Every strategy deck says the same thing: move up the value chain.
Get closer to the transaction.
Meanwhile, in the real world, the opposite is happening.
The most established seller lead businesses in Europe are growing in the simplest segment. Unqualified leads. Sold per lead. No commission share. No transaction control.
Not because they missed the transaction opportunity.
Because they tried it. Low margins. Heavy operations. A muscle portals were never built to have.
So they're moving down the value chain. On purpose.
Wisdom or capitulation?
I keep going back and forth on this myself.
Maybe the question is wrong. Zillow never picked a side — Premier Agent for the many, Flex for the transaction. Two layers, running at once.
Which makes me wonder how many "failed" transaction experiments were actually just incomplete ones.
What's your read — is transaction revenue still the prize for portals, or has the industry quietly moved on?