FSP Zillow Preferred Field Manual

The deal you signed up for

Zillow Preferred is a pay-at-closing referral program. No monthly subscription. No upfront fee. Zillow delivers buyer leads, and when a transaction closes, the brokerage pays Zillow a fee. That's the deal.

Zillow grades every agent and the whole team. The two numbers that decide your tier are your closing rate compared with the market and your Zillow Home Loans pre-approvals compared with your target. Zillow also watches your pickup rate, how fully you use Follow Up Boss, whether closing documents get submitted, and whether the brokerage pays on time. Your tier (High, Fair or Low) decides how many leads you get: High agents are called first, Fair agents get what's left, and Low agents get little or nothing. Part 6 explains how the tiers work.

This isn't a passive income source. It's a system that rewards effort, engagement and execution, consistently, not occasionally.

What kind of leads you're getting

Every Zillow lead arrives one of three ways:

1. Real-Time Tour. The buyer asked to tour a specific property, and Zillow tells you the buyer has booked a time. Your job is to confirm that appointment. There are two versions: Confirmed (Zillow has already set a time: "You're giving [Buyer] a tour of [address]") and Unconfirmed (the buyer wants to tour but hasn't locked in a time: "Follow up now to schedule"). Either way, the buyer has already raised their hand. You are following through on something they started.

2. Live Phone Connect. The buyer is live on the phone when Zillow hands off the call, so you're talking to them the moment you pick up. Two subtypes:

• Broadcast. Zillow sends the call to several agents at once. If you pick up and hear that a teammate already has the customer, Zillow still credits you with the pickup.
• Direct/Queue. Zillow sends the call to you specifically. If you don't answer, it rolls to the next agent in line, and that can be an agent at another brokerage. If it's still ringing when you answer, it's probably yours alone.

3. Text/Nurture Lead. The buyer submitted their information but wasn't available for a live call. Zillow delivers the lead silently: no call, no live handoff. These show up in Follow Up Boss as new leads in the Lead stage. Call within five minutes.

You don't send a first text or your business card. Our system does it: five minutes after any Zillow buyer lead lands, Follow Up Boss texts the buyer your digital VIP card from the office line, (352) 675-3639. The text tells the buyer you are their agent for their Zillow request and links to your card at fsp-vip.netlify.app/yourfirstlast. The card shows your photo, the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices logo and your Follow Up Boss number as "My VIP Number," and one tap saves you in their phone, so your next call shows your name instead of an unknown number. Leads that arrive between 9:00 PM and 8:00 AM get the text at 8:00 AM.

The VIP card goes to buyer leads only. Zillow seller leads still get the approved seller text.

You may also receive calls directly to your Zillow profile number, or contacts through the "Contact Us" form on your agent page. These deserve immediate follow-up: this person reached out specifically to you. That is about as warm as a lead gets.

There is no such thing as a cold Zillow lead. Every lead, even the text-only ones, arrived because the buyer was actively looking at a property on Zillow. They are warm by definition. Treat them that way.

ZIP codes and tiers

Zillow sends our leads by ZIP code. Each agent covers up to seven ZIP codes, set by the office around where you live and sell, and in each ZIP Zillow calls agents in tier order: High first, then Fair. Everyone on the team is on, every day.

Your ZIP codes are already set in Zillow. Learn them cold: the neighborhoods, the price ranges, what's for sale this week. Don't add ZIP codes on your own. If you think you should have a different one, talk to Russell.

In every one of our ZIP codes, Zillow ranks us against the other brokerages working it, anywhere from eight to eighteen teams. We're competing with them, not with each other. When a teammate moves up to High, that's more leads for all of us.

The ring rule

Once you've had a lead on any given day, let the next one ring. Pick up on the third or fourth ring, so everyone else on the team has had a chance at it. If a teammate already has it, Zillow tells you, and you still get credit for the pickup. The customer always gets answered, and the leads spread across the team.

Don't wait past that. A call sent to you alone rolls out of FSP if nobody answers, to another brokerage's team. That's a lost opportunity for all of us, not a handoff to a teammate.

Ring times are visible to the office. Some days one person has taken three leads when there were only four for the whole team; the ring rule is how we keep it fair.

Can't answer? Pause yourself

With a client, in a showing, in a meeting, somewhere you truly can't take a call: use your own pause. It ends on its own. A call that rings out counts against your pickup rate; a pause doesn't. Driving with Bluetooth is not a reason to pause.

Pickup rate

Zillow measures your pickup rate: the share of its calls you answer over the last 90 days, including calls a teammate got to first. Below 25%, Zillow drops you a tier. Our line is 35%. Pausing when you can't answer protects your pickup rate; letting calls ring out hurts it.

