{"id":2641,"date":"2021-11-22T16:20:27","date_gmt":"2021-11-22T16:20:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/22\/opinion-it-took-courage-for-zillow-to-shutter-ibuying\/"},"modified":"2025-03-13T02:39:33","modified_gmt":"2025-03-13T02:39:33","slug":"opinion-it-took-courage-for-zillow-to-shutter-ibuying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/22\/opinion-it-took-courage-for-zillow-to-shutter-ibuying\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: It took courage for Zillow to shutter iBuying"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Industry pundits, real estate professionals and brokerage leaders are piling on <strong>Zillow<\/strong> right now for their decision to shutter the Zillow Offers iBuying business. I believe it was the right decision, and a brave one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I never quite figured out how Zillow or any of its competitors in the home purchase business were going to make anywhere near the returns that their stock prices indicated. There\u2019s just not enough margin in the home buying and flipping business to add up to a strongly profitable business \u2013 at least from my point of view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Those of us in business know how difficult it can be to give up on a business decision, even when it&#8217;s clear that it must be done. That&#8217;s why, rather than ridicule Zillow for making this decision, I applaud them for the courage it took for them to make this decision in the first place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After 35 years of consulting residential real estate organizations throughout the United States and Canada, I&#8217;ve found that many organizations, including my own, have a hard time pulling the trigger on a tough decision. When do you throw in the towel on bad business decisions? When it comes to decisions concerning wrong hires, technology platforms that didn\u2019t pan out, or new business ventures that didn\u2019t work as advertised, most leaders don&#8217;t know when to stop throwing proverbial more money after bad money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While Zillow made this huge decision to exit the home-buying business, and were punished severely by <strong>Wall Street<\/strong> and their owners, it\u2019s my belief that in the years to come, they will continue to innovate in new and different ways causing their business to grow, have higher margins and more predictable business flows than if they had chosen to stay in iBuying, which was difficult \u2013 at best. What may have happened had they got caught holding thousands of homes in inventory with the inevitable market downturn arrives?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Having the guts to make a decision at this level in full view of the public had to be difficult for the Zillow executive team. But the fact that they did it should alert everyone that they are willing to change course when the circumstances dictate it. If you look at their results and their balance sheet, you realize that they are every bit the strong competitor they\u2019ve always been.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-zillow-s-crime-against-the-realtor-world\">Zillow&#8217;s crime against the Realtor world<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>On another note, a recent post by an industry commentator questioning, once again, why the <strong>National Association of Realtors<\/strong> didn\u2019t protect the industry from Zillow and its kind.\u00a0They mentioned that letting Zillow into membership with the MLSs and Realtor Association was a crime against the Realtor world.\u00a0 How could someone construe that one of NAR\u2019s mandates was to protect its members from new business models?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I recall the vociferous fight that NAR put up 20 years ago to keep Federal banks out of our industry \u2013 and succeeded in doing so.\u00a0Instead of having commercial banks in our business, we have tens of billions of private equity pouring in to both new, alternative brokerage business models, as well as into traditional firms.\u00a0Does someone think it is also NAR\u2019s job to keep those billions and new ideas out of our industry?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One can complain, perhaps, that NAR lost when they had to sell <strong>Realtor.com<\/strong> to <strong>News Corp<\/strong>., but Realtor.com had gotten clobbered by Zillow up to that point.\u00a0NAR and Realtor.com lost that race \u2014 mostly due to restrictions on how Realtor.com could compete with Zillow innovation.\u00a0If you recall, home valuations and agent rankings delays were just one example. It seems that Realtor.com is more competitive today than it was even if it is a little less \u2018Realtor-friendly.&#8217;\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Trying to protect the industry turned out well from a financial perspective for NAR, but not otherwise.\u00a0 News Corp doesn\u2019t focus on protecting Realtors, it is focused on building value and financial returns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The fact that Zillow was willing to change course quickly when circumstances dictated shows courage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15802,"featured_media":4822,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3255],"tags":[],"coauthors":[27],"class_list":["post-2641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v26.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Opinion: It took courage for Zillow to shutter iBuying - RealTrends - Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The fact that Zillow was willing to change course quickly when circumstances dictated show courage.