✍️ Editor’s Note: Zillow no longer buys homes
On Nov. 2, 2021, Zillow announced that Zillow Offers would permanently shut down. While Zillow is no longer purchasing homes, there are other ways to get a quick, all-cash offer on your house:
- Get a quote from an iBuyer
- Source offers from top cash buyers
- Get a free cash offer comparison from Clever Offers
Requesting a cash offer from any of these options is free, and there's no obligation to move forward.
To save time, we recommend starting with Clever Offers, which lets you compare multiple cash offers from iBuyers, investors, and more — so you can see real options laid out without any added fees or pressure to sell. Answer a few questions about your home and start comparing offers.
What was Zillow Offers?
In 2018, Zillow launched Zillow Offers to compete with companies like Opendoor, the nation’s largest iBuyer. Through Zillow Offers, Zillow made near-instant cash offers on homes — which it bought directly from sellers to resell at a higher price.
Until it stopped buying homes in November 2021, Zillow Offers was one of the two largest iBuyers by transaction volume, and operated in 25 metro areas nationwide. Like its competitors, it promised a quick, hassle-free sale without listing or showing your home.
After you sold your home to Zillow, the company would repair and list it on the open market — typically for more than what it paid.
However, Zillow Offers fees were typically higher than those of other iBuyers and could have taken a significant slice of your proceeds. Also, the scarcity of third-party Zillow Offers reviews made it difficult to evaluate whether past customers had a good experience.
Top alternatives to Zillow Offers
Service Fee
Customer Rating
Time to Close
Our take
Details
Eligibility
Clever Offers is a cash offer marketplace that helps you find the most competitive offers through its nationwide network of cash home buyers. When you want the speed and ease of an all-cash sale, they bring you multiple offers from iBuyers, local investors, and the market. You can compare offers side-by-side with no added fees or obligation to move forward.
Pros
- One source for multiple competing offers
- Buyers are screened for experience and proven success at closing deals
- Dedicated support to ensure a smooth closing and find you other offers if needed
- Excellent average customer rating
Cons
- Cash offer options may be limited in some areas
Service Fee
Customer Rating
Time to Close
Our take
Details
Eligibility
With Homeward, you get the advantages of a cash offer, plus the additional upside of selling on the open market. Homeward can also help you buy before you sell or buy a new home with a competitive cash offer. But you’ll have to pay a program fee of up to 7% on top of the usual home-selling costs.
Pros
- Get cash upfront, then list for additional upside
- Or, make a cash-backed offer on a new house before you sell
- In-house mortgage and title solutions that reduce program fees
- Bring your own real estate agent
Cons
- Program fees added to your realtor commissions and closing costs
- Homeward keeps a significant reserve to cover maintenance and repair costs
- Some sellers express frustration over hidden costs and low final payouts
Service Fee
Customer Rating
Time to Close
Our take
Details
Eligibility
Opendoor pays much closer to market value than traditional house flippers while still offering the benefit of fast closings and no repairs. For that convenience, you’ll need to contend with stricter purchase criteria, repair deductions, and a variable service fee (formerly 5%).
Pros
- Pays closer to market value than traditional home flippers
- No need to make repairs or prep your home for sale
- Choose your closing date and change it if needed
Cons
- Final offers can be significantly lower than the initial estimates
- Stricter purchase criteria than traditional home flippers
- Repair deductions and service fees can eat into profits
Service Fee
Customer Rating
Time to Close
Our take
Details
Eligibility
Offerpad pays more for homes than traditional house-flippers and also offers great perks, including free local moves and flexible closing windows of 8–60 days. However, it has a 5% service fee and customers claim it charges high fees for repairs uncovered during the home inspection.
Pros
- You can close in just eight days
- You can stay in your home for three extra days past your closing date at no charge.
- Sellers get free local moves and a 3-day free extended stay after closing
Cons
- Strict purchase criteria compared to traditional house flippers
- Repair deductions can greatly reduce your final offer
- 5% service fee is on par with realtor commissions
Why did Zillow Offers shut down?
On November 2, 2021, Zillow announced it was winding down Zillow Offers. Then-CEO Rich Barton's explanation was about volatility rather than any single mistake: "We've determined the unpredictability in forecasting home prices far exceeds what we anticipated and continuing to scale Zillow Offers would result in too much earnings and balance-sheet volatility."[1] Zillow's shareholder letter was blunter about the mechanism, describing "unintentionally purchasing homes at higher prices."[2]
In the third quarter of 2021 alone, Zillow's Homes segment lost $422 million before income taxes.
