YouSaid · the spoken record

Susan Daimler

lines on the record: 30
first: 2022-09-22
most recent: 2022-09-22
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“I mean, we have a pretty hairy problem that we're trying to solve. And the problem's big, but what is at stake is that if we solve it, we change real estate for the better.”
2022-09-22 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Flipping your strategy in a volatile market, w/Zillow's Susan Daimler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I love hard problems. They keep you on your toes, and it's how you learn and every problem you solve as a team, every challenging time you go through is something that you learn and it just builds this deeper, stronger foundation that you have to get stronger off of that just continues to feed on itself. And as you said, these stressful times that employees feel that as well, it's work. And we're here to control what we can control and do the best job that we can every single day, but it can't always be perfect and we have to be okay with that and our employees have to know that as well because stressed employees are not productive employees and when we know what makes this stuff go is people who are engaged, productive, happy, they feel supported and how do you do that you help people solve their problems”
2022-09-22 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Flipping your strategy in a volatile market, w/Zillow's Susan Daimler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Work stress is not a big factor for me. I'm very one foot in front of the other. How are we going to solve this? And I've been in tech for 20 years. I've been at Zillow for 10. Everything's solvable. And I think you just have to identify what it is. And then you put your heads together and you figure out how to solve it. I think stress can be really paralyzing and then it feeds itself for me it's about being action oriented.”
2022-09-22 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Flipping your strategy in a volatile market, w/Zillow's Susan Daimler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It is both of those things for sure. The humans are a huge part of it, and the system has to support them, but they have to have that, we call it that maverick quality in them as well. And to be clear, you can't have all mavericks because that's a whole other ball of chaos. But you certainly need to have a good amount of them.”
2022-09-22 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Flipping your strategy in a volatile market, w/Zillow's Susan Daimler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And you're like, that's a great question and we should talk about that. So I think that's how you keep it infused in the culture. But you have to keep an eye on it. You have to nurture it.”
2022-09-22 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Flipping your strategy in a volatile market, w/Zillow's Susan Daimler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Celebrate at some level. It can't always be about the winds because I think the bigger you get, the more constraints it can feel like the company has, the teams have, the product has, and the key is to really bring in those people who do not feel those constraints and feel empowered to continue to reimagine and sometimes rebuild what's been done. You really need this combination of legacy folks who understand the business, remember what worked, what didn't work, and you got to combine that with this constant new, fresh eyes on how we might go solve problems. That's our favorite thing is when new folks come into the room and pressure test the founders, the leaders with the simple question of like, why do we do it this way?”
2022-09-22 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Flipping your strategy in a volatile market, w/Zillow's Susan Daimler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's a great question. I mean, it's your whole podcast, right? Everything gets harder at scale. I think it has to be embedded in your culture to make sure it doesn't drop. And you need to be hiring people at all levels all the time who have that quality and who know that the company values that quality and values failure and values Big Swings those are the most important things. Having employees feel empowered to take risks, which is what founders do, right? That is why they become who they are and that employees feel that same empowerment. And I think some companies don't accept that. So I think that is something you constantly have to reinforce. And even”
2022-09-22 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Flipping your strategy in a volatile market, w/Zillow's Susan Daimler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“For the problem and for the company. And I think if you have the right founders, that's a pretty special part of the recipe for success.”
2022-09-22 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Flipping your strategy in a volatile market, w/Zillow's Susan Daimler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We've known the founders of Zillow Rich and Lloyd for a long time. And it is their ethos that brought us here and has kept us here. And I think when Zillow acquired bipolio a decade ago, there was no way that we were going to be here a decade later because it was, we're entrepreneurs and we're founders and we can't work at a big company. Like that doesn't work when we came here. It was 400 employees. We're now at 6,500. So of been here through this incredible scale and growth. But what we've learned is under the right leadership and with the right founders, that entrepreneurialism continues. It doesn't stop with the size of the company. It's built into the ethos of the company. The beauty of founders is this passion investment.”
