ShowingTime Will Remain an ‘Independent, Shared Resource,’ President Says

Last week, The Zillow Group announced its acquisition of ShowingTime, a popular software company that assists real estate agents in the management of property showings. The news sparked conversation across the industry about the privacy of data and how personal information will be protected going forward, especially now that Zillow Homes is a licensed brokerage.

ShowingTime President Michael Lane joined RE/MAX Chief Customer Officer Nick Bailey on this week’s episode of “Good Morning RE/MAX” to provide more details on the acquisition and what it means for real estate agents.

Maintaining the privacy of data is crucial. How will data be protected?

Lane, who said part of the appeal of Zillow as the purchaser was its ability to fund research and development, recognizes that some agents and brokers fear their data or privacy may be compromised in some fashion as a result of the acquisition.

“That’s just not true at all,” he said.

“[The Zillow Group] has made a very clear point of keeping [ShowingTime] at arm’s length from the Zillow iBuyer, the broker part of the business,” he explains. “It has to be kind of an independent, shared resource that brokers and agents trust [and] that they’ve learned to trust over the years… It will stay that way.”

Lane expands on the topic by reassuring agents that, despite new ownership, the privacy policy at ShowingTime is unwavering.

“I know not everybody reads the privacy policy in our product, but data that the agents enter into ShowingTime is totally private to them. If the client uses our app, and they’re accepting appointments… we guarantee them that data that they put in their product will not be shared without their consent – and that remains the case,” Lane says.

Though he acknowledges that minor tweaks to the privacy policy are a given – when there’s a new product or a product is renamed, for instance – he affirms there are no major changes in the near or midterm future. If there ever were, every client would be given advance notice and the opportunity to read it, he says.

Will an agent’s experience change following the acquisition?

Lane does not believe that an agent’s experience will be negatively impacted with the company’s new ownership.

“Anybody that uses our product would know that if this were reserved for just the subscribers of Zillow, the whole product [and] whole system would break down,” Lane says. “You know, the beauty of what we do is [that] we’ve grown to be kind of a neutral platform where all the agents in the market, on the listing side, they go into ShowingTime and they put in private remarks that go into this totally protected part of the product.”

Lane actually sees ShowingTime being improved upon – from having a broader audience to delivering a higher success rate. In the end, it’s about making the process of showing homes – meaning, a buyer talks to an agent and an agent sets up a walkthrough, with fewer points of friction – more seamless.

“We ought to have a world where that’s totally doable – with a 90% success rate because that means more homes are going to sell,” he said. “I don’t think anybody would argue that would be a really good thing to achieve. That’s our goal.”

For his part, Bailey, who hosted a Real Estate Town Hall on the heels of the initial acquisition announcement, believes this is simply a moment of change within the industry, without any immediate tangible consequences for agents or their businesses. In fact, he asserts that the move will eventually make the product better for all.

“Bottom line, in my opinion, is that two [or] three years from now, the showing service technology is going to be better than it is today,” Bailey says.

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