Online real estate portal Zillow has launched a new service, Zillow Special Offers, that allows agents to promote incentives for working with them in a home-sale transaction.
The feature is part of Zillow’s Premier Agent Program, a paid advertising and lead-generation service that can provide greater visibility to agents and real estate listings at Zillow.com.
The special offers are posted by listing agents participating in Zillow’s Premier Agent Program and are seller-funded, according to an announcement at the Zillow Blog. "These seller-funded incentives give buyers a little something extra after closing, such as a $3,000 credit off closing costs or a gift card to go buy those new appliances or blinds … extras that make the listing stand out!" the blog post states.
Also this week, Zillow announced that it has integrated its Zillow Mortgage Marketplace functionality into its popular iPhone app, which, according to apps-ranking site TopAppCharts.com, continues to be the most popular real estate app in Apple’s App Store, and today ranked sixth in the store’s "Productivity" category.
Zillow in June had launched Mortgage Marketplace as a separate app, and TopAppCharts ranks that app No. 1 in a keyword search of "mortgage" apps for iPhone, ranking No. 19 in the App Store’s "Finance" category. The Mortgage Marketplace allows users to request loan quotes and use mortgage payment and affordability calculators.
"This integration gives Zillow iPhone app users easy access to research, shop for and compare mortgages without ever leaving the app they use to search for homes," the company said in an announcement.
Zillow also reported that a significant part of the company’s traffic is related to its mobile apps. People "are viewing more than 2.5 million homes on Zillow every day from a mobile device," the company reported.
