Zillow is using AI to buy more homes for cash

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View this email in your browser  |   Manage newsletter subscriptions By Jennifer Conrad | 06.17.21 It's almost summer! Zillow's Zestimates just got ... zestier. Plus: How to burst your own (filter) bubble, and what happens when doctors are always watching—but never there.     Zillow Taps AI to Improve Its Home Value Estimates In February, Saturday Night Live pinpointed a new form of guilty pleasure for people in their late thirties: scrolling through real estate listings on Zillow. Who hasn't lost a few hours clicking through the options: How much more for a pool? Is that a fire pit in the back?! Part of the magic comes from Zillow's Zestimates, the company's proprietary measure of the value of a house. As Khari Johnson reports, earlier this year, as home prices soared, Zillow began making cash offers to buy homes based on the company's price estimate. Zillow says a new algorithm will produce more accurate estimates and allow the company to offer to buy more homes—in sales that can close in as little as a week. Zillow has been tinkering with its price-estimate formula for more than a decade. (WIRED reported on the company's early forays into AI back in 2007.) Since 2016, the company has used computer vision to evaluate photos of homes. The new system utilizes a single neural network, a form of deep learning that makes it easier to understand how certain factors, such as proximity to a waterfront, affect a home's value. Zillow hopes to bring the one-click sensibility of ecommerce to buying and selling homes, CEO Rich Barton told Johnson. "Eventually we want to have most houses in the country inside of that live-offer buy box," Barton said. Read more here.     Deep(er) Learning Zillow's price estimator isn't the only innovation shaking up where we live and how we buy homes. Over the years, WIRED has chronicled how technology is impacting the real estate market. The Lithium Mine Versus the Wildflower In 2019, Paris Martineau delved into an alleged illegal $5 million network of Airbnb rentals in New York City. The Quest to Bring 3D-Printed Homes to the Developing World In 2018, Arielle Pardes profiled New Story, a charity working to bring 3D-printed houses to the world's poorest regions. The WFH Exodus Creates an Opportunity for Small Cities Earlier this year, Aarian Marshall looked at how small cities are capitalizing on remote-work policies that are expected to outlast the pandemic.     Need to Know   A growing number of Americans are trying to break their filter bubbles by seeking a wider diversity of news sources or opinions contrary to their own. As ransomware demands explode, many insurance companies continue to cover ransom payments. Remote technology could save lives by monitoring health from home or outside the hospital—but could also push patients and health care workers further apart. Virtual pets keep drawing us back—and it's not just because they don't have fleas. Apple is rolling out a slew of new security features to keep your email private, crack down on data-stealing apps, and help you find lost devices.       So, This Happened The US shifted from threats to incentives to entice foreign governments to shun 5G gear from Chinese companies like ZTE and Huawei. (The Wall Street Journal/Paywall) Fox Corp. created a $100 million fund to spur the creation of works sold as nonfungible tokens (NFTs), a type of digital file associated with the work and verified on a blockchain. (Bloomberg) Apple drew criticism for some of the suggestions in its emoji search bar, such as a picture of a hut when some users typed in "Africa." (Rest of World) When problems arose with its short-term rentals, Airbnb spent millions to make nightmares go away. (Bloomberg Businessweek) A herd of escaped elephants tramping across southern China became the country's latest viral sensation—complete with 24-hour drone surveillance. (South China Morning Post, CNN)     Until Next Time   Check out Croatian car maker Rimac's all-electric Nevera.     More Essential Reads As Ransomware Demands Boom, Insurance Companies Keep Paying Out What If Doctors Are Always Watching, but Never There? From Tamagotchi to 'Nintendogs': Why People Love Digital Pets All the New Privacy and Security Features Coming to iOS and macOS GET WIRED Stare the future right in the eye. Get 1 year of unlimited access to WIRED for less than $1 per month. Plus, get a free tote! Subscribe now.             This e-mail was sent to you by WIRED. To ensure delivery to your inbox (not bulk or junk folders), please add our e-mail address, wired@newsletters.wired.com, to your address book.   View our Privacy Policy Unsubscribe or manage your newsletter subscriptions   Copyright © Condé Nast 2021. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.