What if Zillow already agreed to purchase my home?
When Zillow Offers announced the shutdown, it said that sellers who signed a purchase agreement before Nov. 2, 2021 should expect their sale to close as planned.
However, weeks later Zillow cancelled 400 of the remaining 8,172 contracts because they had closing dates in 2022. Zillow returned the earnest money and offered payments for sellers who agreed to terminate their contract by Nov. 30, 2021. Zillow said it didn’t expect to cancel any more contracts.
If you have a home under contract with Zillow Offers, log in to your Zillow Offers account or contact Zillow directly for more information.
How much did Zillow Offers pay for houses?
Zillow used its Zestimate valuation tool as the starting point for its offers. From February 2021 it made the Zestimate itself an initial cash offer — though only "on a limited subset of homes" in the markets where Zillow Offers operated, not for every seller.[3] Your final proceeds could be thousands less once repair deductions and service fees came out.
Zillow publishes its own accuracy figures for the Zestimate: a nationwide median error rate of 1.79% for homes on the market and 7.20% for off-market homes.[4]
Zillow's problem wasn't that it paid too little. Analyst Mike DelPrete, looking at Phoenix in September 2021, found Zillow "continued to purchase homes well above the market median — a full $65k higher in September," while Opendoor and Offerpad were slowing down.[5] Zillow's own numbers tell the same story from the other end: it lost an average of $80,771 in gross profit per home sold through Zillow Offers in the third quarter of 2021.
Zillow had extremely high fees
At shutdown, Zillow published a service fee of "5% on average," plus closing costs of 1–2% and repair deductions shown in the offer.[6] That was roughly the same as Opendoor charged at the time — Opendoor's FY2021 annual report says its service fee "was set at 5% across all markets" from the first quarter of that year.
The fee had moved over the program's life: Zillow told investors it averaged 7% in late 2018, published 2.5% on average through 2020 and early 2021, and settled at 5% by the time it quit.
By contrast, you could earn thousands more by listing on the open market. Real Estate Witch can match you with agents from major brokerages such as RE/MAX, Coldwell Banker, and Keller Williams. Even better, you’ll get top-rated service AND save thanks to pre-negotiated low rates of just 1.5% in listing fees. Get matched with top local agents today!
How Zillow Offers worked
Selling your home to Zillow Offers was simple, with just a few steps:
- Request a Zillow cash offer online. This was as simple as entering your property’s full address and providing basic information about your home’s age and features.
- Receive an initial cash offer. After your request, Zillow Offers contacted you within 48 hours. If your home qualified, your Zestimate (Zillow's home valuation tool) served as the initial Zillow cash offer.
- Schedule a home inspection. Zillow’s inspectors identified any repairs or defects that impacted your property’s value.
- Review the final offer. The offer was reduced by the amount Zillow deemed necessary for repairs.
- Close the deal. Closing occurred in as little as seven days, or up to 90 days for sellers who needed extra time.
Where did Zillow Offers buy houses?
Before it stopped buying in November 2021, Zillow Offers operated in 25 metro areas across 12 states.[6]
| State | Cities |
|---|---|
| Arizona | Phoenix, Tucson |
| California | Los Angeles, Riverside, Sacramento, San Diego |
| Colorado | Colorado Springs, Denver, Fort Collins |
| Florida | Jacksonville, Miami, Orlando, Tampa |
| Georgia | Atlanta |
| Minnesota | Minneapolis-St. Paul |
| Nevada | Las Vegas |
| North Carolina | Charlotte, Raleigh |
| Ohio | Cincinnati |
| Oregon | Portland |
| Tennessee | Nashville |
| Texas | Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio |
📍More cash buyers near you
When looking for a cash offer on a house, your best option may be local.
We researched hundreds of companies and compiled lists of the best local cash home buyers for all 50 states and Washington, DC.
Buying a Zillow-owned home
After Zillow Offers purchased homes, it listed them on the open market for more than what it paid the previous seller.
Buying Zillow-owned homes was relatively streamlined compared to a conventional transaction:
- You submitted an offer for the property and got a reply within 48 hours.
- Your closing date was based on your schedule.
- Homes were recently repaired and vacant, so you could move in immediately.
- The sale wasn’t contingent on a seller’s ability to close on their next property.
- Zillow paid a standard buyer’s agent commission.
However, there were some drawbacks to buying a home from Zillow, including the company's unwillingness to negotiate over the sale price or repairs.
