The Big Question

We give away our tools, data and information for free, and now we are offering everyone — owners and agents — the opportunity to post homes for sale on Zillow^® — for free. So, it's a logical question: How does Zillow make money?

Simply, we make money by selling advertising on our site.

Here's how it works: Our goal is to provide tools and information to give you an edge in real estate. This means delivering data and valuations on every home in the U.S., and the ability to post any home for sale on the Zillow Web site. Why do we do this, all for free? Because we feel it's your right to know what your home — or the one you're interested in down the street or across the country — is worth. We feel it's your right to get your posting in front of as many potential buyers as possible. Knowing a home's value and sharing information on homes for sale will help everyone make smarter real estate decisions.

Because we do all of this, we get millions of people visiting our site each month — consumers and real estate professionals — who want this information. Since we get lots of traffic coming to our site, we have lots of opportunities for advertisers who want to get their message in front of these people, too. So they buy ads.

Our advertisers are eager to help consumers make sense out of their end of the real estate process. And, anyone who makes real estate easier is a good neighbor in our book.

And that's how Zillow makes money.