The 20-lead line

Twenty leads in 30 days is the line. Over 20, you'll get a note asking you to slow down and go back to the third or fourth ring. At 25 you'll be paused, and you come back on when you're down to 18. Leads are counted from Follow Up Boss every morning. This mostly matters for High agents; in Fair it's hard to get that many in a month.

The 45-day rule

If you go 45 days without a Zillow connection, Zillow leaves you out of the next month's allocation. A long pause costs you more than the days you're off.

Real-Time Tours

On a Real-Time Tour the priority isn't spreading them evenly; it's not losing the buyer. If you can't take one, call Mark or Russell right away and post it in #zillow-team in Slack, so it goes to a teammate who can. The goal is that the buyer gets served and the lead stays in the brokerage.

The office sets most of this up for you. Before your first Zillow lead, all five of these are done:

1. 1Your Zillow profile is built, and you've accepted the invitation to our Zillow team.
2. 2You've accepted the Zillow Preferred invite and finished enrollment through the member link the office sends you.
3. 3Zillow Tech Connect uses your own agent key from BoldTrail, not the office key, so your leads land under your name in both systems.
4. 4Email sharing is turned on in your Follow Up Boss settings.
5. 5Follow Up Boss and your Zillow tools share one sign-in.

The office builds your VIP card. New agents stay paused until Tech Connect, Zillow Preferred enrollment and their ZIP codes are set.

The 30-Second Rule, and the AI That Enforces It

The moment you connect with a Zillow lead, you have 30 seconds to ask for an appointment. Zillow's AI listens to calls and scores whether you asked for the appointment within 30 seconds. Our standard is that you hit that mark on at least 80% of your calls. The script is designed so that if you follow it, you hit 80% automatically.

Greeting. Identification. Acknowledgment. Appointment ask. Thirty seconds. That's it.

Don't warm up. Don't give a background story. Don't ask them what they're looking for before you ask for the appointment. The appointment ask comes first, every time. Zillow already gave you their phone number and email, so don't ask for them again, and don't read your own number to them; it's on the card they get by text.

The ALM Framework

ALM is how Zillow, and this team, teaches the intake conversation:

• A — Appointment: Ask for it within 30 seconds. Everything else follows.
• L — Location: Confirm where they're looking. The script opens with "I see you're looking at properties in [area]"; that's the location anchor. They may narrow it ("specifically Citrus Hills") or expand it as the conversation continues.
• M — Motivation: Why are they moving, and when? This comes out naturally after the appointment ask: "When are you thinking of making a move?" People will tell you they're waiting until after the school year, that they need to be near family, that they're relocating for work. This shapes how you work them going forward.

In practice, many Real-Time Tour leads just want to get out and see a home, and that's fine. Getting them face to face is the goal. The deeper motivation conversation often happens naturally once you're in the same room. Use the appointment ask to open the door, then let the conversation fill in L and M.

The Friday ALM class

Zillow runs an ALM class every Friday, 11:00 AM to 12:30 PM on Zoom, taught by Patrick Carter, one of Zillow's Growth Advisors. On the Fridays between our team meetings it's required for:

• new agents during their first 90 days, counted from their first Zillow lead, and
• anyone under a 5% closing rate on our 90-day number as of the morning of the team meeting.

The list is announced at the team meeting, and you go the very next Friday. Put your first and last name on your Zoom box. Zillow takes attendance too.

The salesperson, not the order taker

An order taker waits for the buyer to say what they want. A salesperson moves the conversation forward. When a buyer says "I'm just browsing," redirect:

Not every call ends at a showing

The real goal of the intake call is to leave with a scheduled next step. Work down this ladder until you find the best appointment you can actually get:

1. 1In-person showing. Always the first ask. Specific day, time and address confirmed.
2. 2Virtual showing. FaceTime, Zoom or similar: you go to the property and the buyer watches live. It's a real appointment with a real time.
3. 3Long-distance, or not coming for a while. Set up their listing alerts, build the relationship, and schedule a specific callback: "I'll check in with you Tuesday morning at 10:00. Does that work?"
4. 4Questions only. Write their questions down, read them back, and make a specific callback to deliver the answers: "Give me 30 minutes. I'll call you at 1:00." Call at 1:00 exactly, and use that call to make the next appointment.
5. 5Land buyers who want to go alone. Make the standard appointment ask and let their answer guide you. Get a next step before you hang up.

