“We buy homes,” it said, and out of curiosity he clicked it.
A few weeks later, the popular real estate business owned his house.
iBuyers are companies that run mostly automated home-flipping business at a large scale.
Those pricing mistakes ultimately led tothe shuttering of Zillow’s iBuying businessin November 2021.
But not before some homeowners received sweet deals from Zillow’s overzealous algorithms.
He understood the business model of iBuyers and knew he might encounter lowball offers.
But after shopping multiple companies, he found a hands-down winner in Zillow.
The representative evaluated thecondition of his houseby shooting videos and taking measurements of the entire property.
Zillow came back with an offer shortly after that.
Byrd never had a single open house.
The only part of the home-selling process he had to manage himself was finding and paying his movers.
It took around six weeks total to terminate the deal, all things considered.
But the convenience and liquidity come at a price: iBuyers are historically known for making lowball offers.
And that’s why Byrd and the other homeowners who sold to Zillow may have hit the jackpot.
Are other iBuyers likely to make such fruitful offers?
“I would say that those people were very lucky.
For the average person, most of the time you’re getting a reduced amount.”
