Zillow pushes Preferred agent program toward 100% of buyer connections

Zillow may be facing calls for investigations into some of its practices by consumer advocacy organizations and federal lawmakers, but the real estate listing portal giant is doubling down on its belief that it is “building the faster, easier and more affordable moving experience.” “As more consumers and professionals use Zillow to move from dreaming to transacting, the old real estate experience will feel slow, difficult and expensive by comparison,” Zillow CEO Jeremy Wacksman and Zillow COO and CFO Jeremy Hofmann wrote in a letter to shareholders published on Wednesday. Despite this confidence, Zillow may be facing some headwinds. The company said that in the third quarter of 2026, visitor traffic to its apps and sites was down 3% during the quarter to 215 million average monthly unique users, while overall visits were down 5% annually to 2.3 billion according to Comscore data. Despite the declines, Comscore data shows that Zillow attracted 77% of average monthly unique visitors in the real estate category in Q3. In addition to this, the company said it has found that its AI search mode is deepening engagement, with visitors who use this option spending nearly three times as long...