3 Tools for Web Scraping Real Estate Data
Published on July 08, 2024by Botster
If you’re a realtor who has tried to augment business processes using a real estate scraper bot, then you know that finding the perfect real estate web scraping tool is not a very easy task.
For real estate data extraction, most realtors rely on the manual method which involves copying and pasting data from source into Excel one after the other.
But guess what? After today, you’ll never have to engage in that grueling task because, in this article, I will show you a proven fast and easy method for web scraping real estate data without stress!
In the next few minutes, I will show you a 3-in-1 easy-to-use automation tool that can help you extract real estate data, from single listings to bulk extraction!
In this step-by-step guide, you’ll learn:
- How to scrape real estate listings’ links
- How to scrape real estate data from the extracted listing links
- How to set up the real estate web scraper for constant monitoring
By the end of this comprehensive guide, you’ll be able to make a database of properties and their information like the one below in just a matter of minutes!
By web scraping real estate property data, you’ll be able to streamline multiple business processes such as tracking property details and communication with clients and also generating new leads.
The benefits of web scraping for real estate
Are you new to the concept of scraping and wondering “what is scraping in real estate?”
Well, real-estate web scraping refers to the process of extracting certain data and information from a website, forum, catalog, or any location on the web to have it stored locally on your computer.
Basically, you can do this manually by selecting the data, and then copying and pasting it into specific fields into any spreadsheet app of your choice.
Of course, that is a tedious and time-intensive process. A better and smarter way to do this is to leverage the versatility of a real estate web scraper that can easily get it done within just a minute or two.
If you’re a realtor who has never considered scraping, here are some benefits of web scraping for real estate you should consider:
- Market research and analysis: scraping can help you gather and easily sort detailed information about properties, including specifications, amenities, and features. With this data, you can easily identify market trends, understand consumer needs, and optimize your pricing strategy.
- Lead generation and prospecting: when you scrape real estate listings, you can easily identify potential leads and prospects. These tools can even help you extract contact information to reach potential buyers or sellers more effectively.
- Competitive analysis: with real estate website scraping, you can monitor competitors’ listings, pricing, and marketing strategies. It provides insights into market positioning, allowing you to stay competitive and adjust your offerings accordingly.
That’s what this article is about because I will show exactly how to scrape real estate data step by step!
To make this guide as clear and easy to follow as possible, I will scrape Zillow real estate listings in New York City, New York from Apartments.com and make the steps as detailed as possible.
How to scrape real estate data with 3 automation tools
Before now, manually copying property info into Excel one after the other was the norm for real estate data scraping. However, that will no longer be the case as you can now easily get the same results automatically with just a few clicks of the button.
This is only possible with the help of Botster’s brand-new customizable bot that can scrape virtually any field from any real estate website and requires no coding knowledge!
This smart tool is called the No-Code Bot Builder, and users can customize it to automate different tasks such as scraping web pages, monitoring web content, and extracting structured data from catalogs, lists, and directories.
This bot has 3 different options you can choose from — the list scraper, the single page scraper, and the web monitoring bot. These are what make it the perfect tool for real estate scraping.
- The list scraper is the tool you need to export data lists from places such as real estate category pages, catalogs, and other paginated directories.
- The single-page scraper can extract data and information from single pages like property pages, product pages, event pages, and more. It lets you select specific elements you wish to extract on the target page and exports the data into a spreadsheet in just a few seconds.
- The web monitoring bot is designed for tasks relating to web monitoring. Say you would like to keep tabs on an element that changes often (a property price, for example), this is the tool for you.
Tool 1 - Scrape real estate listings’ links
The first of these tools we’ll be checking out is the List Scraper. As I mentioned earlier, the List Scraper can extract data from a list or catalog.
In applying it to a real estate website scraping scenario, this is the tool you’d use to extract lists of properties from any real estate platform.
To access the List Scraper in the No-Code Bot Builder and start web scraping for real estate, you must first create a free account on Botster:
Registration is fast and easy, and your credit card details are not even required.
With your account registered and email verified, you are now ready to scrape real estate data in real-time!
Setting up the List Scraper bot is pretty straightforward. Simply follow the steps below:
- Install Botster’s official Chrome extension:
- Next, give it access to the incognito mode. Open your Chrome settings, go to “Extension”, click on “Details” under Botster, and turn on “Allow in Incognito”:
- Once added, launch the No-Code Bot Builder by clicking on “Create bot”:
- On the prompt that comes up, tick “List Scraper” and click on “Select”:
- Next, give your job a name and set a project folder if needed:
- Scroll down and paste the URL to any listing page, enter how many products to extract, and click select elements:
- Now, the picker needs help identifying the product list. After you’ve clicked the green “Let’s start” button, click on any element of the first item:
- Now, you can go ahead with the property details selection. Make sure to include property links - for that purpose, select the property title and select “URL” instead of “Text” in the dropdown menu on the element picker. You only need to select your desired elements for the first item; the bot will do the rest:
- Click “Stop” and select the pagination type. The pagination for my case study is link pagination. Select “Infinite scroll” for pages that update automatically and “Button pagination” for pages with “Next” or “See more”:
For button and link pagination, you’ll also have to select the pagination element, and then “Finish” to return to the bot’s page.
