Zillow.com JSON Field Positioning: Property Data Parsing

Zillow Data Crawl's Biggest Headache: IP Blocking

Older drivers who have done real estate data crawling know that Zillow's anti-crawl mechanism is tighter than a neighborhood gate. And here's the worst part.IP address is blockedIf you are using your own broadband, you will basically stop using Zillow this month. If you are using your own broadband, you basically can't touch Zillow again this month.

Last week, a friend who does overseas real estate analysis came to me to complain, saying that he spent three days to write the crawler script, just ran for half an hour and was blocked by more than 20 IPs.ipipgo's residential agent serviceIt will be able to break the game, their dynamic IP pool is large enough to automatically switch the exit IP for each request, and the pro-test continuous collection of 6 hours did not trigger the ban.

Three key steps to locating JSON data

Open Chrome Developer Tools (F12), cut to the Network tab, and at this point tap any filter on the Zillow search page, such as Adjust Price Range. Watch.XHR type requestThe key is to look for a request link that contains "api/search".

Here's a tip: In the filter box type/searchYou can quickly locate the target request. Clicking on the corresponding request record, you can see in the Preview tab theStructured JSON data, which hides more than 20 key pieces of data such as listing coordinates, floor plans, historical prices, and more.

Proxy IP real-world configuration tips

An example using Python's requests library, focusing on theheaders camouflagerespond in singingAgent RotationTwo links. Here's a pitfall: Zillow checks the device type of the User-Agent, so it's recommended to use the latest version of Chrome's UA header, not those crappy crawler UAs.

import requests
from ipipgo import get_proxy Here we use the ipipgo SDK.

proxy = get_proxy(type='residential') Residential proxy is closer to the real user.
headers = {
    'User-Agent': 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36...' ,
    'Accept-Language': 'en-US,en;q=0.9'
}

response = requests.get(
    'https://www.zillow.com/api/search', , 'Accept-Language': 'en-US,en;q=0.9' }
    proxies={"http": proxy, "https": proxy},
    headers=headers,
    timeout=10
)

take note ofDo not set the timeout lower than 8 seconds, too fast a request frequency will be recognized as a bot. It is recommended to work with a randomized delay withtime.sleep(random.uniform(1.2, 4.5))Simulates real-life operating intervals.

Five Pitfalls You Must Avoid

1. Don't use a data center proxy: AWS/GCP IP segments have long been flagged by Zillow, residential proxies are the way to go!
2. Cookies should be segregated: Individual cookie storage for each proxy IP
3. Image loading to be disabled: Don't load images when crawling data to save traffic and reduce risk
4. CAPTCHA recognition should be used with caution: Automated coding services significantly increase the probability of being blocked
5. Data update frequency control: Don't capture the same listing more than 3 times per day.

Frequently Asked Questions QA

Q: Why do I still get blocked with a proxy IP?
A: Check if you are using a shared proxy, it is recommended to change ipipgo's exclusive residential proxy, each session is a clean IP

Q: What should I do if some fields are missing in the JSON data?
A: Try adding to the request parameters?include=allYou may need to log in state, remember to hang a proxy to simulate the local IP of the United States

Q: Which of ipipgo's packages is best for Zillow?
A: RecommendedResidential Agent-ProfessionalSupport automatic IP rotation + geo-location, especially when you want to catch the regional house price, you can specify the state-level export IP.

How to choose a reliable proxy service

Bloody experience of having used seven or eight agency service providers:
1. IP pool size of at least 5 million (ipipgo has a residential IP pool of 12 million +)
2. To haveRequest Success Rate GuaranteeIf it's lower than 95%, you can just pass it.
3. API to support customization by business scenarios, such as setting the maximum number of times a single IP is used
4. Must provide 7 × 24 hours technical support, the last three o'clock in the morning encounter IP can not be connected, ipipgo technology seconds back to the work order

Finally remind newbies: don't try to buy those $0.1/IP junk proxies cheaply, Zillow's wind control system is smarter than you think. You can use ipipgo in the testing stage.Free Trial Package, 500 requests per day is enough to run through the whole process.