CNN
Zillow has long been known as the place to go when you’re looking to buy a new home. It’s famous for its Zestimate, which uses proprietary algorithms to estimate the current price of your house (or your neighbor’s, if you’re feeling nosy).
But Zillow decided to shake things up.
In April 2018, the company announced it was launching Zillow Offers and would purchase homes directly from sellers, doing any necessary repairs before turning around to resell the house itself.
The model, known as instant buying, or “iBuying,” marked a major overhaul for Zillow’s core business. Up until then, the company had operated in a purely digital realm, removed from the headaches of owning or renovating actual brick-and-mortar properties.
At the company, the dramatic shift is known as “Zillow 2.0,” and CEO Rich Barton has laid out a bold vision, painting this moment as a “new frontier in real estate.” He wants Zillow’s service to eventually transform the industry so that selling a home is as easy as trading in a car. But first, he warns, the company and its shareholders have to be patient.
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