SAN FRANCISCO — A Starbucks espresso machine, a stocked kitchen, a shuffleboard table, writeable walls in Zillow blue and many large computer monitors fill Zillow’s new office space in downtown San Francisco.

The newly furnished 18,350-square-foot space, which occupies the 11th floor of the Standard Oil Building in the heart of San Francisco’s Financial District, brings together under one roof two rentals-focused companies Zillow acquired in 2012 — RentJuice, now rebranded as Zillow Rentals, and HotPads.

SAN FRANCISCO — A Starbucks espresso machine, a stocked kitchen, a shuffleboard table, writeable walls in Zillow blue and many large computer monitors fill Zillow’s new office space in downtown San Francisco.

The newly furnished 18,350-square-foot space, which occupies the 11th floor of the Standard Oil Building in the heart of San Francisco’s Financial District, brings together under one roof two rentals-focused companies Zillow acquired in 2012 — RentJuice, now rebranded as Zillow Rentals, and HotPads.

"We wanted to come together in one space," said David Vivero, vice president of Zillow Rentals, at the office’s grand opening event yesterday evening. Zillow joins Trulia in downtown San Francisco, which is only a half-mile from the new office.

The U-shaped office houses more than 60 employees in an open floor plan. Although the office has numerous conference rooms and a game room, there are no private offices. It’s part of the firm’s philosophy of operation transparency.

Zillow’s San Francisco office space. Photo courtesy of Zillow.

Zillow’s wide-open office setup took some getting used to, said Greg Schwartz, Zillow’s chief revenue officer, who works out of Zillow’s Seattle headquarters. In Seattle, even Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff has no office.

"It’s an adjustment," said Chris Crocker, a former vice president of Realogy’s brokerage wing NRT LLC, who Zillow hired in January to deepen relationships with real estate brokerages.

Even though he always imagined he would move into a bigger office of his own as his career advanced, the open layout helps him stay on the same page as coworkers, Crocker said. Now he just calls out across the room if he needs to reach somebody.

That open setup was on full display in Zillow’s new space. In one section, engineers, project managers and customer service reps’ desks back up to each other.

The mash-up creates a feedback loop, Schwartz said during an informal tour; the engineers can overhear, in an organic way, what customers are looking for in their design.

A company heavy into metrics, Zillow shares that interest with its employees. Schwartz pointed out large monitors on the wall facing Zillow employee workstations. The monitors display real-time performance metrics, he said, which helps the sales and production teams monitor their progress throughout the day.

Zillow has done some measurements, too. It’s determined, for example, which music, pumped in from overhead, is best at certain times of the day at enhancing its employee’s performances, Schwartz said.

The result? Techno jams in the morning, symphony at lunch time, classic rock in the afternoon and then pumping techno toward the end of the day, Schwartz said.

HotPads has its own section within the open office design.

"We wanted to keep the feeling of their team together," Vivero said.

The HotPads unit bumps up against one of the office’s interesting features — write-on walls, painted in Zillow light blue with "Write on me," written in the center.

At Zillow’s headquarters in Seattle, some walls weren’t clearly identified as writable or not, Vivero said, and ended up getting marked up accidentally.

Show Comments Hide Comments
Sign up for Inman’s Morning Headlines
What you need to know to start your day with all the latest industry developments
By submitting your email address, you agree to receive marketing emails from Inman.
Success!
Thank you for subscribing to Morning Headlines.
Back to top
Only 3 days left to register for Inman Connect Las Vegas before prices go up! Don't miss the premier event for real estate pros.Register Now ×
Limited Time Offer: Get 1 year of Inman Select for $199SUBSCRIBE×
Log in
If you created your account with Google or Facebook
Don't have an account?
Forgot your password?
No Problem

Simply enter the email address you used to create your account and click "Reset Password". You will receive additional instructions via email.

Forgot your username? If so please contact customer support at (510) 658-9252

Password Reset Confirmation

Password Reset Instructions have been sent to

Subscribe to The Weekender
Get the week's leading headlines delivered straight to your inbox.
Top headlines from around the real estate industry. Breaking news as it happens.
15 stories covering tech, special reports, video and opinion.
Unique features from hacker profiles to portal watch and video interviews.
Unique features from hacker profiles to portal watch and video interviews.
It looks like you’re already a Select Member!
To subscribe to exclusive newsletters, visit your email preferences in the account settings.
Up-to-the-minute news and interviews in your inbox, ticket discounts for Inman events and more
1-Step CheckoutPay with a credit card
By continuing, you agree to Inman’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

You will be charged . Your subscription will automatically renew for on . For more details on our payment terms and how to cancel, click here.

Interested in a group subscription?
Finish setting up your subscription
×