EXAMPLE OF REAL ESTATE BUSINESS MODEL

The Zillow Business Model

• Zillow is a real estate company that provides a wide range of services to meet the needs of both home buyers and sellers. A home-buying service and a marketplace where individuals may post classified advertising about properties that are up for sale or rent are two of the numerous services that the company provides.

How Zillow Makes Money ?!

Zillow generates revenue from house flipping (for which it earns a fee), the sale of real estate leads, and the collection of interest on its mortgage loans.

Homes, IMT, and Mortgages are the three categories that comprise Zillow's revenue distribution system. When the company originally opened its doors for business in 2005, advertising was the sole source of revenue that it had. It was speculated that if the company catered to a certain kind of user, it could be able to provide advertisers with audiences that were more engaged and targeted.

The Zillow Group's gamble paid off, and as a result, it is today one of the most successful online real estate firms in the United States.

In order to have a better understanding of how Zillow generates profits for its shareholders, we will investigate the three primary channels via which the firm generates revenue.

Homes

Zillow's main source of income comes from fees associated with real estate transactions. Because of its Offers program, Zillow was able to swiftly earn a profit on the purchase and selling of houses. The stress that comes along with selling a house made the nearly instant cash offer made by Zillow a very appealing proposition to sellers.

In addition, when Zillow purchases a seller's listings, it charges the seller a transaction fee of 6% of the purchase price. In addition, it imposes a fee that falls somewhere in the range of 3.5–4.5% as a means of paying taxes and other operating expenses. This industry was responsible for a remarkable 1.7 billion dollars worth of revenue in the year 2020.

Mortgages

In 2018, Zillow completed the acquisition of Mortgage Lenders of America, which enabled the company to become a licensed lender. The reengineering of financial products has become something of a hallmark for the firm, and one example of this is Zillow Home Loans. Using this service, borrowers have the option of either refinancing an existing debt or taking out brand-new loans.

The interest rates offered by Zillow change depending on the particulars of each loan. To broaden its range of potential income sources, Zillow now collaborates on its mortgage platform with more than fifty distinct lending institutions. When Zillow is successful in matching a borrower with a lender, the firm receives payment for its services. In addition, there is a fee associated with the use of Zillow's Connect Service, which boosts the exposure of lenders to prospective borrowers.

The revenue that Zillow generated from its mortgage services shot up to a staggering $246 million by the end of 2021, up from only $174 million in 2020.

Internet Media and Technology (IMT)

The internet and several other forms of technological advancement play a pivotal role in Zillow's business strategy. Because of this, the fact that they are a part of the company's money-making engine is not surprising at all. Zillow has been supplying real estate professionals and individuals with ready-to-use software as well as marketing services ever since the company was founded in 2006.

Zillow's Premier Agents and Premier Brokers programs rake in revenue for the firm by putting real estate agents and brokers in touch with people who may be interested in purchasing real estate. Zillow also provides advertising services to real estate brokers, construction companies, photographers, and other professionals in related fields.

The profits from IMT were reported at $1.9 billion in 2021, which was an increase from $1.45 billion in the previous year.

Zillow's Business Model Canvas

Zillow's Customer Segments

Zillow has two types of customers that complement one another, both of whom benefit from the company's core objective of making high-quality real estate services accessible to the masses.

Service/Content Consumers: The almost 3 million monthly tenants, buyers, and sellers who use Zillow represent a major chunk of the company's customer base.

Service Providers: On one side you have homeowners who use Zillow to market their homes for sale or rent, and on the other side you have real estate agents, property managers, home remodeling professionals, inspectors, photographers, and other professionals who publish advertising and subscribe to Zillow.

Zillow's Value Propositions

Zillow's value propositions, which are reflective of the company's basic values, are as follows: ease of access, personalized experience, and endorsement. They are the three distinct but complementary perspectives from which their services are presented to the user.

Ease of Access: Before Zillow came along, it was difficult for customers to find the real estate information they were seeking, for since there was no centralized place for real estate data. Zillow's entrance into the market caused a profound shift in its dynamics. By disseminating relevant information, it contributed to the beginning of a revolution in the real estate business.

For example, Zillow's Zestimate analyzes information that is available to the general public to derive an estimate of how much a home is now worth on the market. Homeowners may use this data to gain an idea of how much their houses are going for on the market at the moment by comparing it to similar properties.

In a similar vein, prospective buyers may use Zillow to sift through the over 110 million houses that are currently up for sale throughout the United States and Canada and bookmark the properties that are of the most interest to them.

Personalized Experience: Because the Zillow website and apps are very customizable, users are able to enjoy an experience that is singularly tailored to their preferences.

Zillow provides homebuyers, renters, and current homeowners with access to a wide range of useful tools. Using Zillow's affordability calculator, they may choose a neighborhood within their price range.

Interested parties may either negotiate a deal with the property's current owner, pursue a foreclosure, or enlist the services of a Zillow Premier Agent. They may get a home loan to help pay for a house. Prospective renters might potentially speed up the process of having background checks and credit checks performed on them by submitting a detailed proposal via Zillow. By using this strategy, prospective renters significantly improve their odds of moving into the residence that best suits their needs.

Endorsement: Zillow helps real estate agents grow their business by lending them its brand and reputation to use in marketing and advertising campaigns. The word Zillow is nearly often used in conjunction with successful outcomes in the real estate market. Premier Agents who get their stamp of approval will rise in the ranks almost immediately.

Zillow's Channels

• Website

• Mobile apps (Android/iOS)

• TV and Print media ads

• Blogs

• Social media

Zillow's Customer Relationships

The Zillow website serves as the main channel via which the firm communicates with its myriad of customers. However, the company also uses other forms of online communication, such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, amongst others.

Zillow's Revenue Streams

Zillow's home-flipping service, Zillow Offer, has been shut down. Prior to this, this segment was responsible for approximately 60% of the company's annual earnings, but it has since been replaced by other revenue streams.

• Ad-revenue

• Zillow 360 Bundled Services revenue

• Commissions from agents

• Zillow Closing Services revenue

• Income from New Construction, StreetEasy, etc.

• Mortgage-interest

• Revenue from rents

Zillow's Key Resources

The majority of Zillow's services are web-based. However, some of their apps include:

• Zestimate

• Housing Super App

Zillow's Key Activities

• Physical touring arrangements

• Financing of home acquisitions

• Fill real estate info gaps

• Lead-generation

Zillow's Key Partners

• Investors

• Buyers

• Sellers

• Agents and other professionals in the real estate industry

Zillow's Cost Structure

• Overheads

• Acquisitions

• Maintenance costs and technological advancements

Zillow’s SWOT Analysis Zillow’s Strengths

• World-Class Management Team

• Skilled Workforce/workplace

• Brand recognition

• Reliability

• Coverage

• Resources

• Solid financial base

• Diverse product portfolio

• Customer satisfaction

Zillow’s Weaknesses

• Complex inventory

• High transaction fees

• Lopsided lead generations

Zillow’s Opportunities

• Innovative techs

• Real estate growth prospects

Zillow’s Threats

• Extreme competition

• Litigation

• Real estate unpredictability

• Possible cyberattack

The Strike Business Model

Strike is an online real estate company that lets users buy and sell properties without having to pay the associated agent fees.

Strike’s Founding Story

Alexander and Sophie Gosling launched their business, Strike, in the city of Colchester in the United Kingdom in the year 2007. Alexander and Sophie got married while launching their own business from scratch. Prior to its launch, Strike was referred to as HouseSimple.

When it was established in June 2007, HouseSimple quickly established itself as one of the most technologically advanced real estate companies in the country. The Goslings were of the opinion that real estate brokers, both at the time and maybe even today, were earning fees that they invested in flashy cars and extravagant offices. The Goslings believed that these expenditures might have been avoided by handing the savings on to customers.

They had everything at their disposal to find a solution to the problem. The whole of Sophie's father's career was spent working in the property sector. After learning the ropes from him, his daughter went on to spend six years working in relocation for firms like Deutsche Bank.

HouseSimple was first launched in June 2007, and in order to bring in clients, the firm implemented promotional pricing. They essentially had three plans: either pay an initial charge of £199, in which case the firm would take 0.10% of the selling price; pay an initial fee of $99, and the cost would be 0.25%; or pay no money initially, and the fee would be 0.50%. Meanwhile, traditional real estate agencies often demanded a commission of 2% or more from clients.

In October, just four months after the company's debut, Alexander and Sophie successfully closed their first significant business transaction. Because of the low commission fee of 0.67%, the seller saved approximately £40,000 on the sale of a home in Essex that they listed for £3 million and ultimately sold.

During the years that followed, HouseSimple maintained an exceptionally quiet profile as its founders focused on growing the firm via self-funding. The creators presumably did not want to seek financing since they would have obtained unfavorable terms as a result of the Great Financial Crisis of 2008, which caused housing prices to collapse all across the globe.

Despite this, the team was able to more than fourfold the annual average revenues over the first seven years of operation. According to HouseSimple, it was the second-biggest online real estate agency at the close of 2015, with PurpleBricks being the only online agency that was larger. Approximately at the same time, the organization was able to get their first investment from a third party. The first investment was five million pounds, and it was made by Sir Charles Dunstone, the founder of Carphone Warehouse.

Meanwhile, HouseSimple was recognized as the top online real estate agency by the Negotiator Awards in both 2014 and 2015. As a result of the increased publicity, HouseSimple was successful in securing more funding in the month of June in 2016. After doubling the number of properties it listed in the preceding year, the firm was able to successfully raise an extra thirteen million pounds in capital.

During that time, only about 5% of homes in the UK were sold online; however, analysts anticipated that figure would climb to more than 50% by the year 2020. Because other businesses in the industry, such as eMoov and PurpleBricks, were increasing their prices, the firm made the decision to significantly reduce their own in order to capture a greater share of the market.

HouseSimple, however, ran into problems with the veracity of its advertising as well as the veracity of the low prices it offered. Following a complaint that one of the firm's advertisements suggested that the company's prices were excessively low, the advertising regulator Clearcast investigated the company in question. By August 2017, all of the complaints that had been filed against HouseSimple had, thankfully, been addressed and remedied.

In addition, further reductions were introduced thanks in part to some of their funding. In 2018, the real estate agent only collected fees from customers if they are able to sell their home successfully. One year later, it did away with those premiums in their entirety. As a result, the customer would not be charged a commission regardless of whether the property's owner was successful in selling it or not.

In response to HouseSimple's attempts to keep prices as low