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/22\/opinion-it-took-courage-for-zillow-to-shutter-ibuying\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Opinion: It took courage for Zillow to shutter iBuying\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The fact that Zillow was willing to change course quickly when circumstances dictated show courage.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/22\/opinion-it-took-courage-for-zillow-to-shutter-ibuying\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"RealTrends - Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/03\/9ced5ef4-69ab-4ba7-a7cd-ec49be7b274d.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Steve Murray\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@traceyveltFL\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Steve Murray\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/22\/opinion-it-took-courage-for-zillow-to-shutter-ibuying\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/22\/opinion-it-took-courage-for-zillow-to-shutter-ibuying\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Tracey Velt\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/db05dddc94c61082eaa18f2f5e66c788\"},\"headline\":\"Opinion: It took courage for Zillow to shutter iBuying\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-11-22T16:20:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-03-13T02:39:33+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/22\/opinion-it-took-courage-for-zillow-to-shutter-ibuying\/\"},\"wordCount\":669,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/22\/opinion-it-took-courage-for-zillow-to-shutter-ibuying\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/03\/9ced5ef4-69ab-4ba7-a7cd-ec49be7b274d.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Archive\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/22\/opinion-it-took-courage-for-zillow-to-shutter-ibuying\/#respond\"]}],\"isAccessibleForFree\":\"False\",\"hasPart\":{\"@type\":\"WebPageElement\",\"isAccessibleForFree\":\"False\",\"cssSelector\":\".wp-block-housingwire-piano-member\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/22\/opinion-it-took-courage-for-zillow-to-shutter-ibuying\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/22\/opinion-it-took-courage-for-zillow-to-shutter-ibuying\/\",\"name\":\"Opinion: It took courage for Zillow to shutter iBuying - RealTrends - Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/22\/opinion-it-took-courage-for-zillow-to-shutter-ibuying\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/22\/opinion-it-took-courage-for-zillow-to-shutter-ibuying\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/03\/9ced5ef4-69ab-4ba7-a7cd-ec49be7b274d.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-11-22T16:20:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-03-13T02:39:33+00:00\",\"description\":\"The fact that Zillow was willing to change course quickly when circumstances dictated show courage.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/22\/opinion-it-took-courage-for-zillow-to-shutter-ibuying\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/22\/opinion-it-took-courage-for-zillow-to-shutter-ibuying\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/22\/opinion-it-took-courage-for-zillow-to-shutter-ibuying\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/03\/9ced5ef4-69ab-4ba7-a7cd-ec49be7b274d.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/03\/9ced5ef4-69ab-4ba7-a7cd-ec49be7b274d.png\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":675,\"caption\":\"9ced5ef4-69ab-4ba7-a7cd-ec49be7b274d\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/22\/opinion-it-took-courage-for-zillow-to-shutter-ibuying\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Opinion: It took courage for Zillow to shutter iBuying\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"RealTrends - Blog\",\"description\":\"Empowering Real Estate Decisions with Trusted Insights.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"RealTrends - Blog\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/03\/cropped-RTV_Horizontal_logo_Blue.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/03\/cropped-RTV_Horizontal_logo_Blue.png\",\"width\":2321,\"height\":227,\"caption\":\"RealTrends - Blog\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/db05dddc94c61082eaa18f2f5e66c788\",\"name\":\"Tracey Velt\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/9b3cf1be6b1fb876ab0bd60ce0a485d0\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ae51367450666ac65e816c5ed48f71a6aebe0ed43ea74c1f16500d37c0efc141?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ae51367450666ac65e816c5ed48f71a6aebe0ed43ea74c1f16500d37c0efc141?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Tracey Velt\"},\"description\":\"Tracey Velt is the Senior Director of Data &amp; Content. She is the host of the popular RealTrending podcast, manages content for the real estate team and The Gathering and leads editorial and sponsored research across the HW Media brands. Tracey has more than 25 years of experience writing and editing for the real estate industry and is the former editor in chief of Florida Realtor magazine. She resides in Florida.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/traceyvelt\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/traceyveltFL\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/author\/tracey-velt\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Opinion: It took courage for Zillow to shutter iBuying - RealTrends - Blog","description":"The fact that Zillow was willing to change course quickly when circumstances dictated show courage.