In an effort to become a one-stop shop for home buying and selling, Zillow is testing a closing-services platform in an undisclosed number of markets.
The new platform will work in tandem with the company’s buying and selling platform, Zillow Offers, with a goal to improve the economics of each home sale or purchase, according to Inman. Zillow lost an average of $4,826 on each home sale in the third quarter, after interest expenses — up from $2,916 in the second quarter.
“These are very early days and small numbers, but we are encouraged by the early consumer signals we’ve received that reinforce the value of bundling multiple services around each transaction,” Zillow CEO Rich Barton said on an earnings call.
Zillow Offers added eight new markets in the third quarter and plans to launch in Los Angeles. It reported a net loss of $64.6 million before interest, tax and other considerations.
Barton said the business was still in the early stages of development, beginning with building a national footprint.
“Phase two is about getting depth in these markets and figuring out how to roll out software and systems and process such that we can get gain leverage on the unit economic costs,” he said.
[Inman] — Sylvia Varnham O’Regan