Zillow Unveils Controversial "Offer Strategies" for Buyers

Zillow has soft-launched a fascinating new feature on listings that advises would-be buyers on how they might best make an offer for a property.

Buyers can see four suggested offer types and the amount Zillow's algorithm believes corresponds to each (Strong, Competitive, Moderate or Weak) and also see a percentage range of the potential chance of that offer type being accepted.

Zillow also provides contextual information such as whether the property is located in a buyer's or seller's market, how long the property has been listed compared to the median time for an offer to be accepted, and how the local market conditions should inform the user's most successful offer strategy.

Users are then advised to contact an agent to discuss their offer strategy in further detail. The image below shows Zillow's new feature on a live listing.

Image Credit: Zillow.com

On top of its historic "Zestimate" home valuation tool, this release is the latest attempt by Zillow to educate consumers on how to approach buying and selling a property. At the core of this feature is a guideline that empowers buyers to pick and choose offers for a property outside the traditional "stick close to the asking price" method used around the world.

Buyers have always had the right to test the waters with a lowball offer, with the understanding that it will likely be rejected, while there is just as much of an option to 'overpay' for a property they really want.

The feature appears to have been soft-launched on some Zillow listings around one month ago. While the company has not released any comment on its 'offer strategies', plenty of real estate agents have been giving their opinions on social media and Reddit.