mortgages, and Homes.

Acquisitions
Zillow has pursued acquisitions of companies that serve to expand its user base, provide new assets and services, or generally accelerate growth. The company made its first acquisition in 2011 when it purchased Postlets, a digital real estate listing and distribution platform. In 2015, Zillow purchased Trulia, a major competitor, in a $2.5 billion deal. At that time, Zillow and Trulia combined to account for 70 percent of online real estate searches.

Also, since the Business model section now covers acquisitions in detail, could we remove the existing Acquisitions section? That was my intent with the draft, sorry I didn't articulate that well enough. Thank you again. ZillowHaley (talk) 18:41, 3 July 2023 (UTC)
 * ✅: I've fixed the citations manually and removed the unneeded section. Nythar  (💬-🍀) 07:39, 4 July 2023 (UTC)

Website features / Services section request
Hi there, Haley from Zillow here again. I'm back with yet another request, this time about the Website features section.

Right now this section is a hodgepodge of historical factoids, including claims about services, features, and tools that are no longer available. Some of this information would thus feel more appropriate for the History section, where key development milestones are already covered. It also feels misleading to label this section as Website features, as (a) many users obviously access the Zillow platform through the Zillow mobile app, and (b) features are functionally an extension of services, a concept that provides a better organizational framework.

Given this, I put together a new Services section draft that is intended to replace the current Website features section:

Services
Zillow's web and mobile platform offers real estate-related services for buying, selling, renting, and financing. The range of services offered has changed over time, with some service offerings being discontinued and others added. Zillow notes that many customers utilize multiple services simultaneously, as home sellers are often buying at the same time and many renters are also investigating ownership options.

Nearly all of Zillow's online services are structured around real estate listings, and the web and mobile platform's functionality reflects this. As of 2022, Zillow had 140 million properties listed in its database. Zillow receives property information from numerous sources, including multiple listing service feeds published by realtor associations, county records, tax data, and mortgage information.

Buyer services
Zillow allows home buyers to search for properties by location, total price, monthly mortgage cost, features, and other criteria. Users may also view properties not currently on the market as part of the research process. Zillow connects buyers with local real estate agents through their Zillow Premier Agent program.

Seller services
Zillow provides sellers with an estimate of home value, referred to as a "Zestimate", based on a range of publicly available information, including sales of comparable houses in a neighborhood. The accuracy of the Zestimate varies by location depending on how much information is publicly available. Zillow allows users to check the accuracy of Zestimates in their own region against actual sales.

Zillow also connects sellers with local real estate agents, who can perform additional market analysis to determine home value and consult on home improvements to maximize value. Sellers and agents can both use Zillow's listings tools, which facilitate interactive floor plans, rotating photos, and AI features. Agents also have access to professional photography and media services. Sellers can also use Zillow to request cash offers from Opendoor.

Renter services
Zillow allows renters to apply for apartments and pay rent through its platform. Landlords can also use the platform to process applications, conduct background and credit checks, and accept payments.

Financing services
Zillow's affiliate lender, Zillow Home Loans, offers mortgage and refinance products. Zillow also provides an affiliated online mortgage marketplace, and information about down payment assistance programs.

As you can see, this section is structured around four kinds of services: buyer services, seller services, renter services, and financing services. Variations of this framework for categorizing Zillow's services are also used by peer-reviewed journals, academic textbooks, and SEC filings. This draft includes all of the key information from the current Website features section, but with up-to-date figures and improved sourcing.

As I've stated above, I understand that (a) I have a clear conflict of interest as I work for Zillow and that (b) editors will thus want to closely review everything I'm proposing to ensure it aligns with content guidelines. I should say, though, that I think the Services draft is a clear improvement on the existing Website features section for the reasons described above. Please let me know what you think. Tagging Ptrnext and Nythar here as they've previously expressed interest in reviewing these requests. ZillowHaley (talk) 16:46, 14 August 2023 (UTC)


 * Hopping back in here to ping User:Cherrell410 to see if they'd be interested in evaluating this request, as they've been active on this page before. Thank you so much. ZillowHaley (talk) 16:38, 23 August 2023 (UTC)

Reply 30-AUG-2023
Below you will see where proposals from your request have been quoted with reviewer decisions and feedback inserted underneath, either accepting, declining or otherwise commenting upon your proposal(s). Please read the enclosed notes within the proposal review section below for information on each request. Spintendo 00:33, 31 August 2023 (UTC)


