Source: AMI Sun —
As the world moves closer and closer to virtual realities and artificial intelligence, no area of our lives will be unchanged. Real estate is and has always been a people-to-people business and based on Zillow’s recent experiment with automating the process, the people are winning.
Zillow created a decade-long successful business when they established an algorithm to put a value on practically any property in the country. Zillow’s Zestimates were so popular it spun off the term “Zillow Surfing” because who doesn’t want to know what their house or their relative’s house or their best friend’s house is worth? Use of their app grew 19% this year alone. With all that experience and success, what could go wrong by going into the house flipping business?
House flipping is nothing new to the real estate business. An investor buys a home, does a quick touch up and puts it back on the market at a tidy little profit. Sounds perfect for a company that already knows the value of everything; therefore, Zillow went into the iBuying business.