Matt Goyer’s Real Estate Blog

ZipRealty announced their Q3 numbers today and I’m a little surprised, I wasn’t expecting such growth in number of transactions.

Highlights:

• 5,019 transactions in Q308 compared to Q307 (up 31%) (though revenue only increased from $27.2m to $30.7m)
• 2,814 agents up from 2,263 from end of Q307
• Net revenue per transaction has declined from $7,110 to $6,130.
• Operating expenses are flat at around $34m
• Still losing money
• Has $60m in the bank

So they’re doing more deals, but the deals are smaller and they’ve added a lot of agents. I wonder if their increase in transactions is a result of expansion or are they also seeing an increase in transactions in their mature markets?

ZipRealty Announces Second Quarter 2008 Results

• At June 30, 2008, there were 2,559 ZipAgents employed, up from 2,070 agents at the end of the second quarter 2007. On a sequential quarterly basis, agent count increased by 274 from March 31, 2008.
• The total value of real estate transactions closed decreased to approximately $1.32 billion in the second quarter of 2008 versus $1.41 billion for the same period in 2007.
• The total number of transactions closed increased approximately 17.4% to 4,681, compared to 3,988 in the second quarter last year.
• Average net revenue per transaction decreased approximately 16.6% to $6,381 from $7,649 in the second quarter of 2007.

So, revenue is flat but they’re working on more (smaller) deals. At the same time they’ve increased the number of agents by 20% decreasing their revenue per agent.

Update: Ah, now that I’m listening to the call I see that the agents were primarily added for their new expansion markets.

Hard times in the online real estate world… From Inman, Iggys House CEO reports ‘restructuring’:

Gayle Urick, a San Diego, Calif., broker who left Iggys House on May 2, said she also understood, like St. Louis, that “the company has shut down.”

Zip Realty (ZIPR) is also having a hard time with it’s share price dropping to $4/share.

ZipRealty to Certify ‘Preowned’ Homes:

Homes that pass a 24-point, third-party inspection will land ZipRealty’s “certified preowned” seal of approval, which the company hopes can enable properties to stand out in today’s downtrodden market.

Interesting tactic. Desperate home sellers will do anything to move their homes.