After the appointment is set

Before you end the call:

1. 1Confirm the time and the property address.
2. 2Ask: "Is there anything else you'd like to see while we're out?" Try to expand the showing before you hang up.
3. 3Tell them a text with your card is coming from our office line, and ask them to save your VIP number so they know it's you when you call. Once the card has gone (five minutes after the lead arrived), text the appointment confirmation, time and address, yourself from Follow Up Boss.
4. 4Log the call and set the appointment in Follow Up Boss before you do anything else.

Zillow Home Loans: after you've met them

Zillow Home Loans comes up at or after the first showing, never on the intake call (unless the buyer raises it). A stranger on the phone asking about financing on call one costs you the trust you need to get them in the car. Meet them first, then make the introduction.

Once you've met them, refer every buyer who will be getting a mortgage. Pre-approvals are one of the two things that decide your tier, and of everything Zillow measures, they're the one most within your control. Right now 85 to 90% of the buyers we send to Zillow Home Loans get contacted. The time for complaining about Zillow Home Loans is over. Just get it done.

• Cash buyers: no introduction needed. Note it in Follow Up Boss.
• Land: never introduce Zillow Home Loans. Zillow doesn't lend on raw land.
• Mobile and manufactured homes: use your judgment on the specific property.

You're never required to send a buyer to Zillow Home Loans, but you may never run it down to a customer or get in the way of a customer who already has a Zillow Home Loans loan going.

Why every call goes through Follow Up Boss

Zillow still measures whether you pick up (your pickup rate), and it also ranks agents on how they use Follow Up Boss. Calls and texts through Follow Up Boss count, including the Follow Up Boss app on your phone. What doesn't count is your phone's own dialer, your own texting app, or your personal email. Work done outside Follow Up Boss is invisible to Zillow: you can work hard all week and register as inactive.

All calls and texts to Zillow leads go through Follow Up Boss. No exceptions. No workarounds.

Zillow's minimum is 75% Follow Up Boss coverage. Our target is 90%.

Your VIP number

Your Follow Up Boss number is your VIP number. It's the number on your VIP card, and it's the one to advertise: your Zillow profile, your Berkshire Hathaway REsource Center profile, and your business card (your regular card, or a Zillow card the office pays for that can carry the Zillow logo and "Zillow Preferred Agent"). Every agent already has one; the office set them up. Calls and texts to your VIP number are logged in Follow Up Boss automatically.

Two more reasons this matters to you directly:

• Calls are recorded. If there is ever a dispute about what was said or promised, the recording protects you. Calls on Zillow's systems can be recorded too, and nobody here can switch that off. Assume every Zillow and Follow Up Boss call is recorded.
• The broker reviews Follow Up Boss activity to coach you. If your work isn't in Follow Up Boss, the broker can't see it, and can't help you.

The five things you must do in Follow Up Boss for every lead

1. Log every touch. Every call, text, email, showing and meeting goes in. These sync to Zillow as communication signals. Low apparent contact means a low rating.

The following are logged automatically by Follow Up Boss:

• Calls made through the Follow Up Boss dialer, the app, or your VIP number
• Texts sent through Follow Up Boss or your VIP number
• Emails sent through a connected Gmail or Outlook account
• Zillow Messages (requires Zillow Two-Way Integration and your Zillow profile linked to Follow Up Boss)

The following must be logged by hand:

• Showings and in-person meetings
• Notes and context from any conversation

2. Keep stages current. Move leads through the stages as their situation changes. Zillow can't see work you did; it sees the stage. Stale stages produce bad reports and hide your real pipeline. (Part 8 has the stage rules.)

3. Never use Trash. In the Follow Up Boss-to-Zillow sync, the Trash stage maps to "Rejected" in Zillow's system. This permanently breaks the My Agent relationship and is against brokerage policy. A lead that goes nowhere doesn't get trashed; it goes to Nurture.

4. Log the Zillow Home Loans referral. When you make the introduction, note it. One line: "Referred to ZHL [date]."

5. Set a next task before you close the file. If a conversation ends without a scheduled next step, the lead will drift. Every file that gets touched gets a next task before you move on.

Where to work every morning

Work these in order every morning. Use the stage filter on your People list (the Leads smart list shows the first one):

Every Zillow customer lives in both systems. Follow Up Boss holds the Zillow customers who are realistically going to buy in the next six months. BoldTrail (BHHS Connect) holds everyone on a longer clock. Your Zillow leads arrive in BoldTrail under your name automatically once your Tech Connect key is set (see Part 1C). If a lead isn't there, or it's under the broker, tell the office. Don't create a duplicate.

Every new Zillow lead gets set up in BoldTrail the morning after it comes in, or as soon as possible after the intake call. This is the other half of the lead intake process.

