How to scrape Zillow in no time

This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Nicolae Rotaru

Introduction

Zillow is a real estate company that offers various products targeted at both home buyers and sellers.

You can scrape listings from Zillow, with data including addresses, prices, descriptions, photos, URLs to perform:

price monitoring
trends analysis
competitor analysis

Challenges

At first look, scraping Zillow doesn't seem to be a trivial task because of the following aspects:

The content from the listing page is returned dynamically, based on scrolling events.
The names of the CSS selectors are dynamically generated and cannot be used to pick the needed content, and we will use XPath selectors instead.

For this purpose, we will use Page2API - the scraping API that overtakes the challenges mentioned above with ease.

In this article, we will describe how to scrape two types of Zillow pages:

Property listings page
Property overview page

Prerequisites

To start scraping, you will need the following things:

A Page2API account
A location, in which we want to search for listed properties, let's use for example Redwood City
A property overview page from Zillow. We will pick a random property link from the page mentioned above.

Scraping Zillow listings page

First what we need is to open the Homes page and type the name of the city that will show the properties we are searching for.

In our case we will open this page:

https://www.zillow.com/homes/

and search for Redwood City

It will change the browser URL to something similar to:

https://www.zillow.com/homes/Redwood-City,-CA_rb/

The resulted URL is the first parameter we need to start scraping the listings page.

The listings page must look similar to the following one:

If you inspect the page HTML, you will find out that a single result is wrapped into an element that looks like the following:

The HTML for a single result element will look like this:

From the listing page, we will scrape the following attributes from each property:

Price
URL
Bedrooms
Bathrooms
Living area
Status
Address

Each property container is wrapped in an article element with the following class: list-card.

Now, let's define the selectors for each attribute.

/* Parent: */
article.list-card

/* Price: */
.list-card-price

/* URL: */
a

/* Bedrooms: */
ul.list-card-details li:nth-child(1)

/* Bathrooms: */
ul.list-card-details li:nth-child(2)

/* Living area: */
ul.list-card-details li:nth-child(3)

/* Status: */
ul.list-card-details li:nth-child(4)

/* Address: */
a address.list-card-addr

Next is the pagination handling.

In our case, we must click on the next page link while the link will be active:

document.querySelector('.search-pagination a[rel=next]').click()

And stop our scraping request when the next page link became disabled.

In our case, a new attribute (disabled) is assigned to the pagination link.

The stop condition for the pagination will look like this:

document.querySelector('.search-pagination a[rel=next]').getAttributeNames().includes('disabled')

// returns true if there is no next page

The last thing is handling the content that loads dynamically when we scroll down.

Usually, there are 40 items on the page, but when the page loads - it has only about 8 items.

To load all items we will do the next trick:

Wait for the page to load
Scroll down 3 times slowly, (with a short delay) until we see the last item
Start scraping the page

Now let's build the request that will scrape all properties that the search page returned.

Setting the api_key as an environment variable:

export API_KEY=YOUR_PAGE2API_KEY

The payload for our scraping request will be:

{
  "url": "https://www.zillow.com/homes/Redwood-City,-CA_rb/",
  "real_browser": true,
  "merge_loops": true,
  "scenario": [
    {
      "loop": [
        { "wait_for": ".search-pagination a[rel=next]" },
        { "execute_js": "var articles = document.querySelectorAll('article')"},
        { "execute_js": "articles[Math.round(articles.length/4)].scrollIntoView({behavior: 'smooth'})"},
        { "wait": 1 },
        { "execute_js": "articles[Math.round(articles.length/2)].scrollIntoView({behavior: 'smooth'})"},
        { "wait": 1 },
        { "execute_js": "articles[Math.round(articles.length/1.5)].scrollIntoView({behavior: 'smooth'})"},
        { "wait": 1 },
        { "execute": "parse"},
        { "execute_js": "document.querySelector('.search-pagination a[rel=next]').click()" }
      ],
    "stop_condition": "document.querySelector('.search-pagination a[rel=next]').getAttributeNames().includes('disabled')"
  }

],
  "parse": {
    "properties": [
      {
        "_parent": "article.list-card",
        "price": ".list-card-price >> text",
        "url": "a >> href",
        "bedrooms": "ul.list-card-details li:nth-child(1) >> text",
        "bathrooms": "ul.list-card-details li:nth-child(2) >> text",
        "living_area": "ul.list-card-details li:nth-child(3) >> text",
        "status": "ul.list-card-details li:nth-child(4) >> text",
        "address": "a address.list-card-addr >> text"
      }
    ]
  }
}

We have to encode our JS snippets in base64 to run the request in the terminal with cURL.

