| 🚨 Zillow has ended its Make Me Move program. But there are other ways to get fast cash offers on your home — including requesting an offer from an iBuyer or cash investor. Requesting a cash offer is free, and there's no requirement to accept it. To save time, we recommend starting with an offers marketplace like Clever Offers, which lets you compare multiple cash offers from iBuyers, investors, and more — so you can see real options laid out without any added fees or pressure to sell. Answer a few questions about your home and start comparing offers. |
Maybe you're not 100% sure it's time to sell your home right now, but you're still curious what a buyer would pay for your house. Zillow Make Me Move let homeowners test the waters by creating a listing, setting a price, and allowing buyers to contact them directly. If a homeowner got an attractive offer, they could choose to sell without ever "officially" listing it for sale.
While Zillow Make Me Move is no longer in operation, there are other ways to test the waters.
What are the best alternatives to Zillow Make Me Move?
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Clever Offers helps you find and compare offers from leading cash buyers in your area . Buyers must offer proof of financing, a history of closed deals, and a strong commitment to customer satisfaction before being approved for the network.
Because Clever's network includes local/national investors, iBuyers, and agents with experience helping cash sellers, you get a range of offers to choose from — including alternative deal types that can deliver a higher payout.
The company has a 5-star rating among customers and can help you compare options quickly without getting locked in. See our full Clever Offers review.
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Opendoor is for home sellers who want to skip the hassles of a traditional home sale — without sacrificing too much on price.
You can get an initial offer within 24–48 hours, choose your closing date, and skip repairs and showings. The company also pays much closer to market value than traditional house flippers.
Opendoor does charge a 5% service fee, and some customers complain that final offers are lower than initial estimates. See our full Opendoor review.
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Homeward is a solid choice if you want the benefits of a fast cash offer without sacrificing your home equity — or need to unlock the equity in your current house to buy a new one.
While most cash buyers aim to buy low in order to sell high, Homeward gives you up to 89% of your home value upfront and lets you keep the additional upside on your property by listing it on the market after you accept its cash offer.
In exchange for this convenience, Homeward charges service fees of up to 7% and deducts the costs of both its original offer and any expenses associated with maintaining your home while it's being sold.
The company maintains an above-average customer rating. However, its complicated service and fee structure have led to some customer complaints. See our full Homeward review.
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As an iBuyer, Offerpad stands out for its perks, including free local moves and a 3-day grace period to wrap up your move after closing.
You can choose between listing with an agent and getting a cash advance for home prep/repairs or taking a competitive cash offer with flexible closing dates, ranging from 8–90 days.
If you accept a cash offer, be prepared for up to an 8% service fee, plus variable repair costs — which customers report can substantially reduce your final offer. See our full Offerpad review.
What was Zillow Make Me Move?
In 2006, Zillow launched Make Me Move — allowing homeowners to name their dream price for their home without officially putting it on the market.[1] If a buyer was willing to meet that price, they could make an offer.
Maybe you weren't actually thinking of moving, but would consider it for the right price. Maybe you were gearing up for a move and wanted to see if you could get the price you wanted without putting much work into prepping for sale. Or maybe you saw your neighbor's homes selling for sky-high prices and wanted to see how your own home compared.
With Zillow Make Me Move, you could gauge buyer interest in your home in a low-stakes setting. Sellers could list their home as potentially available to give buyers a chance to contact the seller with questions. By figuring out what price people were willing to pay for it, you may have been more inspired to go through with the sale.
How did Zillow Make Me Move work?
The free Make Me Move option allowed you to post your house as a potential listing, along with a listing price, photos, and details about the home, all while remaining anonymous. Buyers were able to contact you with questions and set up a time to view your home if you'd like.
Posting a Zillow Make Me Move listing
To post your home with Make Me Move, you would follow these simple steps:
- Visit the Make Me Move page.
- Enter the full address of your home and click "Continue."
- You'd be prompted to either create or log in to your Zillow profile.
- Verify the location of your property. If Zillow's database had the correct location, select "Yes, it's a correct location." If not, click "No, let me change it," drag the orange dot to the correct location on the map, and click "Save and continue."
- Next, you'd be able to set the price of your Make Me Move listing and upload photos. You needed to upload at least one photo with your submission. You could also edit your home facts, add additional information about your home, and enter a contact phone number.
- Next, accept Zillow's Terms of Use and click "Post Make Me Move."
- Your listing would then be submitted for review. It could take up to 72 hours for your listing to be moderated by Zillow's verification team.
Could you change your Make Me Move listing to a For Sale By Owner listing?
It was simple to change your Make Me Move listing to a Zillow For Sale By Owner (FSBO) listing or to being listed by an agent. You would log into your Zillow account, navigate to your Make Me Move listing, and click "Post for sale by owner for free." You'd be asked to confirm your decision before the change was saved. All the information you entered previously would be carried over to your new listing, including any photos you uploaded.
Zillow Make Me Move pros and cons
Pros
You could do a test run before making any final decisions.
For indecisive sellers, Make Me Move was an excellent way to test the waters before officially putting their home on the market. Realizing that there was indeed interest in your home may have been just the motivation you needed to actually sell.
It was free.
Perhaps the biggest perk of Make Me Move was that the service was free-of-charge and had no strings attached. You could change or remove the posting at any time with no consequences. After potential buyers began contacting you, you could make the decision whether to sell your home yourself or hire a real estate agent and try to get a better price.
Cons
Only Zillow buyers saw your listing.
