Zillow to close its home-flipping division, lay off 25 percent of staff [View all]

[Zorro]

The company cited the unpredictability of forecasting housing prices in its decision to stop buying and selling homes.

Facing the prospect of selling hundreds of homes at a loss, Seattle-based Zillow plans to close down its house-flipping division and lay off a quarter of its staff, CEO Rich Barton said Tuesday.

“We’ve determined the unpredictability in forecasting home prices far exceeds what we anticipated and continuing to scale Zillow Offers would result in too much earnings and balance-sheet volatility,” Barton said in a statement.

Zillow Offers is the company’s iBuying operation, a practice similar to house-flipping in which Zillow itself buys and then resells homes.

Zillow said the “wind-down” of Zillow Offers will take “several quarters and will include a reduction of Zillow’s workforce by approximately 25 percent.”

https://www.tampabay.com/news/real-estate/2021/11/03/zillow-to-close-its-home-flipping-division-lay-off-25-percent-of-staff/