Zillow taps Susan Daimler as president

Former StreetEasy GM has led Premier Agent since 2018

Susan Daimler, Zillow COO Jeremy Wacksman (left) and CEO Rich Barton. (Zillow, Getty)
Susan Daimler, Zillow COO Jeremy Wacksman (left) and CEO Rich Barton. (Zillow, Getty)

Susan Daimler, a longtime general manager at StreetEasy, has been tapped as president of Zillow Group.

The Seattle-based listing giant, which has been focused heavily on instant home-buying, said Daimler will succeed Jeremy Wacksman, who was named the company’s chief operating officer. Zillow characterized the executive moves as an “organizational alignment” to centralize the company’s product, engineering and operations teams.

In her new role, Daimler will lead an integrated product team. Zillow said she will report to Wacksman, and she will continue to oversee Premier Agent, StreetEasy and corporate relations.

Daimler has been at Zillow since 2012, when she and her husband and business partner, Matt Daimler, sold their co-shopping startup Buyfolio to the company.

In New York, she oversaw StreetEasy’s roll-out of Premier Agent, a controversial but lucrative agent advertising program. In 2018, Daimler was promoted to lead up the program for the entire company.

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Although Zillow has been focused on iBuying, Premier Agent generated $1 billion in revenue in 2020, a 13 percent year-over-year increase. During the fourth quarter, Premier Agent revenue rose 35 percent to $314 million.

For the full year, Zillow’s revenue soared 22 percent to $3.3 billion, compared to $2.7 billion in 2019. The company lost $162 million in 2020, down from $305 million a year prior, thanks to its temporary pause on home-buying.

When the housing market bounced back, Zillow began buying homes again. In September, the company launched a brokerage entity which it said would streamline iBuying.

During its fourth quarter earnings call this month, Zillow CEO Rich Barton called iBuying “the seeds of the future, of a streamlined transaction.” Put another way, he said the company’s goal is to give customers a “one-click, trade-in nirvana.”

Earlier this month, Zillow said it would pay $500 million to buy ShowingTime.com, a home tour scheduler. Just after it announced the deal, its stock soared 20 percent to more than $200 per share.

Zillow’s stock was trading between $161 and $170 per share on Wednesday.