Industry Comings & Goings: Zillow, Boomin and Zoopla

Three pieces of HR-related news from the real estate industry this week as companies look to bring in the best talent...

Company: U.S. residential real estate giant Zillow

Person: Zillow's CMO Aimee Johnson is leaving the company after three years at the helm of the portal company's marketing efforts. According to a Linkedin post, Johnson's next step will be to take some time off to travel and reset.

Context: Unlike many in the industry, Johnson saw an opportunity to actually increase Zillow's marketing at the onset of the pandemic and oversaw successful campaigns such as 'The Impossible Street' and 'To Move is to grow'. Before working at Zillow, Johnson was a long time Starbucks employee as SVP of Digital Customer Experiences.

Company: The fledgling British portal founded by the founders of Purple Bricks, Boomin

Person: Paul Vickerstaff has joined the portal where he will oversee the relationships between sales reps and Boomin's agent customers. Vickerstaff has plenty of experience in the world of estate agency having been known as 'Mister Motivator' during his time as National Sales Director of Purple Bricks. More recently Vickerstaff was Managing Director of British agency brand Spicerhaart.

Context: Boomin has been making big waves in the UK real estate industry and raising funds to take its marketing and brand awareness to the next level.

The portal was initially free to list for agents but one year since its launch is now transitioning agents to paid plans. Today the company revealed the first ten big-name agencies that are on paid deals including Foxtons and Douglas & Gordon.

Company: British #2 portal Zoopla

Person: In this case, it's a whole bunch of people. Zoopla has appointed an independent, non-regulatory sales advisory board formed of high flying estate agents from across the country.

The idea behind the formation of the board is to unite "business leaders and influencers to work in partnership to support the successful and sustainable growth of the residential sales market, while also ensuring vendors and buyers remain at the heart of all decision making.”

Context: The formation of a sales advisory board comes 7 months on from the formation of a parallel board created to oversee the company's rental operations. Another portal to have recently gone down the route of appointing a multi-disciplinary advisory board is the Adevinta-owned Spanish portal Fotocasa.