Zillow Offer's homes show up above others in search results

The leading US-based property portal, Zillow, is in the midst of testing the prioritized placement of homes that it has acquired through its Zillow Offers, using searches by home buyers.

The company buys homes in select cities for cash and resells them through its Zillow Offers program. Now Zillow is conducting tests on its website and mobile apps that put its own homes ahead of other listings on search pages.

Inman reported that 22 or 26 homes on the first page of a search for homes for sale in Phoenix, Arizona, were owned by Zillow.

Similarly, Zillow owned all the homes on the first page of search results for homes under $600,000 in Las Vegas.

Zillow users who search for homes listed for sale also find the following message next to homes the company doesn’t own: “Buying but need to sell first? Get a Zillow Offer for your home.”

Zillow, Inc. is a leading home and real estate marketplace dedicated to helping homeowners, buyers, sellers, renters, real estate agents, mortgage professionals, landlords, and property managers find and share vital information about homes, real estate, mortgages, and home improvement. Under the Zillow brand, Zillow operates Zillow.com, Zillow Mortgage Marketplace, Zillow Mobile, Zillow Rentals, and Zillow Digs.

In addition to information and data on nearly all homes in the U.S. (110 million and counting), Zillow visitors can search homes for sale, homes for rent, and homes not currently on the market. Homeowners can browse remodeling ideas in Dueling Digs, or dig into the latest real estate trends in their neighborhood via Zillow's expansive local data pages.

Zillow is a media business model and makes money selling targeted, relevant advertising to real estate professionals, and connecting home and mortgage shoppers with professionals who can help them.

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