Zillow to stop flipping homes for good as it stands to lose $550 million+

[rcjordan]

will lay off a quarter of staff - MarketWatch

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/zillow-to-stop-flipping-homes-for-good-as-it-stands-to-lose-more-than-550-million-will-lay-off-a-quarter-of-staff-11635885027

[ergophobe]

Why Zillow Couldn't Make Algorithmic House Pricing Work
The real estate site went into the business of buying and selling homes. But the pandemic messed up its predictions.
https://www.wired.com/story/zillow-ibuyer-real-estate

In the second quarter, Barton said, Zillow actually was able to sell homes for 5.8 percent more than it expected. In the third quarter, though, Zillow sold homes for 5 to 7 percent less than it forecast... Zillow was also buying homes at a higher price than the market average: $65,000 more in September. In Phoenix, the problem was particularly acute. Nine in 10 homes Zillow bought were put up for sale at a lower price than the company originally bought them, according to an October 2021 analysis by Insider. If each of those homes sold for Zillow's asking price, the company would lose $6.3 million.

[rcjordan]

At least in our area, anyone with MLS access could tell that Z's pricing algo was too high.  Agents' recurring nightmare has been clients who wanted to list at what Z valued the property.