Running the scraping request with cURL:

curl -v -XPOST -H "Content-type: application/json" -d '{
  "api_key": "'"$API_KEY"'",
  "url": "https://www.zillow.com/homes/Redwood-City,-CA_rb/",
  "real_browser": true,
  "merge_loops": true,
  "scenario": [
    {
      "loop" : [
        { "wait_for": ".search-pagination a[rel=next]" },
        { "execute_js": "dmFyIGFydGljbGVzID0gZG9jdW1lbnQucXVlcnlTZWxlY3RvckFsbCgnYXJ0aWNsZScp"},
        { "execute_js": "YXJ0aWNsZXNbTWF0aC5yb3VuZChhcnRpY2xlcy5sZW5ndGgvNCldLnNjcm9sbEludG9WaWV3KHtiZWhhdmlvcjogJ3Ntb290aCd9KQ=="},
        { "wait": 1 },
        { "execute_js": "YXJ0aWNsZXNbTWF0aC5yb3VuZChhcnRpY2xlcy5sZW5ndGgvMildLnNjcm9sbEludG9WaWV3KHtiZWhhdmlvcjogJ3Ntb290aCd9KQ=="},
        { "wait": 1 },
        { "execute_js": "YXJ0aWNsZXNbTWF0aC5yb3VuZChhcnRpY2xlcy5sZW5ndGgvMS41KV0uc2Nyb2xsSW50b1ZpZXcoe2JlaGF2aW9yOiAnc21vb3RoJ30p"},
        { "wait": 1 },
        { "execute": "parse"},
        { "execute_js": "ZG9jdW1lbnQucXVlcnlTZWxlY3RvcignLnNlYXJjaC1wYWdpbmF0aW9uIGFbcmVsPW5leHRdJykuY2xpY2soKQ==" }
      ],
    "stop_condition": "ZG9jdW1lbnQucXVlcnlTZWxlY3RvcignLnNlYXJjaC1wYWdpbmF0aW9uIGFbcmVsPW5leHRdJykuZ2V0QXR0cmlidXRlTmFtZXMoKS5pbmNsdWRlcygnZGlzYWJsZWQnKQ=="
    }
  ],
  "parse": {
    "properties": [
      {
        "_parent": "article.list-card",
        "price": ".list-card-price >> text",
        "url": "a >> href",
        "bedrooms": "ul.list-card-details li:nth-child(1) >> text",
        "bathrooms": "ul.list-card-details li:nth-child(2) >> text",
        "living_area": "ul.list-card-details li:nth-child(3) >> text",
        "status": "ul.list-card-details li:nth-child(4) >> text",
        "address": "a address.list-card-addr >> text"
      }
    ]
  }
}' 'https://www.page2api.com/api/v1/scrape' | python -mjson.tool

The result:

{
  "result": {
    "properties": [
      {
        "price": "$600,000",
        "url": "https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/464-Clinton-St-APT-211-Redwood-City-CA-94062/15638802_zpid/",
        "bedrooms": "1 bd",
        "bathrooms": "1 ba",
        "living_area": "761 sqft",
        "status": "- Condo for sale",
        "address": "464 Clinton St APT 211, Redwood City, CA 94062"
      },
      {
        "price": "$2,498,000",
        "url": "https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/3618-Midfield-Way-Redwood-City-CA-94062/15571874_zpid/",
        "bedrooms": "4 bds",
        "bathrooms": "4 ba",
        "living_area": "2,960 sqft",
        "status": "- House for sale",
        "address": "3618 Midfield Way, Redwood City, CA 94062"
      },
      ...
    ]
  }, ...
}

Scraping Zillow property overview page

From the Homes page, we click on any property.

This will change the browser URL to something similar to:

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/464-Clinton-St-APT-211-Redwood-City-CA-94062/15638802_zpid/

We will see something like this when we will inspect the page source:

From this page, we will scrape the following attributes:

Price
Address
Bedrooms
Bathrooms
Living area
Status
Overview
Time on Zillow
Views
Saves
Images

Let's define the selectors for each attribute.

/* Price: */
.ds-summary-row span

/* Address */
h1

/* Bedrooms: */
.ds-bed-bath-living-area-container span span

/* Bathrooms: */
.ds-bed-bath-living-area-container button span span

/* Living area: */
.ds-bed-bath-living-area-container span:nth-child(5) span

/* Status: */
.ds-status-details

/* Overview: */
//*[@id='home-details-content']/div/div/div[1]/div[2]/div[2]/div[3]/div/div/div/ul/li[2]/div[3]/div[1]/div[1]

/* Time on Zillow: */
//*[contains(text(),'Time on Zillow')]/../dd[1]/strong

/* Views: */
//*[contains(text(),'Time on Zillow')]/../dd[2]/strong

/* Saves: */
//*[contains(text(),'Time on Zillow')]/../dd[3]/strong

/* Images: */
.media-stream-tile picture img

The payload for our scraping request will be:

