Zillow (NASDAQ: Z) (NASDAQ: ZG) has announced that it’s acquiring ShowingTime for $500 million. The announcement came on the back of Zillow’s fourth-quarter 2020 earnings release in which the company reported a $789 million decline in revenue but reported a positive net income of $46 million for the quarter, after losing over $100 million in Q4 of 2019.
More on ShowingTime
ShowingTime’s name does a pretty good job of explaining what the company does. Put simply, ShowingTime is a showing platform with over 1.2 million listings subscribed to its services. At its core, the platform aims to make it simple for agents to schedule showings with clients, making it a better experience for both ends.
ShowingTime says they have relationships with hundreds of multiple listing services (MLSs) across the country and a network of nearly one million agents. The company reportedly facilitated more than 50 million showings across the country in 2020.
ShowingTime has actually been acquisitive in its own right, having purchased Showing Suite in 2017, a company with a complementary product offering.
Zillow making moves
Zillow has made its intentions pretty clear through some of its recent initiatives. Even though Zillow held a hard line in 2014 when then-Chief Revenue Officer Greg Schwartz said that Zillow is “a media company that helps people find homes,” there’s no doubt that the company is building a full-stack suite.
Zillow Offers
Zillow Offers was the company’s move into iBuying, which is when a company works directly with consumers to provide an instant cash offer to purchase a home outright. Opendoor (NASDAQ: OPEN) made headlines when it went public via a special purpose acquisition vehicle, or SPAC.
Zillow Offers delivered $304 million in revenue for the company, although not profitably. Revenue was actually down 50{28ab41d673507bfe0daf970418d2e81f9476b3e139564442359ad7402c370b16} year over year since homebuying froze up at the beginning of the pandemic. Business is now active in all of the company’s 25 markets. In 2020, Zillow Offers bought 1,789 homes and has sold 933 of them to date.
Zillow Homes
While Zillow initially made its money from selling leads to agents and brokers, the company is now a real estate brokerage. They’re calling it Zillow Homes, and much of its inventory appears to be coming from the iBuying engine.
The Millionacres bottom line
Zillow hasn’t been solely a marketing website for a while now, and this new acquisition further cements that move. The ShowingTime acquisition will be a nice link between its Zillow Offers and Zillow Homes platforms, and it’s a clear signal that Zillow isn’t just buying and selling leads anymore. Zillow wants to control the entire customer journey.
Moves like this also make you wonder what’s next. Does Zillow plan on converting some of its inventory into rentals? That could be up next on the horizon.