Zillow is a thriving real estate firm in the U.S. that targets reinventing the real estate business. It is the most visited real estate website, providing buying, selling, financing, and renting services and data. The organization offers real-time solutions to real estate investment concerns, a crucial factor when investing in real property.
However, extracting figures and information from this website can be challenging and time-consuming. Zillow scraping on the other end is the perfect solution to this concern. Several web scrappers let you scrape Zillow data related to properties listed for rent and sale. The official Zillow API allows you to scrape unlimited property listings - see also job listings scrapers. You can also download the resources in JSON, Excel, HTML, CSV, and XML formats. The real estate data you can extract from Zillow include description, price, room specs, address, and photos.
These are several web scrapers you can use to scrape Zillow. However, this article has listed the best and most reliable scrapers you can use to scrape Zillow data.
What Is Zillow Scraping?
Zillow scraping is the process of extracting factual data of real estate listings on sale and rent across the U.S. from the Zillow website. Other data you can collect include financing options, pricing, and mortgages. The website has an inclusive database containing real estate properties and client information. It is trusted by most investors, property owners, prospect buyers, brokers, and sellers.
Zillow real estate scraper lets you extract information about Zillow Homes, Zillow Home Loans, and Zillow Closing Services.
How Does Zillow Scraping Work?
Scraping websites can differ from one website to another. However, there are a few procedures that are standard across all websites. Below is how Zillow scraping works.
Zillow integrates APIs into its system that simplifies the scraping process. One API can handle 1000 requests or queries in a day. However, the APIs can be inefficient, especially when you want data in quantity for study. Also, free APIs can not scrape Zillow.
Zillow employs several anti-scraping tools to prevent scraping data from the website. Therefore, you need prior knowledge about scraping to do it successfully. Also, you'll need to figure out how to work around I.P. analysis, captcha, and honeypot traps for the scraping process to go through successfully.
How to Scrape Zillow Using Python
Python is widely used when it comes to Zillow scraping. It is reliable and straightforward to work with it. However, you'll need to install Python 3 and Pip before scraping Zillow using Python. For Mac users, use this guide to install and run Python on Linux. For Linux users, you can use this link, http://docs.python-guide.org/en/latest/starting/install3/linux/ to install and run Python. Similarly, Windows users can follow this page, https://www.scrapehero.com/how-to-install-python3-in-windows-10/ to learn how to install and run Python on Windows.
To work with Python 3 in scraping Zillow, you'll also need HTML code. You'll have to install PIP and get a Python request to download HTML content. Finally, you need Python LXML to parse the HTML Tree Structure.
Follow the instructions listed below to perform the Zillow scraping using Python.
Insert the postal code to do a search on the Zillow website. This function will process a search result URL.
Copy the search result URL displayed.
Launch Python request to download HTML code.
Launch LXML to parse the search result page.
Export the data obtained. It should be in the CSV file.
Running the Zillow Data Scraper
import requests from bs4 import BeautifulSoup class ZillowScraper: def init(self): self.url = "https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/Los-Angeles- CA_rb/?fromHomePage=true&shouldFireSellPageImplicitClaimGA=false&fromHomePageTab=buy" self.properties = [] def scrape_properties(self): headers = { 'accept': 'text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,image/webp,image/apng,*/*;q=0.8', 'accept-encoding': 'gzip, deflate, br', 'accept-language': 'en-US,en;q=0.8', 'upgrade-insecure-requests': '1', 'user-agent': 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/61.0.3163.100 Safari/537.36' } content = requests.get(self.url, headers=headers) soup = BeautifulSoup(content.text, "html.parser") properties = soup.find("ul", {"class": "photo-cards photo-cards_wow photo- cards_short"}).find_all("li") for e in properties: price = e.find("article").find("div", {"class": "list-card-price"}).text address = e.find("article").find("div", {"class": "list-card-addr"}).text self.properties.append([price, address]) print(self.properties) x = ZillowScraper() x.scrape_properties()
Zillow Scraper Output Example
A successful Zillow scraping process will extract property information which is then stored in the dataset. An output example of a successful Zillow scaping process is as follows.
{
"address": {
"streetAddress": "30520 Valerio St",
"city": "Winnetka",
"state": "CA",
"zipcode": "91306",
"neighborhood": null,
"community": null,
"subdivision": null },
"bedrooms": 5,
"bathrooms": 4,
"price": 950000,
"yearBuilt": 2010,
"longitude": -121.62111783402102,
"homeStatus": "FOR_SALE",
"latitude": 29.30482108601789,
"description": "This wonderful 5 bedroom, 4 bathroom home nestled in Chicago offers over 3,150 sq ft of space. The front door opens to vaulted ceilings and appealing wood flooring. It has dual windows which supply enough natural sunlight. The family room composes of a fully customized entertainment space with high ceilings, a skylight, and chandeliers. The kitchen features stylish granite countertops, brownish wood cabinetry, and a tile backsplash. The master bedroom features an impressive walk-in closet and an elegant bathroom. There is a covered patio and a flowerbed in the backyard that complements the attractive space. Lastly, there is a large garage that fits two cars.
"livingArea": 2765,
"currency": "USD",
"url": "https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/30520-Valerio-St-Winnetka-CA-91306/19912555_zpid/",
"photos": [ "https://photos.zillowstatic.com/fp/f911e9dcb1d4ab7761b410c5e16870fa-p_f.jpg",
// ...
