Zillow officially enters the house flipping business...

[Account Closed]

The full story is on Bloomberg.com here: Zillow wants to flip your house should you want to read all the details.

For those with TLDR syndrome the gist of it is:

• Zillow has now joined the ranks of high tech real estate flippers (called iBuyers) that use algorithms to buy properties at a massive scale. The other players are Opendoor , Offerpad and Redfin . Implied in the story, my understanding is that all these players are using technology and a healthy dose of Silicon Valley Venture Capital to accomplish this.
• Essentially a homeowner enters some basic info about their house and I believe Zillow will make a fast cash offer on the house "as is". 
• At some point, Zillow sends out a "human" house inspector to look the house over. Not quite sure if the offer or the inspection comes first but it sounds like the offer comes first and may be adjusted based on the inspection.
• Zillow then buys the house, charges the homeowner a fee of 6%-9% for the convenience of the quick no hassle cash offer and proceeds to do a minimalist bare-bones cosmetic upgrade.....essentially what we call "paint and carpet" in the biz.
• Zillow then proceeds to sell the home for a profit (maybe).
• Don't worry about Zillow or the iBuyers upsetting the house flipping market any time soon. They only operate in a couple of States mostly in major markets e.g Phoenix, AZ. They mainly target suburban boxes which are easier to value since there are quite a number of them on the market at any given time. Zillow plans to be buying and selling in 14 cities by the fall of 2019.