The four things you do in BoldTrail for every new lead

1. Set the search alert to their actual criteria. Don't blast them with every listing in a ZIP code. If they're looking for a 3-bedroom, 2-bath home under $350,000.00 in Inverness, that's what their alert should reflect. A search alert tuned to what they actually want keeps them engaged. A firehose of irrelevant listings gets them to unsubscribe.

2. Move their status out of New. Most Zillow leads move into Active Lead. A lead you haven't been able to reach yet may go to Prospect. Nobody stays in New; that status means unprocessed, and an unprocessed lead is an invisible one.

3. Pause the Active Campaign. This lead is already in active follow-up in Follow Up Boss. You don't want BoldTrail's marketing campaign running at the same time.

4. Set a 30-day task: "Review FUB status." This is your only scheduled action on this lead in BoldTrail until something changes. Thirty days from today, the task surfaces and you check the lead in Follow Up Boss.

The set-and-forget strategy

Once these four steps are done, BoldTrail runs on autopilot. The lead gets listing alerts that match what they're looking for. Your name is in their inbox regularly. You spend zero time on them.

You won't see this lead again in BoldTrail for 30 days, unless they wake up. Wake-up signals are multiple property views in a short period, repeated visits to the same listings, email opens on listing alerts, and signing up for a market report. When you see any of these, call that day.

The 30-day review

When the task pops up, pull up the lead in Follow Up Boss. Ask yourself: is this person realistically going to buy in the next six months?

If yes: keep them active in Follow Up Boss. Reset the 30-day BoldTrail task and keep working them.

If no: email the broker the names, three to five per email. The office does the transfer to long-term care (Part 5) and emails you when it's done.

Follow Up Boss is the ICU; BoldTrail is the long-term care facility. Nobody has given up on the patient. The monitors are on, and you get the call when they stir.

Morning (start here, every day)

Step 1: Follow Up Boss (15 to 20 minutes)

• Check the Lead stage first. Call anyone sitting there and move the stage. No more than two of your leads may sit in Lead at any time.
• Check your Inbox: texts and emails that came in overnight.
• Review Tasks due today; clear overdue items.
• Work the stages in Part 3 top to bottom.

Step 2: BoldTrail (10 minutes)

• Check the Vitals Dashboard: who's active, what needs attention.
• Review any leads showing website activity or listing views. These are warm signals.
• Set up any new leads: status, search alert, paused campaign, 30-day task.

Don't start making calls until you've finished this review. The time you spend organizing makes your outreach twice as effective.

Midday and afternoon (your action block)

This is calling time. Work your Follow Up Boss task list. Answer inbound messages. Update every file you touch with a new task. Every conversation ends with a scheduled next step: a specific date and time you tell them out loud.

End of day (10 minutes)

• Clear or reschedule all overdue tasks; don't let them pile up.
• Note any lead that's ready for long-term care and send the broker the names (Part 5).
• Verify every file you touched today has a next task on it.
• Look at tomorrow's stages so you know what you're walking into.

Nobody gets written off in this program

When a lead stops responding, we don't delete them, trash them, or give up on them. We say they have gone into a coma. They may never wake up. They might wake up in six months. We don't know, and as long as we have an email address and a phone number, we don't need to know, because the system will work them for us indefinitely.

This is a fundamental principle of how this team operates. No lead with a valid contact is ever truly abandoned.

When a lead goes into a coma

A lead is ready for long-term care when:

• 30 days have passed without any meaningful engagement despite active follow-up;
• you have at least 5 genuine outbound call attempts documented in Follow Up Boss (Terminator voicemails count); and
• there is no appointment scheduled, no showing process underway, and no reasonable reason to expect a near-term purchase.

If you don't have five calls logged after 30 days, that's a follow-up problem to fix, not a reason to move the lead early.

The early exception: a lead who will obviously never buy can go before 30 days, with a note in Follow Up Boss saying why. No minimums and no note means the names come back to you.

Moving a lead to long-term care

Email the broker the names, three to five per email. The office runs the transfer:

• the lead is tagged and noted in Follow Up Boss;
• a summary of the whole Follow Up Boss history is pinned to the top of the BoldTrail record; and
• the category, campaign and search alert are set in BoldTrail.

You get an email confirming it's done and naming anything only you can still do. A lead who has said "stop" in any channel is never transferred; it goes to Do Not Contact.

What happens next: BoldTrail works them automatically. Every new listing that matches their criteria hits their inbox. Every market update keeps your name in front of them. You spend zero time on them unless BoldTrail tells you something changed.

There's also a deeper advantage here that Zillow can't match: when a lead searches for homes on your personal BoldTrail website (yourname.your365agent.com), they're connected to you permanently, not just while you're in Zillow's "My Agent" status. Zillow's connection to you expires. Your website never does. A coma patient who wanders back to your site six months from now is still your lead.

