What Happened to Zillow’s iBuying Business?
On October 18, Zillow announced that its iBuying division (instant-buying) “Zillow Offers”, would stop buying homes for the rest of the year. In two extremely bad weeks, 64% of the nearly one thousand homes that Zillow had listed for sale, were being marketed for less than the company paid for them. How Did Zillow Lose Control? It began in 2018, when Zillow started the iBuying business. “iBuying” refers to the process in which profitable tech-enabled companies buy houses, make some light renovations, and then sell for a decent gain. Zillow went all out on this strategy, and it has yet to make a profit through home flipping. The announcement of Zillow’s home-buying initially sent its stock down. It did recover, but stumbled again after some analysts created doubt on the Zillow Offers division's bottom line. In early November, Zillow announced it would cease operations for Zillow Offers and lay off 25% of its staff. That decision highli...