 * Hi there Spintendo, thank you for the comprehensive response. I'm going to spend some time reviewing your feedback closely. In the meantime, though, I think I'm going to package up a shorter request about a different section that should hopefully be easier to review and potentially implement. Thanks again! ZillowHaley (talk) 20:56, 1 September 2023 (UTC)

updated version
Hi there Spintendo Haley from Zillow here responding to your feedback on the Services edit request. Thank you again for taking the time to comprehensively review to make this page as strong and accurate as possible. I worked hard to address all your feedback, including removing repetitive citations, putting page numbers and quotes for certain citations, finding new citations that more accurately encapsulate the content, and some language tweaks to make this more easily understandable. I hope this does a good job addressing your concerns. As stated in my original request, this new Services section draft that is intended to replace the current Website features section:

Services
Zillow's web and mobile platform offers real estate-related services for buying, selling, renting, and financing. The range of services offered has changed over time, Zillow notes that many customers utilize multiple services simultaneously, as home sellers are often buying at the same time and many renters are also investigating ownership options. Nearly all of Zillow's online services are structured around real estate listings, and the web and mobile platform's functionality reflects this. As of 2022, Zillow had 140 million properties listed in its database. Zillow receives property information from numerous sources, including multiple listing service feeds published by realtor associations, county records, tax data, and mortgage information.

Buyer services
Zillow allows home buyers to search for properties by location, total price, features, and other criteria. Users may also view properties not currently on the market as part of the research process. Zillow connects buyers with local real estate agents through their Zillow Premier Agent program.

Seller services
Zillow provides sellers with an estimate of home value, referred to as a "Zestimate", based on a range of publicly available information, including sales of comparable houses in a neighborhood. Users can compare their Zestimate to prices of actual home sales in their region or neighborhood. Zillow also connects sellers with local real estate agents, who can perform additional market analysis, such as appraisals, to determine home value and consult on home improvements to maximize value. Sellers and agents can both use Zillow's listings tools, which facilitate interactive floor plans, rotating photos, and AI features. Agents also have access to professional photography and media services. Sellers can also use Zillow to request cash offers from Opendoor.

Renter services
Zillow allows renters to apply for apartments and pay rent through its platform. Landlords can also use the platform to process applications, conduct background and credit checks, and accept payments.

Financing services
Zillow's affiliate lender, Zillow Home Loans, offers mortgage loans and refinance options. and information about down payment assistance programs.

As I've stated above, I understand that (a) I have a clear conflict of interest as I work for Zillow and that (b) editors will thus want to closely review everything I'm proposing to ensure it aligns with content guidelines. I should say, though, that I think the Services draft is a clear improvement on the existing Website features section for the reasons described above. Please let me know what you think, and know that I appreciate your help as a Wikipedia newbie. ZillowHaley (talk) 18:11, 11 October 2023 (UTC)
 * I understand that you worked hard addressing my requests for clarification, and I appreciate that. I review sources where clarifications are requested up to a point where I see those clarifications are being resolved. Unfortunately here, 4 out of the first 5 requests for clarification were left unresolved.
 * I had stated (in note #2) "The way in which this text is written does not disclose any usable information." That text was not clarified.
 * Note 3 was declined, and yet the text remains in the proposal. I had asked for a page number to the form 10K, which is 135 pages long, but the page number has not been included in ref note #3 of the request.
 * The page number of the Loukissas source was given as requested (thank you for that) however, Loukiassa uses other sources for their information, but those sources have not been provided per WP:SWYGT.
 * Note 12 asked for clarification of "additional market analysis" which has not been provided.
 * The "batting average" of this request at this point is not so good. For the sake of brevity, after these 4/5 requests were not resolved, the rest of the request is declined. My suggestion would be to make incremental requests, where issues and counter-requests for clarification can be quickly provided, instead of having to dissect a large amount of text. I stand ready to help with these incremental requests as soon as you submit them. Regards, Spintendo  23:30, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

Services section request
Hi, it's been a while but it's Haley from Zillow here with another edit request. Thank you for your patience as I worked through some editor feedback and notes. I'm sending updates incrementally to build out this section and hopefully make it an easy review.

As stated before I have a clear conflict of interest. And, as stated in my original request, this new Services section draft that is intended to replace the current Website features section.