When a coma patient wakes up

BoldTrail signals that mean it's time to call:

• Multiple property views in a short period
• Repeated visits to listings in their original search
• Email opens on listing alerts (especially several in one week)
• Return visits to properties they viewed months ago

When you see these signals, call the same day. The window is short. They're browsing because something changed in their life: job, family, finances, a lease ending. You want to be the call they get while they're in that mindset.

A lead that wakes up comes back to you, the agent it's assigned to. Bring them back to active in Follow Up Boss and restart the intake process. They're warm again. Treat them like it.

The final exit

"I bought elsewhere" or "I'm not moving anymore" stay in long-term care as market contacts. In a few years, they may be sellers.

"Stop," "never contact me again" or "take me off your list," in any channel, is an opt-out. Tag them Do Not Contact in Follow Up Boss with a dated note. They are never transferred or marketed to again. Only the customer can lift it, by reaching out first.

The only thing that truly ends a contact is no valid email, no valid phone number, and no way to reach them. Everything else stays in the system.

What Zillow measures

Zillow's performance standards decide your tier and your lead flow:

Zillow's operational standards apply to the whole team:

Miss a minimum for one month and the team goes Yellow. Two months in a row is Red, which starts removal from the program, usually with 30 days to fix it.

How your tier is set

Your tier comes from Zillow's Agent Capacity page, and Zillow updates it every day. When we line up our own agents' scores, the agents in High clear two bars: they close at or above the market, and they hit their Zillow Home Loans pre-approval target. Miss either one and you can't get to High, no matter how strong the other one is. Your pre-approval target works out to about one pre-approval for every ten buyers you meet with in the last 90 days.

The pre-approvals also protect you: when your closing rate dips below the market, they're what keep you in Fair instead of sliding to Low. New agents start in Fair.

Zillow grades the team as well as each agent. Leads that go to Fair and Low agents convert at a lower rate, and that lowers what Zillow sends all of us the next month. Every agent who moves up to High brings more leads to the whole team. High is the standard.

What the brokerage measures

We measure four numbers, each with a floor and a goal:

The Zillow Home Loans transfer rate is a percentage of all your connections, not just eligible ones, and it comes from Zillow's own report (its transfer rate over the last 45 days). Below 7% means a conversation with the broker and the monthly Zillow Home Loans New Agent Training. It's not hostile and it's not punitive; it's a sit-down to figure out what's in the way and fix it. One extra transfer a month moves most agents from the floor to the goal.

CSAT: the score you protect by following up

CSAT is your customer satisfaction rating. It affects lead volume and team standing. The brokerage sends an automatic reminder email to customers before the survey arrives; you never see it.

What you can do: follow up. Agents who stay in regular contact, communicate proactively and respond quickly get higher satisfaction scores than agents who go quiet after the showing. CSAT is a follow-up discipline score wearing a satisfaction disguise. The team target is 90 or higher.

Meeting attendance

Every other Friday at 11:00 AM: the Zillow team meeting. On the Fridays in between, the ALM class (Part 2) if you're on the list.

Every agent is expected to attend every meeting, in person or on Zoom; both count equally. Put your first and last name on your Zoom box. If you can't make it, watch the recording and email confirmation that you've done so before the next meeting.

The meeting is where you see your numbers, hear what's working across the team, and get coaching on what isn't. If you're not attending and not watching, you're not in the program.

The reality about follow-up and money

Follow-up quality, not lead volume, is what separates income levels on this team.

You can triple your income from the same number of leads by changing how consistently you follow up. Not how clever your scripts are. Not how charismatic you are on the phone. Just whether you call back when you said you would, and whether you keep calling until you get a real answer.

The follow-up standard: 30 days, not 7

A new nurture lead gets your call within five minutes (Part 1). From there, a lead stays in active follow-up for the full 30 days from first contact, or until they tell you to stop. Not a week. Not after five calls. Thirty days.

At the end of 30 days, if you haven't been able to reach them, the lead can go to long-term care, but only if you have at least 5 genuine outbound call attempts documented in Follow Up Boss. A genuine attempt means you reached them live or left a voicemail; a call that rang with no message doesn't count.

The pace that makes this work: at least 10 logged calls a week, and 20 total touches a week as the standard. Voicemails count as calls. Email and text are supplements to calls, not substitutes: five texts don't equal five calls.

Five calls is a minimum, not a finish line. Keep calling through the full 30 days. The worst thing that can happen is that they finally pick up and tell you to stop, and at least then you know. Everything short of that is a maybe. Work your maybes.

