Reflections on a Decade With Zillow

It’s been 10 years.

In 2011, my wife and partner Peggy Lyn and I were looking for ways to diversify our pillars of lead generation. Back then, we focused on traditional tactics — past clients and sphere of influence, client events, geographic farming and cold calling. We knew there was something new on the horizon, but we had no idea that the decision we made back then — to partner with Zillow — would lead us to where we are today.

Back then, our relationship with Zillow was new, and we didn’t really have expectations. The plan was simple — test, track and measure the three biggest lead generation portals (Zillow, Trulia and Realtor.com) and then, based on six months of data, choose one and move forward. The results spoke for themselves and here we are 10 years later as the Speicher Group, with three teams across three brokerages, in a partnership that is stronger than ever.

10 years later, here’s what I know

Zillow’s investment in and commitment to the customer has been unwavering. And that is why we’ve continued to partner with Zillow. By keeping the customer as their north star, they continue to win the hearts and minds of buyers, sellers and renters. And in part, by being their partner, we’ve grown our volume year-after-year for a decade.

We’ve always been a team as opposed to a brokerage. People often ask us, “Why aren’t you a brokerage?” The answers are simple:

1. We don’t want the liability.
2. We don’t want the overhead of office space.
3. We want to control the experience.
4. We want to be nimble when it comes to change.

The last two items on that list are why we will continue to partner with Zillow for the long term. We feel like our goals are shared.

Control the experience

As team leaders we dictate every piece of the experience, starting from before it’s even a transaction. Everything is carefully considered, including exactly what to say and how to say it, which systems and platforms we use, and even our processes and procedures. We’ve worked tirelessly over the past decade to create a customer experience that is second to none.

That perfectly aligns with what Zillow has been doing over the past several years. By truly understanding what the customer wants — despite so much noise from the industry — they will be able to provide a much better, seamless experience. And we truly believe that, by continuing to partner with Zillow, we will be able to achieve it together.

Be nimble

Once the ship is headed in the correct direction, it’s our role as team leaders to right the ship a few degrees on a consistent basis. By controlling the experience, it’s much easier for us to implement changes that have an immediate impact on the business. It’s not a process that takes years or months or weeks to achieve; it’s something we can accomplish in days or hours. For example, when we updated the call scripts we use with customers in the summer of 2020, it was accomplished in just a few days across 20 agents. By being nimble, we can adapt and thrive in an ever-changing landscape. 

Zillow is nimble, too, but on a much larger scale. So many companies talk about change and how they’re adapting, but Zillow walks the walk. They study the landscape, identify customer needs, and then move forward with execution and implementation. The pace at which they do this constantly disrupts the market, but their ability to do so keeps them well ahead of the curve. And that means their agent partners stay at the forefront of the industry’s evolution, too. 

What the future holds

As a founding member of the Zillow Agent Advisory Board, which was formed in 2012, I’ve been afforded the unique opportunity to see what’s behind the curtain, with access to Zillow executives, input into strategic decisions and an understanding of what the future holds. Do I know exactly what that will look like? No. Do I know how ancillary services will fit into the experience? No. But this is what I believe — Zillow will continue to keep the agents they partner with at the center of the transaction. 

It’s been 10 years.

10 years ago we did six transactions and were looking for a way to grow our business. Today, we operate in four states and the District of Columbia across three brokerages all while running the operations from Maui, Hawaii. Our goal is to double transaction count in 2021 over 2020, and with Zillow, we are confident we can get there.