How One Real Estate Newbie Built a Brokerage Empire With Zillow

Marcus Larrea was running a medical device company in Florida in 2016 when he decided to get into real estate. Initially, he and his girlfriend thought it’d be fun to get licenses and see what they could do part-time.

Two years later, after partnering with Zillow Premier Agent, Larrea’s hobby has grown into Palm Paradise Real Estate, a southwest Florida brokerage with more than 55 agents, offices in three cities, and a growth plan to take him into the next decade and beyond.

“Zillow was really a big part of our growth,’’ he says of the brokerage he runs with his former girlfriend, now fiance, Sarah Sanzica, and his partner, Aaran Parvey. “It was the foundation of our business. It is the foundation of our business.”

Here, Larrea shares his success story — and his top six lessons for using Zillow Premier Agent to launch a fast-growing real estate business.

1. Zillow Premier Agent Can Build a Client Base Very Quickly

After getting their licenses, Larrea and Sanzica joined a national brokerage in southwest Florida. Larrea said he appreciated the support and brand recognition of the brokerage, but he realized it was on him to drum up business — a difficulty given that he was still running another company.

“I didn’t really have the time to go out and do all the activities that most traditional real estate agents have to do,’’ he says. “So I figured I could buy leads from Zillow.”

Some agents in his area were leery of the company and the changes it was bringing, but Larrea had no such hesitation.

“Most people end up searching on Zillow at some point in their home search, and if you're advertising with Zillow and they see your face constantly pop up, your sphere will naturally come to you,’’ he says. (At the time, Zillow partner agents appeared with their headshot directly on listings in relevant zip codes; however, that feature is no longer available.)

He spent upwards of $40,000 in that first four to six months buying leads in targeted zip codes. “Basically, it was about showing up as much as possible on every listing,’’ he says.

2. Zillow Connections Stand Out for Their Quality

Soon, Larrea had a steady flow of Zillow leads. But it wasn’t the volume of leads that he says helped him build the business so fast — it was their quality.

“I’ve always said Zillow leads are among the best online leads,’’ Larrea says. “I’ve never gotten a better online lead than a Zillow live connection. That’s held true from the beginning until today.”

3. Getting the Most Out of Zillow Premier Agent Takes Organization

At first, this strategy of buying leads worked almost too well.

“We were literally working all the time,’’ he says. “Our phones were attached to our hips at all times.” But they didn’t have follow-up systems in place, and leads began falling through the cracks, he says.

“It was a good learning experience at the time that more leads isn’t always better,” he says. “We needed to protect our systems a little bit, and it was probably the end of 2017 when we figured that out.”

By then, their team had grown to five, and they’d become the top producer at a brokerage office of 150 agents, he says. When the new year began, Larrea and his team opened their own brokerage: Palm Paradise Real Estate, LLC, which now has over 55 agents across three offices in Naples, Fort Myers and St. Petersburg.

4. Each Premier Agent Connection Is a Relationship, Not Just One Deal

Larrea says most of the Zillow leads Palm Paradise receives today are from out of the area or out of state, which often makes Palm Paradise the client’s first connection to the area.

“A lot of people might have family here, but they don’t really know anyone else,’’ he says. “So we become their first ties to this area, and they trust us with that, and with the knowledge we provide to them.”

When clients have friends who want to move to southwest Florida, Palm Paradise gets another referral, he says.

“You can't look at each connection as one deal,’’ he says. “You have to look at each connection as a long-term investment where you’re going to get repeat business and referrals off of that one connection. You’re basically paying to expand your network.”

5. When Your Client Base Matures, Growth Happens Organically

Larrea says the company’s growth trajectory unfolded naturally over time.

“Year one, Zillow was 80% to 90% of our business,” he says. “Year two, it was probably 70-80% of our business.” In 2022, he says, Zillow accounts for about a third of Palm Paradise’s business. The lion’s share, he says, is referrals from Zillow clients and repeat business from Zillow clients who came in about five years ago.

“By investing in that one lead five years ago, we’ve now gotten maybe two or three transactions off of each lead, on average,’’ he says. “In 2016, we had 14 transactions from June to December. In 2017, we went to 69 transactions. Fast forward to last year, we did 431 transactions.”

The company has already surpassed that by late summer 2022, he says.

6. Zillow Growth Advisors Are Ready to Help as the Market Evolves

Palm Paradise also avails itself of Zillow live and online trainings and conferences, and taps the expertise of their Zillow growth advisor.

“Having the growth advisor working with our team has been really amazing,’’ he says. “They’re constantly offering us best practices in an ever-changing market. We’ve gotten a lot of really good tips from our growth advisor that Zillow’s come up with, or best practices from other top performing Premier Agent partners that we’ve implemented.”

That edge has proven especially valuable in today’s fast-changing market.

“It’s having access to another source of information for us to input into our edge and make better decisions because we can relate to what’s going on in other regions of the country or in other companies,’’ Larrea says. “It’s another valuable resource and another access point for us to help Palm Paradise Real Estate’s growth.”

See how to unlock more possibilities with Zillow Premier Agent.