The Terminator Voicemail

When a lead doesn't answer, leave a voicemail that schedules the next call itself, and then call at exactly that time.

Then call at 6:00. On the dot. Not 5:58. Not 6:02. The time you said.

Do this every time. They start to realize you're not going to stop until they answer the phone. Eventually they pick up, either because they're ready to talk or because they want to tell you to stop, and either answer moves you forward. Calling at the exact time you said also shows, before you've ever met, that when you say you'll do something, you do it.

A real answer is: "I already bought," "I changed my mind," "Never call me again." Everything else is a maybe.

When following up, sound like you know them

Generic follow-up gets ignored. Specific follow-up gets responses.

Same lead. One says you forgot about them. One says you were thinking about them.

The rule on stages

Every lead has a stage in Follow Up Boss at all times. Stale stages mean stale thinking and missed money. The stages run in this order: Lead → Attempted contact → Spoke with customer → Appointment set → Met with customer → Showing homes → Submitting offers → Under contract → Closed, with Nurture to the side.

• No lead sits in Lead for more than 24 hours. Move it to Attempted contact (no answer yet) or the right stage if you've spoken.
• No more than two of your leads may sit in Lead at any time. Over two, you'll be paused until it's cleared. Lead is the first thing Zillow's manager looks at, and Zillow can't see work you did; it sees the stage. If you called and they didn't answer, Attempted contact is the honest stage.
• Never move backward. Leads progress forward, or sideways to Nurture. Never back to Lead.
• Nurture is long-term care. They're coma patients in BoldTrail, still being worked.
• Trash is never used for Zillow leads. Not once. Not for anyone. See Part 3.

Weekly pipeline hygiene: 20 minutes that matter

Once a week, walk your active pipeline and ask: is this lead actually where I put them? A cluttered pipeline hides your real opportunities. An agent with 90 leads in active and four real prospects doesn't know which four to focus on. Most agents work about 30 active leads well; 50 is the ceiling.

Send cold leads to long-term care. Keep your active pipeline on what's real. The system takes care of the rest.

At every team meeting (every other Friday), the broker reviews the following for every agent on the team. These aren't secret. You can see them in Follow Up Boss's Zillow reporting and on the Agent Hub's Your Zillow Ranking page.

The meeting isn't a performance review. It's a coaching session with data. Agents who come prepared, who have looked at their own numbers before the meeting, get more out of it.

Closing rate: how we count it

Closing rate = the Zillow deals you put under contract in the last 90 days, divided by the Zillow leads you received in those same 90 days. Contracts come from Back Office by acceptance date (a cancelled contract never counts); leads come from Follow Up Boss. Same 90 days for you and for the team. These are our numbers, not Zillow's, so there's no lag to explain. Floor 5%, goal 8.5%.

Direction matters too. One bad week is noise; three in a row is a signal. If your rate is sliding, the answer is usually in your stages: are your leads being worked, or piling up in Lead and Attempted contact?

Shared deals count half

When two Zillow-team agents work one deal together, each gets half of it on our numbers (closing rate, contracts written, floors), marked with an asterisk. Team totals count the deal once. Zillow's own system gives the whole deal to whoever the connection is assigned to; we can't change that, but we keep our own numbers fair. One exception: on a new agent's first three deals at FSP, a mentee working with their mentor gets the whole deal.

What staying on this team means

Every agent on this team is here by choice. The commitment form in Appendix C is how that choice is written down: I understand the standards, I want to be on this program, and I'm committing to the work.

This isn't a punishment. It's a starting line. Anyone on the team who isn't willing to make that commitment isn't really on the team, and everyone knows it, even if no one says it. If you decide you don't want to work Zillow this way, that's okay. It's a question of fit, and we'll work out a different lead source with you.

The floors: simple and non-negotiable

• Closing rate: 5% on our 90-day number (goal 8.5%).
• Met-with rate: 20% (goal 25%).
• Zillow Home Loans transfer rate: 7% (goal 10%).
• Calls: 10 logged calls a week (standard 20 total touches).
• Follow Up Boss: your work has to be in the system. If it isn't in Follow Up Boss, it doesn't exist for accountability purposes. The broker can only help you with what he can see.

Below a floor means a sit-down with the broker to figure out what's in the way. It's not hostile. It happens every time.

Who runs this program, and who owns it

This program belongs to BHHS Florida Showcase Properties. The brokerage applied for the program, qualified for it, and signed its current agreement with Zillow in October 2026. Russell Barber is the team lead on that agreement. Individual agents can't qualify for Zillow Preferred on their own; the program is granted to the brokerage based on the team's collective performance.

Every lead that comes through this program arrives because of the brokerage's standing with Zillow. Every lead belongs to the brokerage, not to the agent it's assigned to.

