Zillow Web Crawler: Home Price Data Collection Tool

What's the hard part about Zillow's data capture?

If you have engaged in real estate data crawling, you know that Zillow's anti-climbing mechanism is stricter than the property security. If you don't pay attention, you will be blocked IP, the most pitiful thing is that sometimes even the verification code is not given to pop, directly give you a blank page. This site is mainly to prevent three kinds of operation:High Frequency Visits,IP Repeat Login,Unconventional trajectoriesThe

To give you a chestnut, your local IP may be blacked out if you check 50 listings a day. What's even better is the geo-fencing of their home, certain regional listings must be local IP to see the details. This time you have to rely on proxy IP toMasquerading as a real user in a different regionNote that it's not ah, it's purely to address the access limitations of the site itself.

Real-world proxy IP configuration skills

Here's a chestnut with Python's requests library, focusing on how to rub ipipgo's proxy into the code. Be careful to replace it with your own account password, don't be stupid and copy it directly:

import requests
from itertools import cycle

 List of proxies for ipipgo (remember to replace them with real information)
proxies = [
    "http://用户名:密码@gateway.ipipgo.com:9000",
    "http://用户名:密码@gateway.ipipgo.com:9001".
    "http://用户名:密码@gateway.ipipgo.com:9002"
]

proxy_pool = cycle(proxies)

for page in range(1, 10): current_proxy = next(proxy_pool)
    current_proxy = next(proxy_pool)
    try: current_proxy = next(proxy_pool)
        response = requests.get(
            f "https://www.zillow.com/homes/{page}_p/",
            proxies={"http": current_proxy}, timeout=10
            timeout=10
        )
         Add your parsing code here...
    except Exception as e.
        print(f "Failed with {current_proxy}, move to the next one! Error message: {str(e)}")

Focus on three pits:

1. Don't use free proxies, 9 out of 10 are invalid, leaving 1 on the way to expiration
2. Randomly cut proxies for each request, don't use a single IP to death!
3. Don't set the timeout to more than 15 seconds, and don't wait if you're really blocked.

Why do you recommend ipipgo?

Our own products must be praised, but must be praised to the point. Recently, the team tested seven or eight service providers on the market, and the data speaks for itself:

In particular.Residential IP PurityThe thing is, many agents sell server room IPs as residential IPs. ipipgo's IPs are real home broadband, and it works especially well for platforms like Zillow that are sensitive to IP types. I have had a client who couldn't get the house price charts with other agents, so I cut them to us and got it done.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can I get sued by Zillow for using a proxy IP?
A: As long as it doesn't involve cracking encrypted data or engaging in DDos attacks, it's not illegal to simply collect public information. Of course, you have to comply with the website's robots.txt rules.

Q: What should I do if I encounter 403 forbidden?
A: Three steps: 1. Deactivate the current proxy immediately 2. Check whether the request header has browser fingerprints 3. Apply for a replacement IP segment in the ipipgo background

Q: Do I need to work with the fingerprint browser?
A: If it is a long-term large-scale collection, it is recommended to work with anti-association browser. For small scale, you can deal with it with requests+random UA.

Anti-blocking shenanigans

Lastly, I'll share a wild card: keep the collection time period to10 a.m.-4 p.m. in target citiesFor example, if you want to catch Los Angeles listings, don't use Beijing time during the day. For example, if you want to grab Los Angeles listings, don't swipe wildly during the day on Beijing time, it's early morning on their side. Use ipipgo's city-specific proxies + time zone matching to disguise requests more like real people.

Another trick is to put in the request headerSec-Fetch-Dest: emptyThis parameter is seldom used by normal browsers, but some anti-crawling systems can misinterpret it as a legitimate request. However, this method may fail at any time, so use it and cherish it.