Zillow is adding to its arsenal of agent tools with the acquisition of Follow Up Boss, a popular customer relationship management system for agents and brokers. Zillow is paying $400 million in cash, up front, plus an additional $100 million cash earnout. 

Follow Up Boss's 100 employees — including Co-founders Dan Corkill and Tom Markov — will be formally joining Zillow at the completion of the acquisition. The company will continue to operate as an independent brand, similar to ShowingTime, which Zillow acquired in 2021. 

The acquisition is the latest example of Zillow's investment in its "housing super app" concept, Zillow Group Chief Industry Development Officer Errol Samuelson told Real Estate News.

"Follow Up Boss is another component which can help streamline the communications between the agent or the team and their clients," Samuelson said. "We already have some integrations between Zillow and Follow Up Boss, so not only are those integrations going to stay in place, but they have 100 other integration partners, and those are going to stay in place."

But should agents be worried about another beloved agent tool being scooped up by the real estate giant? Samuelson said it's natural for "very committed customers" to wonder what might happen to products they use — and consider core to their business — when they are bought out.

"What I would say to people who have questions is that everything you loved about Follow Up Boss is only going to get better," Samuelson said. "And the policy remains the same if you are the person who enters the data into the system — it's your data and it belongs to you, and that's not going to change."

While Follow Up Boss has grown organically in the 13 years since it launched, Zillow will be able to provide a much greater level of investment and infusion of tech into the team and product, Samuelson added.

The news of the acquisition comes on the heels of the verdict against NAR and other major real estate players in the landmark Sitzer/Burnett class action lawsuit on Oct. 31. Zillow's stock price fell over 7% immediately following the announcement of the verdict and continued to remain around $35.50 per share in after-hours trading. Last month, Zillow was victorious in a separate lawsuit over how it handles non-MLS listings.

In closing, There's always a challenge with giving potential competitors your client data. When compass acquired Contactually, There was considerable concern and fallout. Expected to be the same with this acquisition of follow-up boss. Only tyime will tell! 

Stay tuned! Randy