Seattle-based pioneers in online real estate Redfin and Zillow have announced a partnership agreement concerning rental properties.
The long-time rivals will combine their multifamily rental listings, with Zillow becoming the exclusive provider of the rental listings on the Redfin site and its rental sites, Rent.com and ApartmentGuide.com. In return, Zillow will pay Redfin $100 million.
Redfin has announced that it will lay off about 450 employees, about 10% of its workforce, and incur expenses of between $18 million and $21 million to restructure its rental operation. The positions will be eliminated between now and July of this year.
The announcement of the partnership comes ahead of the release of Redfin’s fourth-quarter earnings on Feb. 25. The brokerage had been losing money in recent quarters due to the general slowdown in residential real estate. The company reported a third-quarter loss of $33.8 million in November. That was on top of losing $19 million the previous quarter.
The newest round of layoffs is the third and largest for Redfin in the past seven months. In January, 46 employees were let go, according to GeekWire. In August, less than 100 employees were fired after the shuttering of the company’s concierge service.
At the same time, Zillow appears on firmer financial footing. It has seen an increase in revenue, growing 15% in 2024 to $2.2 billion. On Feb. 11, Zillow announced revenue of $554 million, and estimated earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) to be $112 million.
