Zillow is getting a slight reprieve from its recent iBuying woes.
The real estate giant is enjoying a modest stock rebound following a Dec. 2 announcement that it has sold or is in the process of selling more than half of its remaining iBuying inventory as it continues to wind-down Zillow Offers.
“We are pleased with the progress of our wind-down efforts and recognize that no longer operating Zillow Offers will allow us to have a more capital-efficient balance sheet and business moving forward,” said Zillow Group Co-Founder and CEO Rich Barton in a statement.
The company’s share price ticked up more than 6% early Friday morning, breaking from a month-long slump that followed Zillow’s shocking announcement in November that it was officially sunsetting its iBuying business in November.
Zillow had built up a cache of nearly 10,000 homes that it overpaid for through Zillow Offers, which largely contributed to the demise of its iBuying arm.
On Thursday, Zillow stated that more than 50% of its remaining supply of digitally purchased homes had already sold, is under contract or reached a disposition agreement.
Barton also indicated that Zillow plans to use part of the funds the company built up to support Zillow Offers to repurchase up to $750 million of its Class A common stock, Class C capital stock or a combination of both.
As a result, the company has bumped its Q4 2021 revenue outlook up to a range of $2.3 billion to $2.9 billion, from $1.7 billion to $2.1 billion.
“We are pleased with the significant Zillow Offers inventory wind-down progress we’ve made in such a short time,” said Allen Parker, Zillow Group CFO, in a statement. “We will continue to be disciplined in our inventory wind-down strategy and evaluate a variety of options to best optimize net cash flows to the company.”
Jordan Grice is RISMedia’s associate online editor. Email him your real estate news to jgrice@rismedia.com.