2022-09-22 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Flipping your strategy in a volatile market, w/Zillow's Susan Daimler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Back to what can you control? We can't control that stuff. What we can control is the customer experience, what happens when someone comes to our platform, what happens when they work with one of our partner agents. And so we spend the majority of our time making those experiences better. Of course, we keep track of the housing market and what we think is going to happen, but we really dedicate the majority of our time to, again, that housing super app and improving the overall process.”
2022-09-22 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Flipping your strategy in a volatile market, w/Zillow's Susan Daimler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We refer to it as the rubber band kind of got pulled one way really hard and now we're kind of snapping back the other way. Hindsight's always 2020, but we probably all should have seen a lot of this stuff was what was coming.”
2022-09-22 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Flipping your strategy in a volatile market, w/Zillow's Susan Daimler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, it does. It's about staying the course and controlling what you can control. And I think if you focus on the controllable, especially in these times, it will really benefit you at the end. And there's always going to be uncontrollable factors. But these like roller coasters, you got to just ride that, you kind of got to ride the middle line. And it is huge opportunity. And Zillow is particularly positioned to take advantage of it. We have 3.6 billion dollars in cash. We feel just in a good place to keep investing. And that is a luxury. And that's an advantage. There's a ton of pressure testing along the way, but not that jarring jerk in the car to the left or to the right. You've got to keep going forward.”
2022-09-22 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Flipping your strategy in a volatile market, w/Zillow's Susan Daimler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Think it goes back to that idea of identifying this authentic problem and going to solve it, you can get pretty thrown off if you get caught up in what is happening right now. Sitguru is like a great example of that where exactly like it was born at a time where air travel was really struggling. Travel is also durable. And sure enough, Zillow will follow the same when you get through those challenging times, people are even more wanting. Those are the lessons learned, and Zillow is very much on that same path.”
2022-09-22 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Flipping your strategy in a volatile market, w/Zillow's Susan Daimler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, that is the hope. Real estate is also not inherently equitable. Being a first-time home buyer is really challenging. And we are aiming to level that playing field. Everyone deserves that ability to own a home. We are also leaning into that idea of yes, if it is easier, if I find the right people to help me through that process, if I understand all these pieces, yes, it will be easier. I will be more inclined to do it. And I think we're seeing now too. People also want to be on the move. We're seeing that post-pandemic is there is more thinking about, well, where could I be and where else could I live and what else can I try? And as also companies become more flexible, like I think the dream is. That people are more mobile.”
2022-09-22 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Flipping your strategy in a volatile market, w/Zillow's Susan Daimler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And same thing, archaic. I mean, you think about if you've gotten a mortgage recently, right? Like you sit down with a pen in front of 10,000 pieces of paper that you need to sign in person. These pieces of real estate for a lot of the things that we have moved forward, there are a lot of them that are just still stuck. And so we are looking to unstick those, bring them into the modern age, the digitized age, and then really make this more digital plus human dynamic way of transacting.”
2022-09-22 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Flipping your strategy in a volatile market, w/Zillow's Susan Daimler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That same click of a button, that amazingly doesn't exist right now in the housing market. And then when you think about putting that together with other point solutions like financing, meeting an agent and putting them all together into this one ecosystem to really help customers get through that journey that is so emotional and challenging to get into the home that they love.”
2022-09-22 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Flipping your strategy in a volatile market, w/Zillow's Susan Daimler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Enables you to do something special. And so the housing super app is that building an ecosystem that is fixing all these terribly fragmented archaic ways of working in real estate. So a great example is touring. We all want to tour homes before we see them, right? You want to go touch, you want to go see, you want to go experience. Right now, touring is kind of stuck in the dark ages. Like it's a really analog process that involves maybe four different people having multiple phone text conversations just to get you, Bob, and your son and an agent at the same time at a home. It's all this back and forth. We are on our way to making touring a home just as easy as booking a restaurant reservation.”
