In his first Inman Connect appearance since 2021, Zillow CEO Rich Barton discussed accelerating tech innovation and the next evolution of the residential portal experience.
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When Zillow launched in 2006, the site looked nothing like it does today.
There were no listings, no interactive videos and floor plans, or photos that homebuyers and daydreamers could scroll through for hours on end. All the site offered was a comprehensive list of transaction histories that, with some algorithmic magic, turned into the Zestimate — the industry’s first automated valuation model (AVM).
“[It was an] unbelievably provocative, interesting feature that had not existed before,” Zillow CEO Rich Barton recalled Wednesday at Inman Connect Las Vegas. “That Zestimate fueled all kinds of voyeurism and fantasies. It was incredibly entertaining, which is one of the reasons we were mobbed.”
“But it turns out that it is also a critical piece of marketplace information for anyone in the process of moving,” he added. It was this kind of intermingling, this kind of yin and yang of entertainment and practicality that helped create what the Zillow brand is today: this big trusted consumer brand that stands for consumer empowerment and customer advocacy.”
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Barton said the focus on consumer empowerment and advocacy is the key to success for Zillow and the entire industry as it strives to make the dream of a quick, frictionless homebuying experience a reality.
Although the atmospheric rise of artificial intelligence has stoked fear, Barton said focusing on consumer empowerment will ensure that agents will be able to accelerate through change rather than be consumed by it.
“We are accelerating, and that queasiness we’re all feeling is natural,” he said, recalling a recent experience he had racing at 140 mph on a closed BMW track. “As a species, we haven’t really had time to catch our breath and process the last lap around the track, which was the smartphone lap. And now we’re being told to accelerate on the next lap. Here comes AI, [and] around we go again.”
Barton said it’s time to accelerate past the “Portal 1.0 experience” and begin bringing order to a complicated “multi-party, multi-partner, multistage” transaction process by investing in technology, partnering with competitors, and staying in tune with what consumers and agents need to have a positive — even joyful — experience.
“You all may not know this, but less than half of our company’s revenue now comes from buyers agents, lead generation or original business model,” he said. “Our growth and opportunity as a company now comes from investing in this array of digital workflow, tools and technologies for the industry as a whole.”
“Showingtime has been a big success for us. Follow-up Boss, Listing Showcase dotloop, Aryeo … we’ve been putting together these products, building and putting together these products for quite some time,” he added. “We did not build, invest in and integrate these products to keep them inside the walled garden. We did it to make them broadly available and to power your businesses.”
Barton said the next iteration of residential portals will focus on coordination, integration and digitization — the three steps to making buying a home as easy as buying a latte.
“It’s not unlike Brad Inman’s latte transaction [keynote] from 2013. Who remembers that?” he said. “His vision was organizing this mess and saying moving should be as easy as buying a latte. Well, we’re getting there. We’re getting there. It’s taking a while, but we’re getting there.”
Although tech is a key component of bringing Inman’s latte vision to life, Zillow said the plan doesn’t work without people — tech developers and researchers, C-Suite leaders and agent partners.
“This would not be possible if we didn’t have great agent partners,” he said. “It would not be possible if we didn’t prioritize them, and it would not be possible if we weren’t helping drive real business for them.”
“As we accelerate faster to the future, I am really pleased that we are pitching a really big tent and inviting everyone underneath,” he added. “We do not believe 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.”
Email Marian McPherson