As the housing market has slowed, firms across the real estate ecosystem have reduced staff in order to cut costs. Zillow is the latest firm to undergo a round of layoffs, eliminating roughly 300 positions on Tuesday, but the firm does not attribute the reduction to the cooling housing market.
“As part of our normal business process, we continuously evaluate and responsibly manage our resources as we create digital solutions to make it easier for people to move. This week, we’ve made the difficult – but necessary – decision to eliminate a small number of roles and will shift those resources to key growth areas around our housing super-app,” a Zillow spokesperson wrote in an email. “We’re still hiring in key technology-related roles across the company.”
Impacted positions included Zillow Offers advisers, Premier Agent sales representatives, as well as back-end staff at Zillow home loans and Zillow Closing Services, according to a report from TechCrunch, which was confirmed by Zillow.
Zillow said the laid-off employees will receive 11 weeks of full pay, six weeks of paid benefits and out placement services.
This is Zillow’s largest round of layoffs since it let go of 2,000 employees last November after shuttering its iBuyer operation.
Since closing its iBuying program, Zillow has piloted a variety of programs, including changes to Premier Agent, a cash-backed offer program and it has also partnered with Opendoor to offer iBuying quotes and services to users.
During the second quarter of 2022, Zillow generated a modest net income of $8 million, while revenue for the quarter came in at $1 billion.
