The listing strategy every agent should know, according to Zillow’s COO

Listing agents are used to one big moment: go live, hope for a strong first weekend, and see what the market says.

But there's a better way.

In several recent podcast interviews, Zillow Chief Operating Officer Jun Choo described Zillow Preview as a new approach to bringing a home to market — one that builds momentum with a broad audience of buyers before the listing goes live. 

Choo joined James Dwiggins and Keith Robinson on the “Real Estate Insiders Unfiltered” podcast for a candid discussion about building products that actually stick and staying focused on the consumer through two decades of industry change. He also sat down with real estate analyst Mike DelPrete on his “Context” podcast, where the conversation went deeper on how Zillow thinks about what it means to actually serve agents — not just send them leads.

The most practical takeaway is a shift in listing strategy.

Launch the listing

Ask Choo how Zillow Preview works, and he doesn’t start with product features. He starts with how an agent would actually use it and the conversation they’d have with a seller. What emerged was a simple shift in how agents bring a home to market.

The idea behind Zillow Preview is straightforward. Rather than bringing a home to market in a single moment — photos ready, MLS live, hope for a strong first weekend — sellers and their agents can now gain exposure to a wide audience of potential buyers and feed demand before a listing ever goes live on the MLS.

Before a listing goes active in the MLS, agents at participating brokerages can make it publicly visible on Zillow and Trulia — searchable, saveable and available to any buyer, without a login or brokerage requirement. 

During that period, buyers can discover the home, connect with the listing agent directly and even pre-schedule tours for when it goes live. All of that activity generates real demand signals — views, saves, tour requests — before the listing is even active. 

That early intelligence matters. It gives agents and sellers genuine buyer interest signals to inform pricing conversations and go-to-market timing, rather than going in blind and hoping the market responds.

Then the listing goes active, and thanks to Zillow Preview, it already has real momentum. 

For agents using Zillow Showcase, the transition from Preview to a full active listing creates a second visibility boost. Showcase delivers the premium media experience buyers respond to most: high-resolution photography, interactive floor plans, a 3D home tour. Showcase listings receive roughly twice the impressions and clicks of standard listings. So buyers who saved the home during the Preview period come back to find a listing ready to impress, and new buyers encounter it for the first time with a presentation that's hard to scroll past.

The pitch to sellers is simple, Choo says: "We go to market twice, and both times we go with momentum."

Showcase, like Zillow Preview, is part of Zillow's growing investment in serving sellers and listing agents. For years, the industry optimized for buyer-side lead volume. Showcase and Preview together reflect Zillow’s unique focus to drive real value for agents in growing their seller business — helping them win and convert listings, not just generate inquiries.

Why it matters now

At a time when some are hiding pre-market inventory in closed networks — visible only to buyers who agree to work with a specific brokerage — Zillow Preview takes the opposite approach. Preview listings are publicly visible to anyone. No gate. No brokerage requirement. Simply open access to the 235 million average monthly unique users that make Zillow the most visited real estate app and website in America. 

For agents, that distinction matters in the listing conversation. Sellers want to know their home will reach a wide pool of buyers. Preview delivers that at the pre-market stage. Showcase delivers it at go-live. Together, they give agents a clear picture to paint for sellers in a listing presentation at the kitchen table.

Preview and Showcase represent Zillow's deliberate investment in sellers and their agents — tools designed not just to generate inquiries, but to help agents win listings and close deals. For agents building a seller-focused business, that's a meaningful shift in what Zillow is offering and in the conversation worth having with prospective sellers.

This investment also shows up in the economics of Zillow Preview, in which listing agents have an opportunity to share in the value they help create. As Choo explained to DelPrete:, if a buyer connects through a Zillow Preview listing and later completes a transaction with a Zillow Preferred agent, the listing agent may receive a portion of the revenue Zillow earns on that transaction.

Hear the full conversations

Both recent interviews offer Choo’s experience-driven, practical perspectives on what it takes to build products that actually move the needle for agents competing in today's market. 

The “Real Estate Insiders Unfiltered” episode goes well beyond Zillow Preview — touching on the My Agent Connection feature inside Zillow Pro and other technology that helps agents build their businesses with Zillow. Catch the full episode of “Real Estate Insiders Unfiltered” here:

The “Context” episode goes deeper on the thinking behind it all — how Zillow has evolved far beyond “dropping leads in people’s inboxes” toward driving better, higher-intent, more informed connections that are more likely to convert. He also shares valuable lessons on leadership, why trust is just as important as any metric, and how to tell AI hype from truly useful AI tools. Catch the full episode of “Context with Mike DelPrete” here: