Zillow finds a second home in Centennial

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Google and Twitter are making their presence felt in Boulder, but another tech luminary, Zillow Group, has firmly planted its flag in the south metro area.

Zillow, which had about 330 employees in Colorado late last year, is hiring 150 more.

Those hires, mostly in sales and support, will vault metro Denver ahead of San Francisco as Zillow"s second-largest employment hub after its Seattle headquarters, where it employs 975 people.

"We don"t want to lose our start-up feel," said Greg Bland, a Zillow vice president who oversees the Centennial location.

Bland is a stand-up boss, literally. He works at a standing desk alongside the workers in cubicles he supervises no closed doors or administrative assistants to separate him.

Zillow sales reps wear bluetooth headsets that allow them to roam the office as they speak with prospects. Big wins are broadcast on television screens in the office, and top producers are recognized on a "Wall of Fame."

Perks associated with West Coast tech firms are all there, including a fully stocked kitchen with free drinks and snacks in abundance and a large game room where workers can decompress.

For those who prefer more strenuous exercise as they work, three treadmill desks are available.

Zillow, founded a decade ago this month by former Microsoft executives Rich Barton and Lloyd Frink, initially won attention as the place to go online to find estimates of home values.

Go-to site for buyersOver time, Zillow deepened its market research and added more and more listings, becoming the go-to site for those looking to buy a home.

Agents who want to reach the pool of potential buyers that Zillow has amassed are feeling pressure to pay the toll the company charges or get left behind.

"It is so annoying that Zillow gets their nose in the way of a customer just contacting me because they want to see the house," commented one agent on the National Real Estate Post. "Where does this road end? You got a middleman who should not even be there."

To which another agent responded, "I love Zillow. I love the exposure it gives my company. My return on investment is about 3-to-1 every month. ... Look at Zillow as a tool for success."

Whether they love or hate Zillow, agents increasingly find they can"t afford to ignore it. Zillow.com is running 36 million unique visits a month. The only other site that comes close is Trulia.com at 23 million, according to eBizMBA.

In summer 2014, Zillow Group made a successful $3.5 billion bid for Trulia, inheriting Trulia"s sales center in Centennial, which then employed about 225.

Websites associated with traditional brokerages have struggled to keep pace. Realtor.com, the official website of the National Association of Realtors now owned by News Corp subsidiary Move Inc., gets about 18 million unique visits a month.

Agents who turn to Zillow for leads now generate about $3.6 billion of the $75 billion in annual commissions tied to home sales, Zillow CEO Spencer Raskoff told analysts on an earnings call last week.

That"s where the Centennial office, in a nondescript office park at 10771 E. Easter Ave., comes in. It is effectively Zillow"s "East Coast" sales office, hosting regional sales teams focused on recruiting agents in the Southeast, mid-Atlantic, Midwest and New York City areas.

Each section flows into the other, distinguished by flags, maps and other memorabilia representing the region targeted minus a Carolina Panthers banner that Bland had removed before the Super Bowl.

Picky about hiring

Glassdoor lists starting pay for the inside sales jobs at around $37,000, but commissions can boost what workers take home.

And, Bland adds, benefits are more than competitive, with generous health insurance coverage, three weeks of vacation to start, 16 weeks of maternity leave, and perks like free yoga lessons, access to a nearby indoor golf facility, a shuttle to the light-rail station, etc.

For its holiday party, Zillow hosted nearly all of its 2,200 employees in Seattle for a convention, giving each of them Apple TV as a gift.

Bland said the company is fairly picky about who it hires, and it rejects most who apply. But it is willing to take a chance on the right applicants who lack a background in real estate or sales.

Despite metro Denver"s low unemployment rate, which was 3.1 percent in December, the company hasn"t struggled to fill the openings it has, he said.

Jimmy Lewis was one of those nontraditional candidates. He moved to Denver about three years ago from Las Vegas, where he worked as a roulette dealer.

"I came here with little sales experience," Lewis said. But he learned to sell and has done well, making a comfortable living at Zillow for his family of five.

"It is the best job I have ever had," he said.

The Centennial location also will add positions in two business lines where Zillow Group is trying to expand rentals and new home listings.

Neil Marciniak, Centennial"s economic development manager, said Zillow is not unlike other firms based in more expensive coastal cities that have chosen to expand in metro Denver.

Denver is not as affordable as it once was, but it still is a bargain compared with San Francisco or New York. And it offers a lifestyle that more affordable alternatives Omaha anyone? can"t match, he said.

At the end of last year, Zillow ranked 14th among Centennial private-sector employers, not counting retailers, Marciniak said, and the current hiring push should bring it close to breaking into the city"s top 10.

Aldo Svaldi: 303-954-1410, asvaldi@denverpost.com or @aldosvaldi

Source: http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_29538867/zillow-finds-second-home-centennial