Zillow CEO Rich Barton made his first Inman Connect appearance since 2021 to discuss accelerating technology innovation and what’s next for the residential portal experience.
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When Zillow launched in 2006, the website looked completely different than it does today.
There are no listings, no interactive videos and floor plans, and no photos that homebuyers and daydreamers can scroll through for hours on end. All the site provides is a complete list of transaction history, which, through some algorithmic wizardry, is turned into a Zestimate, the industry’s first automated valuation model (AVM).
“[It was an] “It was an incredibly provocative, interesting feature that had never existed before,” Zillow CEO Rich Barton recalled Wednesday at the Inman Connect conference in Las Vegas. “Zestimate facilitated all kinds of voyeurism. Madness and fantasy. It’s very interesting and one of the reasons we’re under siege.
“But it turns out it’s also an important marketing message for anyone who’s moving,” he added. It’s this mix, the yin and yang, of entertainment and utility that makes the Zillow brand what it is today: a trusted consumer brand that stands for consumer empowerment and customer advocacy.
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Barton said a focus on consumer empowerment and advocacy is key to the success of Zillow and the industry as a whole as it works to make the dream of a fast, frictionless home buying experience a reality.
Despite the fears raised by the rise of artificial intelligence, Barton said a focus on consumer empowerment will ensure agents can accelerate change rather than be swallowed up by it.
“We were accelerating, and the nausea we felt was natural,” he said, recalling a recent experience racing at 140 mph on a closed BMW track. “As a species, we haven’t really had time to take a breath and process the last lap on the track, the smartphone lap. Now we’re being told to speed up the next lap. Artificial intelligence is coming, [and] Let’s go around in a circle.
Barton said now is the time to accelerate beyond the “Portal 1.0 experience” and start making complex “multi-party, multi-partner, multi-stage” experiences possible by investing in technology, partnering with competitors and aligning with consumer and customer needs. The transaction process becomes orderly.
“You may not know this, but less than half of our company’s revenue right now comes from buyer’s agency, lead generation or the original business model,” he said. “As a company, our growth and opportunity now come from investing in a range of digital workflows, tools and technologies across the industry.”
“Showingtime has been a huge success for us. Follow-up Boss, Listing Showcase dotloop, Aryeo…we’ve been putting these products together, building and putting them together for a while,” he added. “We don’t build, invest in, and integrate these products to keep them within walled gardens. We do it to make them widely available and power your business.
Patton said the next generation of home portals will focus on coordination, integration and digitization — three steps that make buying a home as easy as buying a latte.
“This is no different than Brad Inman’s latte deal [keynote] Starting in 2013. He said. “His vision is to sort out the clutter and say moving should be as easy as buying a latte. Well, we’re almost there. We’re almost there. It’s going to take a while, but we’re getting there.”
While technology is a key component in bringing Inman’s Latte vision to life, Zillow said the program can’t work without people — technology developers and researchers, C-suite leaders and agency partners. .
“This wouldn’t be possible if we didn’t have great agency partners,” he said. “It’s not possible if we don’t prioritize them; it’s not possible if we don’t help them drive real business.”
“As we move faster into the future, I’m really happy that we put up a really big tent and invited everyone under,” he added. “We don’t think this is a zero-sum game. We digitize the industry and we all win. You grow, we grow, and our customers get what they want.
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