Other Zillow services
Zillow still offers additional in-house services that can streamline your transaction, whether you’re buying or selling a home:
- Zillow Home Loans: Zillow partners with a network of mortgage lenders, allowing buyers to get pre-qualified for loans at competitive rates.
- Zillow Closing: Zillow's in-house closing arm, formerly Spruce, which holds the buyer's deposit in escrow, arranges the exchange of funds, conducts a title search and provides title insurance.
⚡ Quick tip
If you sold your home to Zillow Offers, you weren’t required to use Zillow Home Loans or Zillow Closing Services. In fact, you may have been able to get better rates by looking at other lenders!
When it comes to getting the best mortgage rate, we recommend shopping around in almost all circumstances.
Zillow Offers reviews
One of the biggest downsides of working with Zillow Offers was that there were so few verified customer reviews on third party websites. Instead, most reviews focused on Zillow’s agents, website, or app. That made it difficult to determine past customers’ experience with Zillow’s cash offers.
While the Zillow website did have testimonials, they were curated by Zillow — so we didn’t consider them objective.
We were able to find a positive Zillow Offers review from a customer who found the process to be a quick, simple alternative to a traditional home sale:
However, Zillow Offers complaints focused on issues with its low offer prices and expensive repairs.
For example, one customer decided not to sell their home to Zillow because the final cash offer dropped by thousands of dollars after their inspection:
Similarly, another Zillow Offers complaint focused on exorbitant repair costs that would have slashed the seller's proceeds:
Zillow Offers vs. alternatives
Low commission real estate agents vs. Zillow Offers
Now that Zillow Offers is shut down, you might consider listing your home with a low commission real estate company.
Low commission real estate companies allow you to list on the open market while saving thousands on commission fees. Lower selling costs keep more money in your pocket — plus, there’s always a chance that competition on the open market can drive your sale price up, too.
Our team researched the best low commission real estate companies to help you choose the best fit for your sale.
» LEARN: Top Low Commission Real Estate Companies
Zillow Offers vs. other iBuyers
Like other iBuyers, Zillow Offers:
- Made fast offers and closed on your timeline
- Handled any necessary repairs
- Eliminated the uncertainty of selling to an individual buyer
While some Zillow Offers reviews said the process was seamless, others were shocked by lowball offers and expensive repair costs. And Zillow Offers' fees could double those of competitors like Offerpad and Opendoor.
Opendoor is the largest iBuyer in the U.S. and still makes fast cash offers on homes like Zillow Offers once did. Similarly, Offerpad operates in 20+ markets and offers interesting perks like free local moves.
Overall, Opendoor charges comparable fees, but serves more locations, and has stronger customer reviews than Offerpad.
» MORE: Offerpad vs. Opendoor
For a cash offer on a home in reasonable condition, iBuyers like Opendoor and Offerpad could be a good option. Offerpad publishes a flat 5% service fee; Opendoor no longer publishes a rate, but it's historically been 5%. Both pay below market and price the home to make money on the resale.
For a home that needs work or won't qualify, a 'we buy houses' company will buy almost anything and charges no fees, but prices from your home's after-repair value minus repairs minus its margin — so expect considerably less.
If you have any flexibility on timing, listing with a low-commission agent nets more than any cash offer in most cases.
The quickest way to compare all three is to collect competing offers at once. Clever Offers gathers bids from vetted cash buyers and iBuyers alongside a professional valuation, free and with no obligation.
FAQ
How did Zillow Offers work?
If you wanted to sell your home to the now-closed Zillow Offers, the process was very simple. You submitted your information online to get an initial cash offer within 48 hours, then scheduled an inspection. After the inspection, Zillow adjusted its offer to account for repairs. If getting top-dollar for your home is a top priority, consider selling with a discount real estate broker who charges low commission rates. If you need to sell quickly, Opendoor offers much lower service fees than Zillow Offers.
Does Zillow buy homes?
Until November 2021, Zillow made cash offers on homes through Zillow Offers, its iBuyer service. However, its fees were as high as 22% double competitors' rates. If you want to sell fast and save thousands on fees, we recommend working with a low commission real estate company.
Related reading
Opendoor, Reviewed and Explained: In our in-depth review of Opendoor, you'll learn how the iBuying process works — and whether Opendoor might be a good choice for your home sale.
What Companies Offer the Lowest Real Estate Commission Fees?: With so many low commission real estate companies on the market, there's no reason to pay the traditional 6% commission. Learn how to get the best price without sacrificing on service.
Read This Before You List Your FSBO on Zillow: Thinking of attempting a DIY sale on Zillow? We researched how it works and the biggest risks you'll face.