{
  "url": "https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/31-Northumberland-Ave-Redwood-City-CA-94063/15567306_zpid/",
  "real_browser": true,
  "wait_for": ".ds-status-details",
  "parse": {
    "price": ".ds-summary-row span >> text",
    "address": "h1 >> text",
    "bedrooms": ".ds-bed-bath-living-area-container span span >> text",
    "bathrooms": ".ds-bed-bath-living-area-container button span span >> text",
    "living_area": ".ds-bed-bath-living-area-container span:nth-child(5) span >> text",
    "status": ".ds-status-details >> text",
    "overview": "//*[@id='home-details-content']/div/div/div[1]/div[2]/div[2]/div[3]/div/div/div/ul/li[2]/div[3]/div[1]/div[1] >> text",
    "time_on_zillow": "//*[contains(text(),'Time on Zillow')]/../dd[1]/strong >> text",
    "views": "//*[contains(text(),'Time on Zillow')]/../dd[2]/strong >> text",
    "saves": "//*[contains(text(),'Time on Zillow')]/../dd[3]/strong >> text",
    "images": [".media-stream-tile picture img >> src"]
  }
}

Running the scraping request with cURL:

curl -v -XPOST -H "Content-type: application/json" -d '{
  "api_key": "'"$API_KEY"'",
  "url": "https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/31-Northumberland-Ave-Redwood-City-CA-94063/15567306_zpid/",
  "real_browser": true,
  "wait_for": ".ds-status-details",
  "parse": {
    "price": ".ds-summary-row span >> text",
    "address": "h1 >> text",
    "bedrooms": ".ds-bed-bath-living-area-container span span >> text",
    "bathrooms": ".ds-bed-bath-living-area-container button span span >> text",
    "living_area": ".ds-bed-bath-living-area-container span:nth-child(5) span >> text",
    "status": ".ds-status-details >> text",
    "overview": "//*[@id=\"home-details-content\"]/div/div/div[1]/div[2]/div[2]/div[3]/div/div/div/ul/li[2]/div[3]/div[1]/div[1] >> text",
    "time_on_zillow": "//*[contains(text(), \"Time on Zillow\")]/../dd[1]/strong >> text",
    "views": "//*[contains(text(),\"Time on Zillow\")]/../dd[2]/strong >> text",
    "saves": "//*[contains(text(),\"Time on Zillow\")]/../dd[3]/strong >> text",
    "images": [".media-stream-tile picture img >> src"]
  }
}' 'https://www.page2api.com/api/v1/scrape' | python -mjson.tool

The result:

{
  "result": {
    "price": "$1,299,000",
    "address": "31 Northumberland Ave, Redwood City, CA 94063",
    "bedrooms": "3",
    "bathrooms": "3",
    "living_area": "2,400",
    "status": "For sale",
    "overview": "This move-in ready home with hardwood floors throughout has a large living room, dining room, and spacious kitchen with 2 large bedrooms downstairs and 2 full baths. Upstairs has a spacious loft area, bedroom and bathroom. The backyard is accessible off the dining and kitchen area which has 2 additional units. This home is in a great location near public transportation, shopping, and downtown.Read moreLoft area",
    "time_on_zillow": "33 days",
    "views": "5,291",
    "saves": "96",
    "images": [
      "https://photos.zillowstatic.com/fp/c8a9884ca0f563fd38288ee61a219ec6-cc_ft_960.jpg",
      "https://photos.zillowstatic.com/fp/f9d7a99109da7a7369cdd731e6dc1de1-cc_ft_576.jpg",
      "https://photos.zillowstatic.com/fp/48a0adb1b3d34c0b1f5959ed4474aba5-cc_ft_576.jpg",
      "https://photos.zillowstatic.com/fp/a730702c85aac3d69e6af9b184d0e1c2-cc_ft_576.jpg",
      "https://photos.zillowstatic.com/fp/4e94c21078360505a68d4633237e48b3-cc_ft_576.jpg",
      "https://photos.zillowstatic.com/fp/4559a516478e95d3218095a6b8dd3f64-cc_ft_576.jpg",
      "https://photos.zillowstatic.com/fp/084a2b97777c80766dcd7f27746d18db-cc_ft_576.jpg"
    ]
  }, ...
}

Conclusion

That's it!

In this article, you've discovered the easiest way to scrape a real estate website, such as Zillow, with Page2API - a Web Scraping API that handles any challenges for you.

The original article can be found here:

https://www.page2api.com/blog/how-to-scrape-zillow/

This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Nicolae Rotaru

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