How Zillow’s Summer Product Launch Helps You and Your Clients

Paper clips, paper cuts, and printer jams — that’s how I started my career in real estate as a summer intern at a local real estate brokerage.

I’m now leading Zillow’s agent software and advertising business, building solutions for real estate professionals — and the technology has come a loooooong way since my days of manually organizing paperwork. What hasn’t changed? Real estate is still about relationships, trust, and local expertise.

At Zillow, we believe the best technology doesn’t replace real estate agents — it elevates you to guide, advise, and advocate for your clients.

That’s why I’m excited to share a new set of tools we just introduced in Zillow’s Summer Launch. These tools were built with your clients in mind, and designed to help you deliver a smoother, more informed experience, from first tour to final offer.

SkyTour: Taking listings to new heights

You know how when you go to street view to see the surrounding area of a listing, it helps but doesn’t paint the full picture?

Enter SkyTour: a first-of-its-kind 360-degree view of a home exterior from above that will change the way shoppers view properties (and the way you market them).

Available exclusively on Zillow Showcase℠ listings captured with our on-demand photography service Zillow Media Experts, SkyTour brings properties to life with an interactive, drone-like 3D view of a home’s exterior. With simple, intuitive controls, buyers can virtually “fly” around a property to get a sense of its exterior layout, lot, and surroundings — right from their phone or computer.

Zillow Showcase is all about helping agents stand out. Now, with SkyTour, your listings show clients you’re tech-savvy and serious about giving them a great experience. You get to be at the forefront of listing innovation without adding to your to-do list.

This is only the beginning for SkyTour. We’re aiming high, so to speak. Soon, SkyTour’s availability will expand beyond our own photography network, so more media professionals can be part of the experience — a win for agents and media pros alike.

Smarter, simplified home touring

With Tour Itineraries, we’re making the tools you already use work better together.

Now, buyers who connect with an agent on Zillow can build their own custom tour plans, mapping out which homes they want to visit (and when) in a shared, up-to-date itinerary. Agents who also use Follow Up Boss will see a centralized, real-time view of all their client requests directly in FUB.

It’s about helping agents and buyers stay in sync to cut down on the scheduling friction and back-and-forths that get in the way of actually touring homes.

For buyers, Tour Itineraries makes scheduling tours with their agent seamless. For agents, we’re continuing to integrate our tech so you can stay organized without even thinking about it.

Empowered shoppers are ready shoppers

We’ve also launched several tools to empower shoppers with more information about affordability and costs. This means that when they connect with an agent on our platform, they’re well informed and serious about taking the next step.

With Rentals Costs & Fees Breakdown, every Zillow rental listing now clearly displays total move-in costs, monthly fees, and any additional charges. Renters want to know their all-in price before signing a lease, and now they can see it on Zillow.

Meanwhile, most buyers struggle to know what they can truly afford. Too often, we see buyers fall in love with homes outside their budget or hesitate because they don’t know what’s possible. BuyAbility℠ helps solve both dilemmas.

Home shoppers simply enter a few key details about their income, credit, monthly debts, down payment savings, and preferred monthly payment. Within seconds, they receive their BuyAbility: an estimate of the loan amount they may qualify for and a suggested price cap based on their budget.

With BuyAbility, shoppers can explore listings on Zillow that align with both what they hope to spend each month and what they’re likely to qualify for. By comparing homes against these two numbers, buyers gain clearer insight into affordability, helping them stay focused and confident as they search. It’s a better experience for buyers and a faster path to the closing table for the agents representing them.

Agent guidance is essential

For the buyer who found “the one” and is ready to talk about making an offer, our new Offer Insights tool shows the buyer and their agent how different offers might play out in today’s market.

Offer Insights uses local market signals and AI modeling to estimate the likelihood of an offer being accepted. Shoppers can toggle between various price points to gauge the strength of a potential offer and to feel more prepared to discuss strategy with an agent.

For buyers already working with an agent, this tool can provide insights when discussing options and developing a data-backed offer strategy together.

For buyers who want to talk with an agent about taking the next step, we connect them with a local Zillow Premier Agent partner. You step in with expert guidance at the critical moment; shoppers are primed for smarter, more informed collaboration — and you know they’re serious about making a move.

More informed, move-ready buyers are good for sellers and listing agents too. Empowered buyers who have more tools and information upfront means more serious offers, fewer deals that fall through, and more successful sales.

Only a real estate agent can bring the crucial context buyers need, such as market nuance, home condition, seller motivations, and neighborhood-specific insight. Our goal is to build tools that help more buyers and sellers get home while opening up more opportunities for the agents who get them there.

That’s why Zillow continues to offer data and insight tools directly to agents, too. We aim to complement your expertise with things like ShowingTime® market reports and listing insights through Zillow Showcase, helping agents gauge demand and personalize their marketing strategy to help clients achieve their selling goals.

It’s all about helping people make more informed real estate decisions, with the help of Zillow’s unique insights together with the irreplaceable guidance and support of a dedicated agent.