The fee is the brokerage's obligation. In plain numbers: if a transaction generates $10,000.00 in gross commission and the Zillow rate is 40%, the brokerage sends $4,000.00 to Zillow. The remaining $6,000.00 goes through the BHHS royalty and the normal split. Agents never pay Zillow themselves. The brokerage's accounting department pays Zillow out of the gross commission when the deal closes, before the split. (Zillow's agreement lets it bill an agent directly only if the brokerage fails to pay, or on a deal the agent closes after leaving FSP.)

How the Zillow fee works

Zillow is paid only when a deal closes. The fee is a percentage of the gross commission on the deal, never of the sale price. The percentage slides with the price, and the county sets where each tier starts. A seller who came to Zillow to sell is a flat 40% everywhere.

Example: a $350,000.00 sale at 3% is $10,500.00 of gross commission. In Citrus, Marion or Levy the fee is 40%, $4,200.00. In Hernando or Sumter it is 35%, $3,675.00.

Two years or two deals. The fee covers up to two deals for the same customer, whichever comes first: the first within two years of Zillow sending them, the second within two years of that first closing (the two-year clock starts over when the first deal closes). A deal is any side we represent, so a Zillow buyer who also sells their home through FSP is two deals. If the deal closes in a spouse's, a family member's or a company's name, it is still a Zillow deal. A lead that also came from somewhere else still owes Zillow's fee, including a New Homes referral in Terra Vista. If the buyer comes back through Zillow later, the clock can reset. A family member or friend who later buys their own home is a referral from your customer, and that one is yours, fee-free.

Your checklist:

• The lead source is Zillow Flex in Back Office the day the file opens. That includes the listing when a Zillow buyer sells their home with us.
• Already knew them before Zillow sent them? Tell the office within 14 days of delivery, with proof of two-way contact in the 60 days before Zillow sent them. This counts if anyone at FSP already had the customer (a Realtor.com lead, a sign call, a floor call), not only you. The office files the exemption.
• Builder bonuses, buyer or seller incentives, and any admin or brokerage fee the customer pays go on their own lines on the settlement statement. Itemized, Zillow's fee doesn't touch them.
• The day a Zillow contract is fully signed, log it in Premier Agent and move the Back Office file to Pending yourself (Part 12).
• The day a Zillow contract cancels, or its closing date moves, change it in Premier Agent and Back Office, and tell the office.
• Referring a Zillow customer to an agent outside FSP needs Zillow's written approval first. Ask the office.
• Not sure whether a customer is a Zillow customer? Ask before you write the contract.

If you leave the program, or the brokerage

Because all leads belong to the brokerage, there's no such thing as taking Zillow leads with you when you go. That applies whether you're leaving real estate entirely or moving to another brokerage. What happens to those leads depends on how you leave.

If you are leaving real estate entirely: before your license transfers, leave every file in Follow Up Boss fully updated: current stage, recent notes, last contact, next step documented. Another team member needs to be able to pick up exactly where you left off and serve that customer without missing a beat. This is the professional standard this team holds regardless of the circumstances of departure.

If you are leaving to join another brokerage: the same cleanup applies to all of your leads. In addition, you may identify up to five leads, your five best genuine opportunities, to negotiate a handoff with a staying team member. Five is the maximum. There are no exceptions to this cap.

The process for each of those five leads:

1. 1You and the staying agent negotiate whatever split you agree to. The brokerage does not set the terms.
2. 2You add the staying agent as a collaborator on the lead in Follow Up Boss.
3. 3You write a note in Follow Up Boss documenting the agreement as you understand it.
4. 4The staying agent writes a separate note confirming the same agreement in their own words.
5. 5Before your license transfers, you notify the broker that the five leads are ready for review.

The broker checks three things per lead: the collaborator is assigned, the departing agent's note is there, and the staying agent's note is there and agrees. When one of those leads closes, the transaction runs through FSP in the normal way. Zillow's fee comes off the top, and what remains is split according to the documented agreement; FSP issues a check to the departing agent's new brokerage for their share.

All other leads transfer to the broker when you leave the team and are reassigned from there.

One final note on Zillow's fee. If you close one of our Zillow leads after you leave, Zillow's fee is between you, your new brokerage and Zillow. Zillow will bill you, and you must tell your new brokerage about the fee. FSP doesn't take a referral fee on a Zillow lead you close somewhere else; taking one would make FSP owe Zillow on it. For all of this to work, tell the broker the date you join your new brokerage: FSP has 15 days from that date to send Zillow the departure notice.

