Zillow Flex vs Zillow Preferred — What Actually Changed

Zillow Flex is now Zillow Preferred. What changed, how volume is awarded, and what to do when your team's connections start slowing down.

For Zillow partner team owners

Zillow Flex is now Zillow Preferred

The name changed. The economics did not. What decides your volume is the same thing it always was: what your team does with a connection in the first five minutes.

Written by Michael Schuerman, one of 15 people on the original Zillow Go-To-Market team that brought Flex to market. Updated September 2026.

Zillow Flex was renamed Zillow Preferred. It is the same program family: no cost per lead, a success fee paid on closed transactions, and connection volume awarded on performance.

What has tightened over the years is the scoring. Speed to first contact, appointment set rate, appointment held rate, and closed conversion decide how many connections your team receives next month. Nothing about that is arbitrary, and nothing about it forgives a slow week.

So when an owner tells me Zillow turned the faucet down, the honest read is usually that the team stopped answering fast enough, and nobody inside the business owned the number.

02 — The part nobody scores

The program is not the bottleneck

Every metric Zillow scores is downstream of something you own: who you hired, how fast they ramped, whether anyone runs a real weekly cadence, and whether an underperformer gets addressed in week three or month seven.

Most Preferred team owners are still the highest producer in their own business. That is the trap. The person best equipped to fix conversion is the person with the fullest calendar.

A coach trains your agents. An Operating Partner takes a seat inside the business, carries the number with you, runs hiring and ramp, and holds the cadence until someone on your team can hold it without me.

How the seat works for a partner team

As the team’s first growth advisor in the program, I took owners Jake and Kelly Mullins from two agents to thirty. A new growth advisor took over when I left Zillow. Seven years in, Dwelli is the largest Zillow Preferred team in Atlanta at more than 230 agents.

10 to 90 producers across five markets and three states in fifteen months.

Read the Dwelli case study

Read the ChuckTown case study

04 — Questions team owners ask

Flex, Preferred, and the seat

Bring me the number that stopped moving. I will tell you what I would do in your seat.

How to scale a Preferred team

Not affiliated with or endorsed by Zillow Group, Inc.

Is Zillow Flex still called Flex?

No. Zillow renamed the Flex program to Zillow Preferred. Same core model: no upfront cost per lead, a success fee paid at closing, and performance standards that decide how much volume a team receives. Teams and agents still say Flex in conversation, and Zillow's own materials now say Preferred.

What is the difference between Zillow Flex and Zillow Preferred?

The difference is the name and the program packaging, not the underlying economics. Under both, a team pays nothing per lead and pays Zillow a percentage of the commission when a referred transaction closes. What changed over time is the standards: response time, appointment set rate, and conversion drive how many connections a team gets next month.

How does a team get more volume in Zillow Preferred?

Volume follows performance on the metrics Zillow scores. Speed to first contact, appointment set rate, appointment held rate, and closed conversion. Teams that improve those numbers get more connections. Teams that let them slip get fewer, which is why a Preferred team can feel like it is shrinking without anything changing on the Zillow side.

Do I need a Zillow Preferred coach?

A coach is the term most owners search for, and it usually means someone who trains agents on scripts and lead follow-up. That helps if the problem is skill. It does not help if the problem is that you are still the one running the team. An Operating Partner is a different arrangement: I take an accountable seat inside your business, carry the number, and run the hiring, ramp, and cadence myself.

What does the success fee cost in Zillow Preferred?

The referral fee is a percentage of the gross commission on a closed transaction, set in the team's agreement with Zillow, and it varies by market and program terms. The number that matters more than the percentage is what your team converts. A team closing at a low rate pays the same percentage on far less revenue, so the economics feel punishing even though the fee did not change.

Who is Michael Schuerman and why does he know this program?

Michael Schuerman was one of 15 people on the original Zillow Go-To-Market team that brought Flex, now Preferred, to market. He built the in-person partner training in Atlanta and scaled it nationally, then spent two and a half years inside partner teams as a Zillow Growth Advisor. He now works as an Operating Partner to owner-led businesses doing $5M to $30M.

Zillow Flex vs Zillow Preferred: What Changed and What It Means for Your Team

Zillow Flex is now Zillow Preferred. What actually changed, how volume is awarded, and what a team owner should do when the connections slow down.

Michael Schuerman is an Operating Partner for founder-led businesses doing $5M to $30M in revenue, based in Atlanta, Georgia. He takes a seat inside the business, runs the revenue moves the owner has been deferring, and leaves a team that runs without them. Book a 30-minute call at michaelschuerman.co.