- Set your notification preferences and be sure to tick “Attach results to email”:
- Now you can launch the bot and that’s it! Easy peasy!
And there goes all about setting up the List Scraper to scrape real estate listing data in bulk!
Clicking “Start this bot” will automatically launch the “My Jobs” page where you can see the bot running. In just about a minute or two, the bot would have gathered all the data you requested.
Video guide
Here’s a quick setup video of this List Scraper if you’d prefer:
Results
Once the bot is done scraping real estate data from the URL you entered, you should see something similar to this:
From here, you can either view the results online or download the spreadsheet to your computer.
Viewing the results in Excel should look similar to this:
Tips
- Make sure you select the right pagination type. As I said, “Link pagination” is for numbered pages, while “Infinite scroll” is for pages that load automatically when you scroll.
- Use this bot to export a list of links to each real estate listing for use in the next bot. Select the linked element and change from “text” to “URL” in the elements box.
Tool 2 - Scrape real estate data from the extracted listing links
Now that we know how to scrape real estate listings successfully, let’s extract more detailed info about the properties we just extracted.
Remember, the Single-page Scraper is the tool you need if you want to export data from single pages like product pages, information pages, event pages, and more. Luckily, house/apartment pages are no different from product pages.
Note that these bots are not using any real estate scraper API. Rather, they are picking the data directly from the target web pages, which is very cool.
Setting up the Single-page Scraper takes only a few moments:
- Launch the No-Code Bot Builder, select Single-page Scraper, and give the job a name.
- Next, paste the link to a property info page and click “Select Elements” as we did earlier:
- On the pop-up window, click “Select elements” and pick the data you need from the page:
- Next, paste links to other property pages - the ones we exported earlier - to extract the same data from them. Ensure the URLs have the same structure:
- You can ignore the custom options and simply launch the job right away!
And that’s it! Pretty easy, ain’t it?
Just a few moments and you’ll have the python-web scraping real estate data ready to be downloaded.
Video guide
If you’d prefer a video of this bot’s setup, here you go:
Results
Viewing the results from this bot in Microsoft Excel should look like this:
Tips
- When pasting more URLs, ensure they have identical structures, otherwise, the bot won’t work.
- When selecting elements with links (such as titles), you can choose between “text” or “URL” to tell the bot which to extract.
- Eager to explore direct mail marketing? Read my comprehensive guide on how to launch the best real estate direct mail campaigns.
Tool 3 - Real estate web scraper for monitoring purposes
Now finally, let me quickly show you how to set up the last bot in this combo for your particular scraping in real estate use cases.
The bot in question is the web monitoring tool. It’s your best choice for any monitoring tasks you might have.
For instance, if you’d like to monitor the prices of several houses to know when they go down, go up, or completely disappear (which means they’ve been bought or rented), this is the bot for you!
This could be said to be different from the methods of scraping real estate data I’ve shared so far because this one only monitors and sends notifications to your email address.
Setting up the web monitoring tool in the No-Code Bot Builder is pretty straightforward. Let me quickly show you:
- Launch the No-Code Bot Builder and select "Web monitoring tool".
- Paste the URL to a product page and click on “Select elements” like we did for the first two bots:
- In the selection window, add the elements that are important to your price monitoring. Something to identify the listing and the price is enough:
Click on “Stop” and then on “Finish” to go back to the bot’s page.
- Add URLs for other listings you wish to monitor. Only make sure the URLs have identical structures:
- Next, set your time and scheduling settings for the bot run:
- You can let the bot run until you stop it or set an expiry date if you only want to monitor the price change within a time frame:
- Once that’s done, launch the bot into action and you’ll see something like this:
This tells you that the job is active, and that’s it! You’ve just set up one of the best real estate data scraping services to monitor price changes on automation!
As long as the bot is on, you’ll get a notification in your email whenever the price on the target pages changes!
Simply amazing!
Video guide
Here’s also a video guide detailing this bot’s setup:
Results
You may not receive a notification in your email if there’s no change in price. However, you can always download the monitoring log if you open the project from the “My Jobs” page. Mine looks like this:
Tips
- You can monitor the prices of similar apartments in your property’s environments to improve your own pricing strategy.
- You can also monitor the prices of properties on online auction sites and connect the notifications to Telegram or Slack for faster updates.
- If you’re thinking of exploring digital marketing, my guide on how to find the best keywords for real estate ads is a rich resource you must check out.
Free trial for the real estate data scraping tools
Bravo! You’ve learned all there is to learn about real estate web scraping!
Remember that these bots are not restricted to apartments.com only.
Actually, one thing I’ve been dying to tell you is that you can gain unrestricted access to these bots for the next 7 days, free of charge. All you have to do is open a free account on Botster right now to claim your bonus while the offer lasts.
But even when the free trial days are over, you have nothing to worry about because these tools for web scraping real estate data I’ve just shared with you cost so little you’d hardly feel it.
Combined, they cost about the same as a pack of push pins, yet their benefits to building your business are unquantifiable!
Don't let this chance pass you by! Register on Botster to access them right away!
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