November 11, 2023Reside Platform co-founders discuss Zillow’s acquisition of Follow-Up Boss, sharing insights as long-time users. They explore the industry’s perception, potential changes, and perks for Zillow Agents within the CRM. The founders highlight their optimism for the partnership, drawing parallels with successful real estate acquisitions and creating excitement for the future.
Video Contents:
0:00 – Introduction
00:50 – Reside’s Take On The Acquisition
04:49 – Reside’s Partnership with Follow-Up Boss
06:12 – What Happens Now for Agents & Zillow?
10:39 – Other Acquisitions in the Industry
12:20 – Excited for the Future
Episode breakdown: what Zillow buying Follow Up Boss means for teams
Reside Platform co-founders Nick McLean, Suneet Agarwal and Preston Guyton recorded this episode the morning Zillow announced it was acquiring Follow Up Boss. All three have run teams on the CRM for years, and Preston started using it around 2014. Their reaction was calm. They talked through why the deal made sense, what it could change for teams, and why agents shouldn’t make any moves until the details are known.
Pick a CRM for how it fits your systems
Reside chose Follow Up Boss for its client teams before this deal, and the hosts explained the reasoning. The team already knew the technology well, and the APIs let them adjust and adapt it, so they could build systems at scale for teams and companies across the country. That flexibility is the reason they’re invested in it, and it’s the same thing the hosts think drew Zillow in.
Their read on Zillow’s side was simple. Zillow wanted to see where leads sit in the process and how they convert, and many of its Flex agents were already working in Follow Up Boss. The hosts noted talk of Zillow building its own agent CRM, and argued that buying an existing product with a large user base was the faster route than building something comparable from scratch.
Expect integrations to improve, not shrink
One host remembered a meeting a couple of years earlier where a Zillow developer said there would be no integrations with Premier Agent. At best there would be a “swivel chair” setup, where agents update two CRMs by hand. He later joined the beta for the integration that did get built, and it made life easier for his team as a large Flex team.
Looking ahead, Suneet raised ShowingTime, which Zillow also owns. He recalled having to use it for a Zillow program when it wasn’t widely used in Sacramento, and the hosts said they hope it becomes a Follow Up Boss integration. With Automations 2.0 rolling out and more money and engineers behind the product, they expect new features to arrive faster than before. Pricing for Zillow agents is still an open question, and nobody on the call claimed to know the answer.
Don’t make rash decisions on day-one news
Follow Up Boss said its team would stay in place and run as its own business inside Zillow. Preston pointed out that anything said beyond the press release was a guess. Reside’s message to its own teams was that nothing changes for now, with the hope that the product simply gets better, and faster.
It’s too soon to know, right? Like anything we say about what’s going to happen, we don’t know.
Preston Guyton
The hosts also put the deal in context. Plenty of real estate CRMs have changed hands before, and they listed Top Producer, LionDesk, Real Geeks, BoomTown, Chime and Sierra among them. What set Follow Up Boss apart was that it never tried to become an IDX provider. It set out to be the best standalone real estate CRM, and the hosts believe it got there.
Stop treating your database as something only you own
Some agents worried about Zillow having access to their data. The hosts’ answer was that the people in any agent’s database are almost certainly in many other databases too. Consumers forget passwords and register on site after site while they search.
Suneet used his own household as the example. His family had just moved, and his wife spent about a year searching for their home. He owns real estate companies and has every tool the industry offers, yet the listings she sent him came from Zillow. He then turned the question back on agents: when you look at houses on your phone, where do you go?
I have access to the MLS. I have every IDX website almost that exists.
Suneet Agarwal
Judge Zillow by what it does for your business
The hosts know many agents see Zillow as the evil empire, and they didn’t try to argue anyone out of that. Their own view was that Zillow is a company trying to get paid, and that it makes its money through agents, teams and companies. For agents on their teams who work Zillow leads, it’s a real source of business and closed transactions.
Their closing advice applied either way. If your business is built on providing value first, keep doing that. If it’s built on Flex leads, get to work. Change in this industry is constant, and they said they would figure out the rest like everybody else.
Key takeaways for team leaders
- Choose your CRM for how well you can adapt it and build systems on it, not for who owns it.
- Watch for better integrations, including a possible ShowingTime connection, rather than assuming the product gets worse.
- Don’t switch systems or change your plan on announcement-day speculation. Wait for the actual details.
- Assume your contacts are already in many other databases, and compete on follow-through and value instead.
- Evaluate Zillow as a lead source by the business it produces for your agents, not by its reputation.
