Peter LohmannAll Things Residential Property Management | CEO of RL Property Management | Co-Founder of Crane

We All Hate Zillow. We All Need Zillow.

20 Jul 2026 · 1 min

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In this interview excerpt, Peter Lohmann expresses frustration with Zillow's growing control over the real‑estate listing industry, highlighting the tension between the fees charged by Zillow’s paid platform (and similar platforms like Apartments.com) and the essential role these services play in lead generation and listing syndication. He questions how companies can balance the need to use Zillow’s distribution network with the cost burden it imposes. The other speaker responds by acknowledging Zillow’s technological leadership and argues that close collaboration with Zillow is necessary to stay on the cutting edge, suggesting a strategic partnership approach despite the fees.

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Speaking of Zillow, on the record, not a fan of the control they've aggregated in our industry. We see Zillow having a paid platform. Apartments.com also has a paid platform that we're actually a customer of here. How do you tread this balance? Because you, your customer is us, and we obviously don't like the fact that these platforms are charging us, but on the other hand, you and I both need the Zillos and the Apartments.coms of the world in order to operate our business effectively. RentEngine would be doing me no favor favors if you anchored Zillow and could no longer syndicate your leads there, my leads there, or my listings there. So how are you navigating this and what do you, where do you see the winds blowing?
So we work really closely with all of our listing partners, and I do have to call out Zillow as being always ahead of the curve technologically. And I think that's part of the way that they've been able to generate as much market share as they have. The way I see it from my seat is that we need to work as closely as possible with them to be at that cutting edge and to be iterating alongside them.