stockrowWhat it does
Zillow Group operates a U.S. residential real estate platform for people looking to rent, buy, sell or finance a home. Its websites and apps bring together property listings, home-value estimates and tools for finding an agent, arranging a tour or exploring a mortgage. Founded in 2006, Zillow is headquartered in Seattle. Jeremy Wacksman is its chief executive.
For home shoppers, Zillow provides a database of approximately 173 million U.S. homes and the Zestimate, an automated estimate of home value. Buyers can search listings, arrange tours and seek financing through Zillow Home Loans or other mortgage providers. Sellers can work with an agent partner and use listing services that include photos, floor plans and virtual tours.
Renters can search listings and, on participating properties, apply, sign a lease and pay rent. Landlords and property managers can advertise vacancies and use leasing and property-management services. Zillow also sells software and marketing tools to agents, brokerages, builders and other real estate professionals.
The company’s strategy is to connect more steps of a housing transaction. In its Enhanced Markets, it brings together agent partners and Zillow Home Loans to support consumers from touring through closing. Its professional software also helps agents manage customer relationships, appointments and transactions.
How it makes money
Total revenue was $2.6 billion in FY2025 and $724 million in Q3 2026.
Residential accounted for 66.0% of FY2025 revenue. It includes agent advertising, software, new-construction marketing and StreetEasy’s for-sale offerings. Under Premier Agent market-based pricing, agents buy advertising in a ZIP code and receive customer connections in proportion to their share of advertising purchased there. Under Zillow Preferred, agents receive leads and pay a performance advertising fee when a transaction with one of those leads closes, generally within two years. Zillow Showcase charges agents for enhanced listing marketing.
Zillow also earns subscription revenue from software. Follow Up Boss helps agents and brokerages manage customer relationships, dotloop supports transaction management, and ShowingTime provides appointment scheduling. Builders can pay for advertising by residential community or impression. StreetEasy offers both subscriptions and a performance-based referral model in New York City.
Rentals revenue comes from advertising and tools sold to property managers, priced by lead, lease, listing or impression, as well as fixed-fee advertising packages. Potential renters can pay a flat service fee to apply to multiple properties. In FY2025, Rentals represented 24.4% of revenue.
Mortgages revenue comes primarily from originating home loans and selling them in the secondary market, as well as selling leads to mortgage professionals. Other revenue comes mainly from display advertising. Zillow reported that Q3 2026 for-sale revenue was flat year over year, while Rentals revenue rose 26% year over year.
| Product or service | Revenue, FY2025 | Share | Change on the year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Residential | $1.7 billion | 66.0% | 6.90% |
| Rentals | $630.0 million | 24.4% | 39.1% |
| Mortgages | $199.0 million | 7.70% | 37.2% |
| Other | $50.0 million | 1.94% | 13.6% |
Customers and how it sells
Zillow serves buyers and sellers, renters, borrowers, landlords and housing providers across the United States. Its paying professional customers include real estate agents and brokerages, property managers, home builders, mortgage lenders and other mortgage professionals. Consumers reach Zillow through its apps and websites, including Zillow, Trulia and StreetEasy.
The company connects consumers who request help with agent or mortgage partners. Agents can also use Zillow’s software for clients they did not meet through Zillow. Property managers can advertise rental vacancies, while landlords with fewer than 25 units can use Zillow Rental Manager for listings, leasing and property management.
Zillow Home Loans originates mortgages and was available in 49 states and the District of Columbia as of the end of 2025. StreetEasy’s performance-based agent referral product operates in New York City. Zillow’s rental marketplace includes single-family homes and multifamily properties across the country.
Zillow estimates that 80% of U.S. residential real estate transactions involve agents who use at least one Zillow product. Its portfolio attracted an annual monthly high of 259 million unique users in July 2025. A person using different devices, browsers, apps or websites can be counted more than once in the unique-user measure.
| Segment | Revenue, FY2025 | Share | Change on the year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reportable Segments | $2.6 billion | 100.0% | 15.5% |
Suppliers and costs
Zillow relies on relationships with agents, brokers, mortgage professionals, property managers, landlords, builders and regional multiple listing services to provide information and services to consumers. It also uses rental-listing syndication agreements with Redfin and Realtor.com and partnerships with AppFolio and Esusu.
Its spending includes product and service development, technology infrastructure, sales and marketing, general and administrative expenses, and the expansion of Zillow Home Loans. Mortgage originations also require cash: Zillow Home Loans needs financing to fund loans before selling them in the secondary market. Zillow uses cash for working capital, corporate needs, debt service and investment in its platforms and products.