As I've stated above, I understand that I have a clear conflict of interest. I'm posting these edit requests as small slices to make reviewing more painless. Tagging Nythar here as they've previously expressed interest in reviewing these requests.ZillowHaley (talk) 19:01, 11 March 2024 (UTC)

Zillow's web and mobile platform offers real estate-related services for buying, selling, renting, and financing.

Nearly all of Zillow's online services are structured around real estate listings, and the web and mobile platform's functionality reflects this. As of 2023, Zillow had 160 million properties listed in its database. Zillow receives property information from numerous sources, including multiple listing service feeds published by realtor associations, county records, tax data, and mortgage information.

ZillowHaley (talk) 22:43, 1 March 2024 (UTC)
 * Replacing that entire section would remove a lot of useful information, especially about the history of your services. I'd suggest you first get WP:CONSENSUS for this since it's a big change. Encoded   Talk 💬 17:13, 1 April 2024 (UTC)
 * Hi Encoded, would you prefer if I post the full edit request for the Services section to see it all at once? It might not seem like as big of a change with the full context. Let me know! ZillowHaley (talk) 22:05, 8 April 2024 (UTC)
 * Hi @ZillowHaley, apologies I didn’t realise there was more - go ahead and post it (or link it if you’ve got it in draftspace) and I’ll take a look tomorrow as it’s quite late where I am now. Thanks, Encoded   Talk 💬 22:48, 8 April 2024 (UTC)

Website features / Services section request
Hi Encoded, adding the full Services section edit request (to replace the website features) as we chatted about above. The context behind the change: Right now this section is a hodgepodge of historical factoids, including claims about services, features, and tools that are no longer available. Some of this information would thus feel more appropriate for the History section, where key development milestones are already covered. It also feels misleading to label this section as Website features, as (a) many users obviously access the Zillow platform through the Zillow mobile app, and (b) features are functionally an extension of services, a concept that provides a better organizational framework.


 * Thanks for the update and sorry for taking so long to get back to you, Uni has been crazy recently. I've added all as requested and also removed the old 'Down Payment Assistance Programs' section that was above the website features section since it's been included in the services section in your request. Thanks :) Encoded   Talk 💬 07:20, 30 April 2024 (UTC)

Services
Zillow's web and mobile platform offers real estate-related services for buying, selling, renting, and financing.

Nearly all of Zillow's online services are structured around real estate listings, and the web and mobile platform's functionality reflects this. As of 2023, Zillow had 160 million properties listed in its database. Zillow receives property information from numerous sources, including multiple listing service feeds published by realtor associations, county records, tax data, and mortgage information.

Buyer services
Zillow allows home buyers to search for properties by location, total price, features, and other criteria. Zillow connects buyers with local real estate agents through their Zillow Premier Agent program.

Seller services
Zillow provides sellers with an estimate of home value, referred to as a "Zestimate", based on a range of information available through public records, including sales of comparable houses in a neighborhood. Users can compare their Zestimate to prices of actual home sales in their region or neighborhood.

Zillow also connects sellers with local real estate agents, who can perform additional market analysis, such as appraisals, to determine home value and consult on home improvements to maximize value. Sellers and agents can both use Zillow's suite listings tools, which facilitate interactive and 3D floor plans enabled by AI features. Agents also have access to professional photography and media services. Sellers can also use Zillow to request cash offers from Opendoor.

Renter services
Zillow allows renters to apply for apartments and pay rent through its platform. Landlords can also use the platform to process applications, conduct background and credit checks, and accept payments.

Financing services
Zillow's affiliate lender, Zillow Home Loans, offers mortgage loans and refinance options. and information about down payment assistance programs.

As you can see, this section is structured around four kinds of services: buyer services, seller services, renter services, and financing services. Variations of this framework for categorizing Zillow's services are also used by peer-reviewed journals, academic textbooks, and SEC filings. This draft includes all of the key information from the current Website features section, but with up-to-date figures and improved sourcing.

As I've stated above, I understand that (a) I have a clear conflict of interest as I work for Zillow and that (b) editors will thus want to closely review everything I'm proposing to ensure it aligns with content guidelines. I should say, though, that I think the Services draft is a clear improvement on the existing Website features section for the reasons described above. Please let me know what you think. ZillowHaley (talk) 17:22, 11 April 2024 (UTC)