]
}
Do You Need Proxies to Scrape Zillow?
Yes, you need proxies to scrape data from Zillow. Zillow, just like other websites, doesn't like being scraped. Therefore, they have anti-scraping tools which detect and limit scraping activities. When integrated with Zillow scrapers, Proxies can scrape the website efficiently without detection.
Below are some of the reasons why you need proxies when scraping Zillow
Get Unrestricted Access to Zillow
Zillow restricts users from certain geographic locations from accessing their website. It also denies access to some queries that need information about location-specific data. Using proxies breaks this restriction, allowing you to access the website freely. The proxies will let you access the website, no matter your location, benefiting real estate agents, buyers, and sellers who travel a lot across the U.S states.
Scrape Unlimited Data
Zillow restricts its scrapers to 1000 queries per day to distract individuals from extracting large amounts of data from the site. The website may block you from extracting data if your IP address is not configured with rotating proxies. Proxies come in handy to enable you to extract an unlimited range of data from the Zillow website.
Grant Anonymous and Secure Access to Zillow Data
The website cookies and other third parties can access your identification, location, and IP address when scraping Zillow. This feature can grant hackers an opportunity to acquire and ridge your information and privacy. Integrating proxies lets you scrape Zillow securely and anonymously, safeguarding your identifications and privacy.
Other Zillow Scrapers
There are several other web scrapers you can use to scrape Zillow. Below is a list of some of the reputable scrapers you can use as far as Zillow scraping is concerned.
Octoparse
Octoparse is a web scraping software that extracts unstructured data of homes from the Zillow website. It then converts these into structured data sets, which would otherwise require coding. It is a free Zillow web scraper compatible with Windows devices.
You can use this software to extract as many as ten concurrent threads in a few periods. Below are its key features.
Octoparse Key Features
- It supports Cloud and desktop platforms.
- The software is free and has a 14-day free trial.
- Its pricing is a bit higher than Apify's Zillow API Scraper. You need to pay not less than $75 per month.
- It supports JSON, SQL CSV, MySQL, and Excel output formats.
WebHarvy
WebHarvy is a simple and reliable Zillow web scraping tool to employ. It is sophisticated and features an easy-to-use interface. This web scraper can automatically scrape data from the Zillow platform and other websites and save the output in different formats, including CSV, Excel, and JSON. When scraping data from Zillow, you only need to open the website, access the specific page, and click the data you want to save.
Besides scraping data from Zillow, you can also use this software to scrape data and obtain search results from Academic Research, E-commerce, and Technology websites.
WebHarvy Key Features
- It has free trials.
- It will cost you not less than $139 for a single-user license.
- It supports JSON, TXT, Excel, XML, and CSV output formats.
- It is compatible with mobile and desktop platforms.
ParseHub
ParseHub scraper uses Zillow's internal API to extract data from the Zillow website. It is primarily meant for real estate developers. You can use it to get information about properties for rent or sale.
It does not have restrictions on geographical locations; thus, you can use it to access information about properties from any address. It is compatible with the ParseHub website and third-party platforms.
ParseHub Key Features
- It has free trials.
- Its starter plan has actor computer units.
- The actor computer units cost not less than $149 per month.
- It supports the Cloud platform, though you can also access it through the Zillow API.
- It supports JSON data output format.
Apify’s Zillow API Scraper
Apify's Zillow API Scraper lets you search and extract data for homes regardless of their location or physical address. It uses Apify SDK, compatible with the Apify website and third-party platforms. It also integrates with Zillow's internal API, which divides the map into four parts to reduce the impact of the query limit.
Apify’s Zillow API Scraper Key Features
- It is not free. You'll have to pay an affordable monthly fee of not less than $49.
- It has a free trial. If your free account is still functional at the end of the month, you'll get a $5 credit.
- It supports Excel, CSV, RSS XML, HTML, and JSON output formats.
- It supports Cloud and desktop platforms.
Final Word on Zillow Scraper
Scraping Zillow is legal. The several ways employed to scrape Zillow are straightforward. Python, for instance, is reliable when it comes to scraping homes information from this website. Alternative methods such as WebHarvy, ParseHub, and Octoparse are also reliable ways to get this information. Take advantage of their free trials and the several output formats they support. Remember to use proxies when scraping Zillow to allow the scraping of unlimited data, have unlimited and unrestricted access, and a secure, anonymous scraping process.
FAQs
1. How Much it Costs to Use Zillow?
The average cost of using the Zillow Scraper is about $0.25 for every 2,000 results scraped. Note that it is much more efficient to run one longer scrape (at least one minute) than more shorter ones because of the startup time.
2. What is Map Splitting?
To overcome the Zillow API limits of 1,000 calls per day and 20 calls per page, the scraper uses Zillow's internal API to search for homes on a rectangular section of a map.If the number of results on the map is higher than 500, the map is split into four quadrants and zoomed. Each of these quadrants is searched for homes and can again contain 500 results.
3. How to Extend Scraper Function?
You can add additional functionality directly inside the handlePageFunction of the scraper without modifying the existing code. This function receives internal functions that can be used to enqueue, fetch, or control the scraper.
4. What is Changelog in Zillow?
Zillow Real Estate Scraper is actively maintained and regularly updated. You can always find the latest fixes and changes in the changelog.
