Zillow debuts "Instant Offers" marketplace for Las Vegas, Orlando homeowners

Zillow is launching a trial of its Zillow Instant Offers marketplace, which enables homeowners to sell their homes quickly by providing them with offers from investors and a comparative market analysis (CMA) from a local real estate agent, as an estimate for what the home might fetch on the open market. In addition to investors being required to use an agent, should a homeowner select an investor’s offer, Zillow will also offer to connect them with a local agent to represent them throughout the transaction.

People today expect speed and convenience as the foundation for many of their transactions – including when buying or selling a home. Selling a home can often be an overwhelming task as home sellers have the challenge of getting their home ready to list on the open market, while facing the uncertainty of when their home might sell and at what price.

According to the Zillow Group Consumer Housing Trends Report 2016, 54 percent of sellers said the process of selling their home was “challenging and stressful”. By using the Zillow Instant Offers marketplace, home sellers can alleviate some of that stress by eliminating the need to prepare their home for sale (staging, open houses, etc.), and gain additional control and certainty over aspects like closing date and price.

“Sellers are looking for more solutions when selling their home. For some, selling in a short timeframe with certainty around the closing date is attractive, or even necessary,” said Jeremy Wacksman, Zillow Group chief marketing officer, in a statement. “Across many industries, we’re seeing a rise of technology assisted transactions, and many consumers desire this type of innovation in real estate. We want to provide options for convenience, while providing home sellers with useful information to help them make an informed financial decision. That’s why we provide them with any offers submitted by investors, as well as an estimate from a real estate agent who can help them better understand what that home may sell for on the open market.”

To participate in Zillow Instant Offers, verified homeowners interested in receiving investor offers confirm information about the home (number of bedrooms, square footage, etc.), highlight any updates and provide several photos of the home. From there, select investors who buy homes in the area can present their offers alongside the CMA from a local real estate agent. Any investor offers and the CMA will include an overview of fees associated with each option, to enable sellers to make an informed apples-to-apples comparison.

All the offers are no-obligation, meaning homeowners can accept one offer or decline all of them.

During this test in Las Vegas, Nev., and Orlando, Fla., Zillow is working with a handful of agents and select investors in each test market, who are active in the area. Participating agents will be requested to record the sale with their local Multiple Listing Service.