The writing on the wall is evident: we’re in for some rocky financial occasions, Zillow CEO Wealthy Barton predicted in a brand new interview printed Thursday.

However amongst his warnings of additional disruption within the housing market, Barton’s forecast comes with a silver lining: monetary alternative.

“I really love a storm,” Barton advised the web site GeekWire in a wide-ranging interview that additionally touched on the well being of Zillow as an organization, the choice to shutter the iBuying platform Zillow Provides and his personal early profession. “Warren Buffett likes to say: you don’t know who’s swimming bare till the tide goes out. Lots of people (are) swimming bare proper now, getting uncovered.”

Barton stated Zillow — which held $3.4 billion in money and investments on the finish of 2022 and boasts almost 200 million month-to-month guests to its web sites — is properly ready to climate any storm, together with the banking fallout spurred alongside by the failures of Silicon Valley Financial institution and Signature which are nonetheless unfolding now.

“A variety of cruft is getting washed out to sea,” he advised GeekWire, referring not solely to the banking whiplash but additionally rates of interest reaching 20-year highs and layoffs throughout all sectors of the financial system. “And if you happen to’re a corporation or an organization that’s sporting a washing go well with and a wetsuit, you’re all good. And that’s sort of how I really feel proper now.”

“I’m actually feeling higher than I’ve felt in a very long time proper now,” Barton added.

Zillow reported fourth quarter revenues of $435 million, beating most analysts’ estimates and trimming its web losses to $72 million.

The corporate posted income 19 p.c decrease than the fourth quarter of 2021 — the identical quarter by which the corporate ended its nascent iBuying enterprise Zillow Provides, earlier than the iBuying sector started to buckle below the burden of heightened rates of interest that brought about Zillow competitor Redfin to shutter its iBuyer RedfinNow almost a yr later.

“We have been forward, fortunately, of what’s occurred within the housing market this yr,” Barton stated. “I really feel fairly good about that call.”

For the financial system at giant, Barton stated he thinks latest layoffs within the tech sector — which embody 10,000 eradicated positions at Fb mother or father Meta — alerts that the true exhausting occasions are nonetheless to come back.

“The true ache might be coming,” he stated. “All organizations needs to be ready for that.”

Barton stated he relishes the chance to steer throughout powerful occasions, wanting again at his profession in tech that has included co-founding the journey large Expedia,  the corporate opinions web site Glassdoor and the journey images web site Trover.

“The stuff that I actually love essentially the most is after I’m deep within the trenches in a disaster state of affairs with a staff of individuals I really like and we’re doing one thing essential,” he stated.

Barton drew a comparability to the “swing” pulled off by the College of Washington’s males’s crew staff within the 1936 Olympics — who narrowly defeated Germany and Italy although the percentages have been stacked towards them to deliver dwelling a gold medal — to explain the sensation of efficiently main a enterprise by uneven waters.

“It simply appears like magic and it feels easy and you are feeling euphoric,” he advised GeekWire.

Talking of his work mentoring younger entrepreneurs, Bartson stated he tries to behave as a “ballast weight” throughout good occasions and unhealthy.

“You understand, this too shall cross. We’ll get by this,” he tells his mentees. “Do the proper factor, talk clearly, don’t conceal something, get it on the market, get the proper individuals round you, and you’ll make it by.”

The simplest leaders are happiest throughout powerful occasions, in response to Barton.

“I really suppose in stormy climate, it’s when leaders are the happiest,” he stated. “It’s when the worth of what we do as leaders is excessive.”

E mail Ben Verde