In Q3 2026, Zillow reported that share-based compensation expense fell 25% year over year. The company’s cost approach includes managing fixed costs, variable costs and advertising spending. It also reported a restructuring in Q2 2026 that eliminated approximately 7% of employees.
- Revenue$2.6B
- Cost of revenue−$668.0M
- Research and development−$607.0M
- Selling, general and administrative−$1.3B
- Operating income−$34.0M
Competitive position
Zillow competes for consumers seeking homes, rentals and mortgages, and for the advertising budgets and business of real estate professionals. Customer choices depend on factors including service quality, price, the breadth and accuracy of property information, and brand awareness. Zillow Home Loans competes with other mortgage originators on rates, fees, product selection and service. Zillow Rentals competes on property availability, rental prices, advertising products and listing and management services.
Google’s local service advertising product is an adjacent source of competition for real estate advertising. Zillow said it saw no impact on its traffic or metrics in markets where the product had been tested. Zillow also competes for marketing budgets against traditional media, word-of-mouth referrals and yard signs.
Our reading: Zillow’s audience and brand provide a meaningful advantage in attracting consumers; the portfolio recorded approximately 9.6 billion visits in 2025. Our reading: Its property database and patented valuation technology support differentiation, although Zillow also faces the risk that others develop similar intellectual property. Our reading: The rental marketplace and professional software can reinforce relationships on both sides of the platform, but their value depends on continuing to deliver useful listings and customer connections.
| Competitor | Where they compete | Threat (our reading) |
|---|---|---|
| Local service advertising | Low |
Growth opportunities
Zillow’s for-sale strategy is to participate in more transactions and earn more revenue per transaction. It is expanding the share of consumer connections sent to Zillow Preferred partners and connecting those agents with financing, listing marketing and software. In Q3 2026, two-thirds of buyer connections went to preferred partners through the integrated experience. Zillow expects preferred partners to receive more than 75% of connections by year-end 2026 and 100% in the first half of 2027.
Zillow is also seeking to expand mortgage originations by serving buyers connected through preferred agents, those agents’ other clients and buyers who seek financing before choosing an agent. The company expects Zillow Home Loans purchase mortgage originations to grow more than 50% in 2026.
In rentals, Zillow is adding multifamily properties and selling broader advertising packages. The company estimates that multifamily property managers spend $10 billion a year on advertising. It reported 81,000 multifamily properties advertising on Zillow at the end of Q3 2026, up 17% year over year.
Zillow is developing consumer and professional tools as another part of its strategy. Its AI Mode is available to 100% of signed-in users, and it is developing tools within Follow Up Boss to surface leads and recommend next steps for agents. The company also expects the combination of Showcase, listing media and sellers transacting with agent partners to contribute more than $300 million to 2026 revenue.
- $2.1BFY2021
- $2.0BFY2022
- $1.9BFY2023
- $2.2BFY2024
- $2.6BFY2025
- $2.9BFY2026 guidance
Structural risks
- Housing conditions: Zillow’s results can be affected by interest rates, inflation, housing availability and affordability, changes in commissions and other industry practices, and broader economic conditions. Low inventory and volatile mortgage rates can reduce transactions or demand for services.
- Mortgage funding and sales: Zillow Home Loans needs sufficient financing to originate mortgages and must be able to resell them in the secondary market. Its operations also depend on government-sponsored entities and agencies and on meeting borrowers’ financing needs.
- Competition and technology: Zillow must retain consumers and professional partners, provide partners with a return on their spending, compete for advertising dollars and keep pace with technological change, including AI.
- Regulation and legal compliance: Zillow operates under local, state, federal and international laws and regulations. Failure to comply or maintain required licenses or authorizations could harm its business and results.
- Intellectual property and profitability: Zillow may be unable to protect its technology and data or prevent others from developing similar intellectual property. It has incurred operating losses in the past and may not sustain revenue growth or generate sufficient revenue to remain profitable over the long term.
Bottom line
Our reading
Zillow combines a consumer property-search platform with advertising, professional software and mortgage services. Its audience and property data help bring consumers and professionals together, while its move toward payment at closing ties more of its residential business to completed transactions. [item1] [item7]
Rentals and software provide other revenue streams, but housing activity, mortgage funding and the ability to keep partners engaged remain important exposures. [item1a] [call_prepared]