2022-09-22 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Flipping your strategy in a volatile market, w/Zillow's Susan Daimler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Say too on that as you talk about prioritizing how do you know when to move forward I think a lot of companies would have been frankly scared to just pull out altogether. I think one of the temptations is to have a lot of different irons in the fire. That's how you make sure you've got all your bases covered and like, well, if we leave that flank exposed, what will happen, right? And so I think us getting out of it shows one of the fundamental things that I love about Zillow is this confidence in the bigger picture and this confidence in we can't be everything to everyone, but we can still offer everything to everyone. There's a big difference in those two things. And with that being so customer led and so customer centric, it really”
2022-09-22 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Flipping your strategy in a volatile market, w/Zillow's Susan Daimler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Something we learned from being in it ourselves is that it was a bit narrow. And what I mean by that is most customers don't end up doing that. It's a great option. And for those who don't, Zillow is able to offer them working with one of our premier agents, getting financing from us. We are able to engage with them on all the other options. And what we're trying to do with this idea of this housing super app is there's lots of ways to engage in the Zillow ecosystem.”
2022-09-22 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Flipping your strategy in a volatile market, w/Zillow's Susan Daimler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You got it. And that is the big difference maker. I think we feel really comfortable and confident in our decision to get out of the business ourselves. But one of our beliefs is we want to offer customers as many opportunities and options as we can. And that option to sell your home quickly without having to stage it or paint it or have open houses and know what money you have to buy your next home with certainty, right? That's what Zillow offers. We don't want the 200 million people a month who come to Zillow not to have that option. And so partnering with Open Door enables us Zillow not to have to be directly in this business that is not for us while still enabling our customers to have that opportunity.”
2022-09-22 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Flipping your strategy in a volatile market, w/Zillow's Susan Daimler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Constantly trying to chase what's happening yesterday or what you think is going to happen in two days, that becomes really difficult for employees because their work keeps changing and you keep saying, hey, no, now we need you to look at this. Oh, now we need you to focus on this. That's not a great dynamic for employees. You really need to put out that strategy, make sure that they understand the work that they do, why it's important, how it contributes, and that keeps that very like steady, productive pace, communicating to employees is as challenging as it's ever been. And the more that you change what you're communicating to them, the more you hold the company back from moving forward.”
2022-09-22 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Flipping your strategy in a volatile market, w/Zillow's Susan Daimler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Our layoffs were back in November and December were really tied to us closing down our eye-buying business. This is Zillow offers. This is where Zillow was the first party in buying and selling homes. So we were actually the ones who were putting our capital forth and buying homes, reselling them after renovating them. And it was a business that was just way too risky, way too volatile, and just served too few customers for us. That volatility is really, really difficult as the market is topsy turvy. And so we feel at this moment really great that we're not in that anymore. It was a really challenging time. And one of the things we prioritize is this making sure our employees know where we're headed. I made that comment about it can be so jarring for employees if you're”
2022-09-22 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Flipping your strategy in a volatile market, w/Zillow's Susan Daimler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“For at a time where they were in bidding wars, are they still clamoring for that? Is that something that we need to build in the next one year, the next two years, the next three years? I think one of the areas or the pitfalls is you get too caught up in the now. And that's something Zillow is always doing is building for the future, not for the now. So as you're prioritizing, you really have to be thinking about what is the solution, what is the strategy, not just for 2023, but looking forward because if you're constantly pivoting to try and adjust to the market, you will spend all your time reprioritizing, all your time really jarring your employees about your strategy where it's much easier to ground it and say, this is where we're headed, whatever we're going into. Maybe it's going to be a rainstorm, maybe it's going to be a hailstorm, whatever it is. When we come at it,”
2022-09-22 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Flipping your strategy in a volatile market, w/Zillow's Susan Daimler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“There are a couple things we know that we are solving this authentic problem that people have. That authentic problem is it is really challenging regardless of what the market is doing. The market is just another variable on top of what is already a really challenging thing for people to go do, which is move, which is to buy and sell. the most expensive thing people do in their entire lives, the most money they'll ever spend on something, it is highly emotional and it is in a really fragmented non-digitized analog process that is challenging and that is what we are trying to solve. We look at the market, we look at products that are built for specific market dynamics and we say do we still see the need for those like that was something that customers were”
2022-09-22 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Flipping your strategy in a volatile market, w/Zillow's Susan Daimler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You as a buyer need to think the same way and be ready to pounce. But it's a really great time to be active in the market and understand it and what is it you really want? Because then when it does come on and it is the right time that you can really get after it and you can win.”
