Zillow is free, but your agent isn't. The real estate agent's current commission is 5.37%, with half for your sales agent and the other half for the buyer's agent. The customer can accept Zillow's offer, advertise their home to a local agent whom Zillow contacts them, or choose not to sell it at all. According to research by Zillow, 15% of failed home offers failed because the buyer withdrew after the inspection report.
By buying Zillow Flex at the brokerage level, you could absorb half of the Zillow Flex referral cost and then ask the agent to cover the rest. In fact, according to Zillow's Consumer Housing Trends Report, 83% of sellers make some form of compensation with the buyer to facilitate the sale of their home. Every month, more than 227 million unique visitors spend time on the Zillow website looking at homes and looking for real estate agents. Zillow also sells advertising space on its site to mortgage lenders and other businesses that want to reach Zillow consumers.
Finally, an impact on the housing market or a drop in consumer interest in buying homes and mortgages, two things that are beyond Zillow's control, would likely reduce traffic to the site and cause a drop in advertising revenues. In addition to saving that commission, there are a few other reasons why some sellers choose to use Zillow For Sale by Owner to sell their home. So, even though it's free to publish and sell on Zillow, you may end up paying a commission to a buyer who works with an agent. Your FSBO listing method is a way to sell your house on Zillow without the help of a professional realtor.
