Summary
Zillow rolled out a Seller Leads offer to Artemis in early May 2026. Take rate is 40% with Showcase required (Fred pays). Fred is not personally working seller leads — agents do — and is opt-in only. Best fit for agents with cash-offer capability or strong shop networks because low-end listings dominate the inventory mix.
Program mechanics (what Fred has so far)
- Take rate: ~40% on all (per Kat / Zillow rep).
- Showcase required. Fred pays for all Showcases — already runs Showcase on ~70% of premium-marketing listings, ~99% of MARIS-only listings.
- Performance metrics: none defined yet — too new as a category. Fred will gather data from early adopters.
- Intro material: 3-min Highspot video Zillow sent — see raw source for link.
Why Fred is cautious (but participating)
- Seller leads "wear you out, they want values, run you through hoops" — needs a tight system to be profitable.
- Inventory will skew low-end → margin pressure unless paired with cash-offer or shop-anything network.
- Fred's positioning: "I'm curious to see how it works as an early adopter."
Profitability path
- Cash-offer capability is the unlock. Caleb Davis is the team's cash-offer go-to. Scott Von Bokel (returning to area) is a candidate for expensive slow-flips.
- Shop network alternative: Jackie Poponi flagged that "can't write own cash offers but have made enough connections to shop anything."
- Minimum-fee floor still applies — see minimum-fee-of-service. Pair with $4K flat fee on sub-$150K leads.
Initial opt-ins (as of 2026-05-06)
- Heather Casper (interested for SOI building, uneasy on take rate)
- Darin Revermann
- Jackie Poponi (shop network instead of own cash)
- Harley Harris (Effingham — second agent ever to get Flex lead in that territory; trying to land a $689K FSBO in the area)
Coverage / market context
- Showcase capacity: capped at ~10% of any market. Most competitors run a standard subscription with one credit a month and use it on a single "nice" property. Artemis blanket coverage is a structural moat.
- Marketing stack note: Fred describes the listing marketing system as "somewhat broken right now and very manual." Hermes is in late testing as the Sked + Curaytor + (potentially) Beacon replacement — see marketing-stack-migration.
Open questions
- ReZen logging mechanic for Zillow Seller Leads vs. Zillow buyer-side Flex — likely same as Flex but unconfirmed. Track in split-fee-memo / rezen-flex-transaction-processing.
- Whether minimum-of-fee structure applies to seller-side mandate the same way it does buyer-side.
Related
- zillow-flex-program — Buyer-side Flex mechanics; same Showcase context
- minimum-fee-of-service — Floor pricing tactic for low-end inventory
- split-fee-memo — Universal comp doc; will absorb Zillow Seller Lead split logging when finalized
- marketing-stack-migration — Showcase/Hermes context
- listing-marketing-engine — Listing marketing playbook that powers Showcase