Where did Zillow data science go wrong?

Question

News coming out now about the layoffs at Zillow due to heavy losses in their home-flipping program. They have a treasure trove of data, perhaps one of the largest, related to the housing market.

yuppie_scum · Accepted Answer

I&rsquo;m guessing if they aren&rsquo;t able to recover after the market gains from the last two years, their problems are in the labor involved in flipping. Probably holding houses longer than anticipated because they didn&rsquo;t realize how hard it is to get tradespeople to show up for literally anything.I wonder if they contributed to the housing shortages by buying up all the fixer uppers in the remotely affordable price range.

iab · Answer

I&rsquo;m pretty experienced financially, and in my opinion they bought high and sold low. This is bad.

Blackstrat · Answer

Perhaps ML and data analysis methods aren&rsquo;t the magical panaceas believed? Or possibly they needed to read Taleb?

duped · Answer

They didn't have insight into the labor markets in local areas and didn't realize they wouldn't be able to hire contractors fast enough or cheap enough to flip the homes they purchased.

Where did Zillow data science go wrong?

News coming out now about the layoffs at Zillow due to heavy losses in their home-flipping program. They have a treasure trove of data, perhaps one of the largest, related to the housing market.

I’m pretty experienced financially, and in my opinion they bought high and sold low. This is bad.

Perhaps ML and data analysis methods aren’t the magical panaceas believed? Or possibly they needed to read Taleb?

They didn't have insight into the labor markets in local areas and didn't realize they wouldn't be able to hire contractors fast enough or cheap enough to flip the homes they purchased.