The biggest drawback to the Make Me Move tool was that listings were only visible on Zillow. And while Zillow was the most popular real estate website in the United States based on monthly visits, this could still cut out lots of home buyers — especially those already working with a real estate agent. In most cases, these buyers would only hear about homes on the multiple listing services (MLS).
Serious buyers might not have considered your listing.
Serious buyers may not have considered potential listings for a couple reasons. They may have assumed the home wouldn't be available soon enough for their timeline, or they may have thought Make Me Move sellers would drag their feet and closing would take several months.
How did Zillow make money from Make Me Move?
Make Me Move was technically free for homeowners. However, it served as a strategic lead generation tool that fed into Zillow's broader revenue model of brokering connections between buyers, sellers, and agents. When buyers browsed Make Me Move and other properties, they could connect with Zillow Premier Agents to express interest. In exchange, those agents would pay Zillow for the leads.
Zillow could also earn profit from ad revenue, since Make Me Move kept more buyers and sellers engaged with the platform — including those who were just browsing or casually testing the market.
Today, Zillow continues to make money through a combination of:[2]
- Zillow Premier Agent: Zillow also makes money by charging real estate agents a fee for becoming a premier agent. These agents get their own personalized profile page, ads targeted at users in their local markets, and increased visibility of their listings. These agents also get a customer relationship management system to help them track those who have expressed interest in using an agent through the site. Premier Agent services remain Zillow's main source of revenue.
- Ad sales: Similar to other free online sites you use everyday (news sites, Facebook, Google, etc.), Zillow gets paid by property management companies, mortgage lenders, and other businesses to serve up ads on the site.
- Zillow Home Loans: Home loans has become an additional revenue stream for Zillow, allowing it to capitalize on loan initiations and the resale of initiated mortgages on the secondary mortgage market.
- Rental marketplace: Zillow has also monetized its rental platform by charging landlords a subscription fee to take advantage of add-on services such as featured placement in local rental listings, lease generation, applicant screening, and even rental payment collection.
Make Me Move alternatives to consider
If you have an inkling to sell your home, but want to avoid putting it on the market, you can start by requesting a no-obligation offer from an iBuyer. While iBuyer offers rarely reflect full market value, they can provide you with a baseline — giving you the option to sell as is or go on the market for more. iBuyers appeal to sellers looking for convenience, allowing you to handle the transaction almost entirely online, avoid the hassles of showings and negotiations, and pick the closing date within a window of a couple of weeks to a few months. Some sellers find the "easy" factor is well worth the price cut.
You might also consider getting free advice from a real estate agent. Most are willing to meet with you one-on-one for free, without any obligation to sign a listing agreement. Real estate agents can give you a more accurate sense of how much you can expect to get for your home, current local market demand, recent sales of similar homes in the area, the best time to sell, and a good idea of how long it will take to sell.
FAQs about Zillow Make Me Move
Will Zillow buy your house?
Zillow began buying homes in 2018 through its iBuyer service, Zillow Offers, but shut down the program in November 2021. While it operated, Zillow would pay cash for your home, get it ready for resale, and then quickly list it using local real estate agents and those in its Premier Agent directory.
Can anyone post on Zillow?
Anyone can post a home Zillow — either as a 'for sale by owner' listing or a home for rent. You don't have to be a real estate agent or a property manager. You simply create an account on the website, find the home you'd like to post and complete some basic information. Real estate agents with an account have additional features like client reviews and adding a headshot to their profile that appears on all their listings.
Is it free to list on Zillow?
It is free to list a home for sale by owner or by a real estate agent, and to post a home for rent on Zillow. Since Zillow makes the bulk of its money through ad sales and it's Zillow Premier Agent option for real estate agents, they are able to offer these services free-of-charge to users. Potential buyers can also browse or search for homes on the site for free.
Can I sell my house without a realtor?
You can certainly sell your home without a realtor, and it's called a for sale by owner sale — or FSBO. However, a real estate agent can give you professional advice and expertise like knowing the best listing price, getting your home on the multiple listing service (MLS), staging your home, and conducting open houses. Not to mention the tedious and sometimes tricky part of negotiating the sale. But, if you're comfortable doing all of this on your own, a title company can provide you with the paperwork you'll need to complete the legal side of the sale. And, keep in mind that if your buyer is using an agent on their end, it's still typical for the seller (you!) to pay for that agent's commission.
Is Zillow accurate?
Zillow Zestimates are an estimated range of your home's value — it is not an appraisal or comparative market analysis. A Zestimate's accuracy depends on how much data Zillow has access to for your particular home. Some counties and cities have more publicly available data than others, and the more data there is, the more accurate a Zestimate will be. A Zestimate is intended to give a range of values for a given property, not replace an appraisal or the professional opinion of a local real estate agent. These numbers are automatically calculated using a proprietary formula, as well as public and user-submitted data. Zillow pulls in county assessments, the property's purchase history, and any other public information it can get its hands on, as well as user-submitted data from its site. The Zestimate formula takes specific factors into consideration like location, size, features, amenities, and local market conditions, as well as recent sale prices for similar homes in the area.
What are Zillow potential listings?
Zillow's potential listings are those that may come on the market soon but aren't yet listed. These listings include three types of homes: foreclosures, pre-foreclosures, and (formerly) Make Me Move postings. Foreclosures are properties taken over by a lender after the foreclosure process. They are likely to be listed for sale soon, but are not yet found on a multiple listing service (MLS). Pre-foreclosures mean the lender has initiated foreclosure proceedings on the properties because the owner defaulted on their loan. Pre-foreclosures also include properties for which a foreclosure auction is scheduled and are not found on an (MLS).
