The software company being acquired is San Francisco-based Follow Up Boss. Zillow will dish out $400 million upfront for the company and up to $100 million in a potential cash earnout, it said. 

Close to 100 full-time employees will transition to Zillow Group once the transaction closes, including the company's co-founders, Dan Corkill and Tom Markov.

Follow Up Boss will remain an independent brand and will continue to build its client base as a standalone product. Being integrated into Zillow will allow the software company to "invest further in improving its product offerings, helping their clients deliver the best possible customer experience," a press release stated.

"Zillow Group continues to invest in tech solutions to help agents deliver an increasingly seamless experience for our shared customers," said Susan Daimler, president of Zillow. "Follow Up Boss has built the best CRM for agents and teams in the industry, and we look forward to supporting its continued success so agents can exceed the needs of today's buyers and sellers." 

The real estate company's announcement also emphasized that customer data privacy is a top priority for both it and Follow Up Boss. It outlined that "Follow Up Boss will work with a third-party validator to ensure that the data stays safe and protected under the Follow Up Boss terms of use and privacy policy."

Follow Up Boss dubs itself as a "world class CRM" with an open API offering a flexible toolbox for real estate professionals, per the software company's website.

Zillow noted that it continues to invest in industry tools to streamline the homebuying process, such as its recent acquisition of dotloop, a real estate transaction management solution and ShowingTime, a showing management and market stats technology provider.