What the broker will do for you

The broker will meet with you anytime. Weekends. Evenings. However you need to do it. He'll pull your Follow Up Boss data, walk through your pipeline with you, and help you find exactly where leads are dropping out. That's a resource most agents at other brokerages would pay for separately. Use it.

What he will not do is carry agents who aren't making a genuine effort. Everyone on this team is competing for leads, for training time and for coaching attention. Agents who are doing the work deserve those resources. Agents who aren't doing the work are taking them from people who are.

Getting a lead on the phone is step one. Getting in the car is step two. Getting a signed agreement is step three: the step that turns a showing into a client relationship.

The agreement hierarchy

1. 1Zillow Touring Agreement (preferred). Often already signed before you arrive. If not, use it at the door: "Zillow requires a quick form before we go in. No long-term commitment, about 60 seconds."
2. 2BHHS Touring Agreement (backup; always have copies in your car). Same conversation, same framing.
3. 3EBBA, the Exclusive Buyer Brokerage Agreement (the goal). Full representation. Standard terms: 6 months; Citrus County plus Sumter, Marion, Levy and Hernando counties; 3% buyer representation compensation. Explain it as where, how long, and how compensation works (the seller covers it in 90% or more of transactions).
4. 4Non-exclusive showing agreement (last resort). Covers only the specific homes you tour together. Use it as a bridge, not a destination.

When to go for the EBBA

After the first showing, before the second meeting.

Never go out for a second showing without a signed agreement. A first showing without paperwork can happen. A second showing without paperwork is a choice, and it's the wrong one.

If they push back

Ask first: "Is it the commitment itself that concerns you, or are you not sure whether you want to work with me specifically?" Those are two different conversations. If they won't sign anything:

Then move on. For more detail, see the Buyer Representation section of the BHHS Florida Showcase Properties Policy & Procedures Manual.

Logging is a contractual obligation, and it's how Zillow counts the sale you made. A deal Zillow doesn't see doesn't help your closing rate, and a dead deal Zillow still shows as pending hurts the brokerage's standing.

In Zillow: the Transaction tab in Premier Agent

The transaction Zillow credits, bills and grades lives on the connection's Transaction tab in the Zillow Premier Agent app.

1. 1Under contract. Open that connection in Premier Agent and fill in the Transaction tab: address, price, expected closing date, compensation, status Pending. Do it within 48 hours. Move the Follow Up Boss stage to Under contract too.
2. 2Closing date changes. Change it in Premier Agent the day you learn of it. One update takes 90 seconds.
3. 3Cancellations. The day a Zillow contract cancels, take it out of Pending in Premier Agent and tell the office.
4. 4Closed. Mark it Closed and upload the closing statement within four days of closing. Move the Follow Up Boss stage to Closed.

A Follow Up Boss deal is welcome but optional. If you've already logged the transaction in Premier Agent, don't press "Sync to Zillow" in Follow Up Boss, because it can create a duplicate.

In Back Office: the file is yours

• The acceptance date means a fully executed contract: buyer and seller signatures and initials. Enter it only then, upload the contract, and move the file to Pending yourself the same day. (The Pending step asks for a title officer contact; add the closing agent from the contract.)
• The closing date and price on your file are yours to keep current. When they change, update them the same day.
• A dead contract is Cancelled the day it dies. A new offer for the same customer gets a fresh file (Edit > Create a copy).

Documents required

Every new lead

• Nurture lead: called within five minutes, and no text from you before then (the card goes out at five minutes; a text from you skips it)
• Appointment ask within 30 seconds
• Next step on the calendar before hanging up
• Call logged in Follow Up Boss before doing anything else
• Next task set in Follow Up Boss
• BoldTrail set up the next morning

Every day

• Lead stage checked first: no more than two sitting there
• Follow Up Boss Inbox reviewed
• Stages worked in order
• BoldTrail dashboard checked for activity signals
• Every file touched has a next task before end of day
• Leads ready for long-term care sent to the broker

Every week

• At least 10 logged calls
• Pipeline hygiene: active leads are actually active
• Follow Up Boss coverage above 75%
• Zillow Home Loans referral for buyers you've met who are financing
• Zillow team meeting attended every other Friday (or recording watched), and the off-week ALM class if you're on the list

Moving a lead to long-term care

• 30 days and five logged calls (or a note on why it's early)
• Names emailed to the broker, three to five per email
• Receipt email received

Every transaction

• Pending in Premier Agent within 48 hours; Follow Up Boss stage Under contract
• Back Office: acceptance date, contract uploaded, file moved to Pending
• Closing date changes made in Premier Agent and Back Office the same day
• Cancelled the same day in Premier Agent and Back Office, office told
• Closed in Premier Agent, closing statement uploaded within four days