Property posts on the internet usually focus more on picket fences than picket signs. But this week, Zillow Group Inc. is getting raked by thousands of angry digital protesters, some even wielding placards with a simple message: “Don’t Buy Zillow Homes!”
It has been a tumultuous few days for the real estate company. On Tuesday, the firm announced it would shut down its much-vaunted house-flipping arm and cut its workforce by 25%. Zillow is also seeking to sell some 7,000 homes to institutional investors for $2.8 billion. And it plans to take writedowns of more than $500 million on the failed venture that relied heavily on its pricing algorithms.