It’s been over a year since Zillow posted a profit.
The proptech company lost another $23 million last quarter, the fifth straight quarter it’s posted a loss, according to its first quarter earnings report. That’s about the same as its $22 million net loss last year.
On a brighter note, the company reported adjusted EBITDA — earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization — of $125 million, up from $104 million the year before. It also posted $529 million in revenue, a 13 percent increase year-over-year and above the midpoint of its outlook range.
The jump in revenue was driven by a 9 percent annual increase in residential revenue, to a total of $393 million, and a 31 percent jump in rental revenue, which amounted to $97 million last quarter.
Zillow CEO Rich Barton, during the company’s earnings call, downplayed the impact NAR’s settlement agreement with plaintiffs will have on the industry and doubled down on his previously articulated opinion that the changes will only benefit the listings platform.
“This is a positive evolutionary step for the industry,” he said. “It is not a revolution, as some people believe.”
Zillow has shrunk the number of agents with access to its Premier Agent program by 60 percent since 2015, Barton said, while at the same time growing its revenue by more than 2.5 times. If decoupling commissions forces lesser agents out of the business, that’ll result in more business for the ones Zillow deems worthy of its referral program.
“If and as more hobbyist agents drop out of the industry, the outside beneficiaries of this shift to professionalism will be our premiere agents,” he said.
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Zillow said its Real-Time touring platform will expand to an additional 34 markets by the end of May.
Zillow said efforts to integrate financing raised its purchase mortgage loan originations to $601 million last quarter, more than double what it was in the first quarter of 2022.
The company in March began providing all multifamily listings on realtor.com’s site.