The Algorithm That Bought Too Many Houses

In 2021, Zillow bought 9,680 houses in three months. Weeks later, it admitted it couldn't predict what they were worth — and shut the whole business down. How the company behind the Zestimate turned its famous price estimate into cash offers, why it pushed those offers higher to catch Opendoor, and the simple math that made the bet so fragile. 📺 Previously: The $230M AI Pin That Was Switched Off →    • The $230M AI Pin That Was Switched Off   ▶ Next: The AI That Wasn't · Part 1 — The Shopping AI That Was Secretly People →    • The Shopping AI That Was Secretly People   Chapters 0:00 9,680 houses in three months 0:11 The Zestimate 0:46 Zillow Offers 1:51 Project Ketchup 3:08 "Beyond operational capacity" 4:36 The math nobody showed 5:41 What's left Sources • Zillow Group SEC filings: Q3 2021 shareholder letter, 2021 annual report (10-K), Q4 2018 letter • The Wall Street Journal (Nov 17, 2021) · Business Insider (Nov 2021) · Bloomberg (Oct 17 & Nov 1, 2021) · CNBC (Nov 2, 2021) • Opendoor 2022 results (Feb 2023) · Bloomberg (Aug 7, 2024) Credits Some scenes are AI-generated illustrations. Quoted passages are from Zillow Group's public SEC filings. Stock footage: Pixabay · Music: "Pulsar" by The Grey Room / Density & Time Signal Foundry: stories behind the things that changed business and technology. New documentary every week. #Zillow #RealEstate #BusinessDocumentary