Zillow AI - One More Step to Becoming a "Housing Super App"

Zillow AI - One More Step to Becoming a "Housing Super App" 

Nowadays, Zillow is more than just a real estate platform—it's a cultural phenomenon. So much so that "Zillowing" has entered our lexicon as a verb, associated with quick and convenient search, rich visual property representation, and accurate prices. 

But what's next for Zillow? Are they planning to take their platform to new heights by incorporating even more AI features? It's highly likely! Will these new additions be user-facing, enhancing the experience, or will they be behind-the-scenes, boosting productivity? These are questions we're eager to have answered. 

Hello, and welcome to this Proptech Friday edition! I'm Wes Snow, and today, I'll share some of my thoughts about Zillow ’s most famous home search platform is already doing and planning to do with AI. 

Zillow AI Search 

A pleasant search experience is the key priority for all property marketplaces. So why not enhance searching with AI? 

Natural Language Processing powers Zillow AI Search, which is already available as an iOS mobile application and will soon be added to the Android version and Zillow.com.  

Zillow AI automatically identifies the key requirements and keywords, such as location, budget, and any additional preferences. Then, it automatically applies filters according to the extracted data. Users do not need to scroll through endless filters. Zillow AI understands the way you talk, so no matter how unorganized the query is, the system will extract everything necessary.  

You can enter a sentence like "Seattle 2-bedroom flat for rent with an AC and cat allowed" directly into the search bar and get the best personalized home recommendations. Don't worry about how to correctly form a query, just talk. Zillow AI understands you.  

Virtual Tours & Interactive Floor Plans 

After scrolling through listings, users see beautiful, high-quality house photos. They like it, but a bunch of pictures don’t give a complete vision of the house. What users can’t see causes the most doubts, and visiting a home is time-consuming. Those frustrations are common for many buyers, but Zillow found a solution in computer vision with its ability to recognize, process, and generate images. 

Computer vision technology facilitates remote property viewing by seamlessly stitching high-resolution 360-degree images into immersive 3D environments. Virtual tours have become a game-changer during the pandemic. When everyone is self-isolated, visiting houses  

Zillow has implemented computer vision to generate interacting plans and visual tours from panoramic photos. Users can see the whole house from above using the floor plan. Dollhouse mode provides a more elaborate view and functionality—buyers can rotate, zoom, and go through the walls to take a quick closer look at the house.  

Truly immersive experience begins with 3D tours. High-resolution pictures allow users to look into every corner of the house. It is almost impossible to hide cracked tiles or mold on the ceiling with an advantageous angle for photos, which makes listings more trustworthy.  

If that’s not enough, there is a measurement mode. You can use a virtual tape measure to recalculate the footage or estimate whether your beloved bed will fit near the window. Zillow AI enhances the orientation in space and gives better understanding of a property’s layout. 

Zillow continues working on the property shopping experience for Apple’s Vision Pro virtual reality headset. Also, Trulia, Redfin, Airbnb, Realtor.com, and many other property marketplaces have embraced computer vision.  

Implementing computer vision is more difficult and expensive than other AI features like NLP. Nevertheless, future homeowners trust visuals more than text descriptions when choosing, so all investment pays off. The Zillow report shows that from 71 to 86 percent of sellers are more likely to hire an agent who includes virtual tours and interactive floor plans in their listings. Also, thanks to Zillow AI, the number of unproductive house showings will decrease since buyers will book a real tour almost ready to buy, not only to look around.  

Neural Zestimate  

The final thing to consider is the price. Is it reasonable and relevant? How much will the monthly pay be if I take a loan? Those questions used to require the involvement of an expert to find answers, but now users can handle it with a Neural Zestimate tool powered by Zillow AI. 

Neural Zestimate, launched in 2006, has revolutionized property valuation. The algorithm and formula have undergone significant advancements since then, resulting in an error rate of under 2 per cent, as confirmed by the latest Zillow COO statement. This high level of accuracy instills confidence in real estate professionals, ensuring they can rely on the tool for precise estimates.  

How does it work? This tool considers all factors that can influence the price of the accommodation, from location and square footage to tax assessments and market trends, using Multiple Listing Service (MLS) data, public records, and information provided by the user. The more data is available, the more accurate Zestimate is.  

This way, Zillow AI assists users during the key steps to buying their future home. Zillow AI Search assists users when they only begin to explore the listings and might not know how to put their preferences into words. Then, interactive floor plans and virtual tours give potential buyers a solid and profound vision of the property. Finally, Zestimate ensures that prices are up-to-date and not exaggerated. 

A Bit of Zillow AI Background 

Zillow’s journey to an advanced AI-enhanced marketplace has not been entirely smooth.  

Since its appearance, Artificial Intelligence has been the subject of various ethical and legal concerns. Some countries have banned or significantly restricted AI. Addressing those worries, Zillow developed and implemented AI principles of fairness, safety and accountability, transparency, and inclusiveness. For the same reason, they removed the Zillow AI plugin in July 2023 to ensure equality for all their users.  

Back in 2021, newspaper headlines sounded like “Zestimate is a failure” because of the significant difference between the estimated value of the property and the actual price. It happened not because the model, algorithm, or formula was insufficient. AI partly relies on historical data to make predictions, but the Coronavirus pandemic was something that has never happened before. It almost ruined trust in Zestimate. This experience didn’t destroy Zillow but encouraged massive improvements.  

Zillow learned its lessons and continues to grow. As we eagerly anticipate Zillow's next move, one thing remains certain: whatever enhancements they introduce, they're poised to set a new industry standard. 

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