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/22\/opinion-it-took-courage-for-zillow-to-shutter-ibuying\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Opinion: It took courage for Zillow to shutter iBuying","og_description":"The fact that Zillow was willing to change course quickly when circumstances dictated show courage.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/22\/opinion-it-took-courage-for-zillow-to-shutter-ibuying\/","og_site_name":"RealTrends - Blog","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":675,"url":"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/03\/9ced5ef4-69ab-4ba7-a7cd-ec49be7b274d.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Steve Murray","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@traceyveltFL","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Steve Murray","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/22\/opinion-it-took-courage-for-zillow-to-shutter-ibuying\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/22\/opinion-it-took-courage-for-zillow-to-shutter-ibuying\/"},"author":{"name":"Tracey Velt","@id":"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/db05dddc94c61082eaa18f2f5e66c788"},"headline":"Opinion: It took courage for Zillow to shutter iBuying","datePublished":"2021-11-22T16:20:27+00:00","dateModified":"2025-03-13T02:39:33+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/22\/opinion-it-took-courage-for-zillow-to-shutter-ibuying\/"},"wordCount":669,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/22\/opinion-it-took-courage-for-zillow-to-shutter-ibuying\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/03\/9ced5ef4-69ab-4ba7-a7cd-ec49be7b274d.png","articleSection":["Archive"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/22\/opinion-it-took-courage-for-zillow-to-shutter-ibuying\/#respond"]}],"isAccessibleForFree":"False","hasPart":{"@type":"WebPageElement","isAccessibleForFree":"False","cssSelector":".wp-block-housingwire-piano-member"}},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/22\/opinion-it-took-courage-for-zillow-to-shutter-ibuying\/","url":"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/22\/opinion-it-took-courage-for-zillow-to-shutter-ibuying\/","name":"Opinion: It took courage for Zillow to shutter iBuying - RealTrends - Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/22\/opinion-it-took-courage-for-zillow-to-shutter-ibuying\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/22\/opinion-it-took-courage-for-zillow-to-shutter-ibuying\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/03\/9ced5ef4-69ab-4ba7-a7cd-ec49be7b274d.png","datePublished":"2021-11-22T16:20:27+00:00","dateModified":"2025-03-13T02:39:33+00:00","description":"The fact that Zillow was willing to change course quickly when circumstances dictated show courage.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/22\/opinion-it-took-courage-for-zillow-to-shutter-ibuying\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/22\/opinion-it-took-courage-for-zillow-to-shutter-ibuying\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/22\/opinion-it-took-courage-for-zillow-to-shutter-ibuying\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/03\/9ced5ef4-69ab-4ba7-a7cd-ec49be7b274d.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/03\/9ced5ef4-69ab-4ba7-a7cd-ec49be7b274d.png","width":1200,"height":675,"caption":"9ced5ef4-69ab-4ba7-a7cd-ec49be7b274d"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/2021\/11\/22\/opinion-it-took-courage-for-zillow-to-shutter-ibuying\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Opinion: It took courage for Zillow to shutter iBuying"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/","name":"RealTrends - Blog","description":"Empowering Real Estate Decisions with Trusted Insights.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"RealTrends - Blog","url":"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/03\/cropped-RTV_Horizontal_logo_Blue.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/03\/cropped-RTV_Horizontal_logo_Blue.png","width":2321,"height":227,"caption":"RealTrends - Blog"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/db05dddc94c61082eaa18f2f5e66c788","name":"Tracey Velt","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/9b3cf1be6b1fb876ab0bd60ce0a485d0","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ae51367450666ac65e816c5ed48f71a6aebe0ed43ea74c1f16500d37c0efc141?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ae51367450666ac65e816c5ed48f71a6aebe0ed43ea74c1f16500d37c0efc141?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Tracey Velt"},"description":"Tracey Velt is the Senior Director of Data &amp; Content. She is the host of the popular RealTrending podcast, manages content for the real estate team and The Gathering and leads editorial and sponsored research across the HW Media brands. Tracey has more than 25 years of experience writing and editing for the real estate industry and is the former editor in chief of Florida Realtor magazine. She resides in Florida.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/traceyvelt\/","https:\/\/x.com\/traceyveltFL"],"url":"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/author\/tracey-velt\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/03\/9ced5ef4-69ab-4ba7-a7cd-ec49be7b274d.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15802"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2641"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7381,"href":"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2641\/revisions\/7381"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2641"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.realtrends.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}