Zillow Q2 Earnings Beat Analyst Estimates (Slightly) With $27.8M In Revenue, $1.3M Net Income

Online real estate site Zillow came out slightly ahead of analyst predictions in its second quarter earnings results, reporting $27.8 million in revenue and earnings of 5 cents per share. Wall Street estimates had put revenue at $27.1 million and  earnings at 4 cents per share.

Net income was $1.3 million, down from $1.6 million during the same period last year.

The revenue numbers mark another revenue record for Zillow — the previous record was last quarter’s $22.8 million. That’s also a 75 percent increase over Q2 2011. In the earnings press release, CEO Spencer Rascoff says:

“Zillow had an excellent second quarter as record usage and effective monetization on mobile and Web propelled revenue and adjusted EBITDA ahead of our outlook. We continue to extend our leadership and expand our three core marketplaces in real estate, mortgages and rentals with products and services that delight consumers and help local professionals better manage and market their businesses. I’m particularly pleased with the momentum in forging strong partnerships with high-profile real estate brokerages, and the industry’s reception to our new products, such as our award-winning Premier Agent Websites, which help local professionals manage and market their businesses.”

That Premier Agent Website feature that Rascoff refers to is basically a WordPress website builder for real estate agents. Zillow’s Premier Agent program (which also allows agents to deliver targeted ads) now has 22,696 subscribers, up 70 percent from last year.

The company also says that its average monthly unique visitors have grown to 33.5 million, from 31.8 million last quarter and 20.8 million during this quarter last year. July saw record traffic, with 38 million unique visitors. Those visitors include 6 million renters per month (Zillow recently acquired rental software company RentJuice.)

The company points to the first quarter of this year as a tipping point of sorts, with more homes viewed via mobile than via desktop. That trend seems to be continuing — in July, 168 million homes were viewed on Zillow Mobile, compared to 155 million in March. And while many of the big web companies might be eyeing that shift with concern, Rascoff told us recently that the company could actually make more money on mobile than on desktop.