Andrew Wild was Zillow’s 60th employee. He spent 15 years helping build the portal giant before leading enterprise strategy at Tom Ferry, Final Offer and now Lofty. In this episode of Real Estate Insiders Unfiltered, Wild unpacks what he’s learned across every corner of the real estate industry.
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From the evolution of portals to the rise of agentic AI, Wild shares sharp, candid insights on where the business is headed — and what agents, brokers and platforms need to do to stay relevant.
They dig into:
- Why agents still matter (even with AI)
- How CRMs must evolve into outcome-driven ecosystems
- Where portals like Zillow, Realtor and Homes.com go from here
- The fatal flaw in most agent follow-up systems
- What consolidation, lawsuits, and shifting margins really mean for the future
Whether you’re portal-obsessed or AI-allergic, this episode will challenge what you think you know about the next chapter of real estate.
Highlights
In this episode, Wild discusses:
- What it was like scaling Zillow from employee No. 60 to 6,000-plus
- The evolution of portals (and why Homes.com has a big hill to climb)
- How Lofty is reimagining CRMs with AI-powered outcomes
- Why consumer-first thinking is still rare in this industry
- What brokers must do to survive margin compression and tech disruption
You’ll also hear:
- Why chat-based search is the future
- How Zillow built its super app (and who’s playing catch-up)
- The agent adoption problem with AI
- Why most agents still suck at follow-up (and how to fix it)
- The long-term impact of consolidation, lawsuits and brand erosion
Whether you’re a team leader, broker-owner, or just obsessed with the real estate tech wars, this is one you can’t miss.
Connect with Andrew Wild on LinkedIn. Learn more about Lofty on LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok or online at Lofty.com.
Real Estate Insiders Unfiltered is now exclusively on Inman. Tune in for agent- and team-focused content on Mondays and leadership interviews on Wednesdays each week. Listen on Apple or Spotify.
James Dwiggins is the Co-CEO of NextHome, Inc. and co-host of Real Estate Insiders Unfiltered.
Keith Robinson is the Co-CEO of NextHome, Inc. and co-host of Real Estate Insiders Unfiltered.
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