Zillow offers instant cash to sell real estate online
Online real estate company Zillow is offering a new way to sell a home.
The Zillow Offers program launched this spring in Atlanta, Denver, Phoenix and Las Vegas, and plans to expand into North Carolina in the Charlotte and Raleigh markets this winter.
It allows consumers to sell their home without hosting open houses or making repairs. The seller also controls the closing date.
After answering some questions and taking some photos – along with a custom market analysis by a local real estate agent – if eligible, Zillow will send the consumer a cash offer within a few days, according to the website.
According to one real estate expert, the program can be helpful to people in the market.
“My buyers and sellers love to use it to learn about the market, to see what’s out there,” Compass broker Neal Ward told FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo. “But when it actually comes to making that decision,” he added, “they need to come to a qualified real estate agent to give them the confidence to compete in the marketplace to give them the intel to actually make the decisions they need to make.”
However, Zillow is not changing the way houses are purchased. An agent in each of the Zillow Offers markets is used to listing each Zillow-owned home for sale, and hosts open houses for prospective buyers to tour the homes in-person.
A Zillow spokesperson was unable to share “specific numbers” on the total amount of homes purchased through the program, but in a statement to FOX Business, said the launch in Denver on Monday was off to an “amazing start.”
Zillow isn’t the first and only company aiming to make it easier to sell a home. Opendoor launched four years ago and is currently active in 15 U.S. markets including Nashville, Tennessee; San Antonio; and Tampa and Orlando, Florida.