2022-09-22 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Flipping your strategy in a volatile market, w/Zillow's Susan Daimler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Zillow has become it is the Instagram, it's the place to dream, it's the place to think about what you might want to do, what you can do, what your neighbors are doing. There is a voyeurism about real estate that I think everyone's always had. Zillow certainly feeds into that. You've got now also all these spoofs. You've got like Zillow Gone Wild. I mean, look, they're channels on TV that are 100% dedicated to homes and renovations. Like it is one of America's pastimes. Real estate always has been. Zillow definitely helps with that. Back to your home search, Bob. It is a great time to really stay on top of the market. And it's what we're doing at Zillow. We're keeping our eye on the horizon. We know that they're going to be ebbs and flows in the market, but we're always going to come out of them.”
2022-09-22 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Flipping your strategy in a volatile market, w/Zillow's Susan Daimler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, certainly not stopping. I mean, what we always say about housing is housing is incredibly durable. People always have to move for various reasons, no matter what happens, let's say next year with the housing market, millions of people will in fact move. Millions of people will buy and sell homes. And sometimes that's dependent on who has to versus who wants to, right? And so maybe you're in a spot where you're like, oh, that's interesting, but I'm going to wait and see what happens where for other folks, they don't have that luxury and they need to move. They need to get a bigger place or they need to accommodate an in-law or a new job. So I think it's really buyer dependent on that. It's also an interesting time to look at rentals. Again, like the market balancing has lots of different impacts in there. And so you'll start to see people maybe look for more rental space.”
2022-09-22 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Flipping your strategy in a volatile market, w/Zillow's Susan Daimler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And that bounce of power is shifting, but the problem is the mortgage rates. A couple years ago, last year, home prices through the roof and incredible competition for folks trying to buy homes, that was the big problem. Now we're seeing inventory stabilize. We're seeing pricing stabilize, but now we're seeing affordability be at the worst it's been in 15 years. That is really hampering buyers' opportunities to get in the market. So while there might be a lot less competition and they're no longer in a bidding war, if you're looking at a $350,000 home, for example, a 6% mortgage rate versus a 3% mortgage rate means an extra $500 a month that you're paying. That has become the hurdle of the moment.”
2022-09-22 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Flipping your strategy in a volatile market, w/Zillow's Susan Daimler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It has been a ride the last few years, just as you said, lots of dynamic changing and the most overused word from the last three years, but we keep running into unprecedented areas that we've never seen before. And right now that's with mortgage rates that are just rising at a speed that we haven't seen previously. And it feels quite jarring, especially if you're in the midst of trying to buy a home. I think we're optimistic that next year will at least be a bit more stable. We've had lots of ups and downs and that we're going to reach at least a place that is a bit more balanced and people will have a better feeling and security about what is happening at the moment and that likely will continue for the future.”
2022-09-22 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Flipping your strategy in a volatile market, w/Zillow's Susan Daimler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It has been a ride the last few years we're seeing affordability be at the worst it's been in 15 years People want to be on the move. We're seeing that post pandemic. There is more thinking about, well, where could I be and where else could I live and what else can I try? The dream is that people are more mobile. It is one of America's pastimes, real estate. It always has been. One of the areas or the pitfalls is you get too caught up in the now. And so as you're prioritizing, you really have to be thinking about what is the strategy not just for 2023, but for looking forward. Have these companies who have been just focused on, oh my God, it's raining, how do we not get wet when the sun comes out, they're behind. Those are the lessons learned.”
2022-09-22 · Masters of Scale · Rapid Response: Flipping your strategy in a volatile market, w/Zillow's Susan Daimler · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT