This week Zillow announced a halt to their strategy of buying and flipping houses across the nation. As a result, their stock price dropped 20% when they also announced that they plan to layoff 25% of their staff.
As the housing market cools this strategy has been a disaster for the company. They now must sell over 7,000 and take a loss on those properties.
During the first half of 2021 Zillow was buying houses like crazy. I saw it here in our Austin market. They were paying too much and now it’s costing them millions of dollars.
I’m watching the Zillow-owned listings here in Austin, Texas as they drop the listing price over and over again.
What does this mean for Buyers? This may be an opportunity to buy a Zillow owned house at a discount. Work with a Broker who can pull those listings for you. They must sell these homes.
What does this mean for Sellers? The best time to have sold to Zillow was Spring of 2021. It’s too late now. They have stopped buying houses. However, we are still in a Seller’s market, so work with an experienced broker.
