Zillow's 'live offer' Zestimate launches in 20 markets

Weeks after revealing the company planned to turn the Zestimate into a live offer in certain Zillow Offers markets, Zillow announced Thursday that qualifying homeowners in 20 markets would now officially see their Zestimate turned into a live offer. The move comes roughly 15 years after Zillow initially introduced the Zestimate to consumers, a proprietary automated valuation model that uses machine learning to predict the market value of a home. "We've long said, one of the beauties of Zillow Offers is that it's the best first step for you to think about selling," Jeremy Wacksman, Zillow's chief operations officer told Inman. "Nobody wants to think about selling, most sellers are thinking about buying, they want to be thinking about buying, but at some point they have to think about, 'oh my gosh I have to go through this process.'" "The Zestimate is the starting point for that. If we can turn the Zestimate into a starting offer for certain customers, that's going to get them to raise their hand and say, 'Okay, I'm thinking about moving, help me understand, am I trading in? Can I talk to an agent about that?'"