What's the best way to collect public real estate listings?

The best way is usually a mix of official feeds, licensed aggregators, and careful scraping where allowed—not just one method.

Best options, in order of preference

1. MLS/IDX or brokerage feeds

   • Most complete and structured for U.S. residential listings.
   • Best if you need reliable updates, status changes, and standardized fields.
   • Usually requires licensing or membership.

2. Listing aggregators / data providers

   • Vendors like Zillow-related APIs, ATTOM, CoreLogic, Redfin-adjacent partners, etc. depending on region and use case.
   • Good if you want broad coverage without building your own scraper network.
   • Check licensing, usage limits, and redistribution rights.

3. Public government or registry sources

   • Great for property records, tax data, deeds, permits, and sometimes foreclosure/public notice listings.
   • Not always “active listings,” but useful for enrichment and validation.

4. Website scraping of public listing pages

   • Works when there’s no feed/API and the site allows it.
   • Needs careful handling of:
     • robots.txt and terms of service
     • rate limiting
     • anti-bot measures
     • HTML changes
   • Best for small-scale or highly targeted collection.

Practical recommendation

If you want a production-grade dataset:

• Use official or licensed sources first
• Enrich with public records
• Scrape only as a fallback for gaps

What to store

Typical useful fields:

• address
• price
• listing status
• beds/baths/sqft
• property type
• list date / update date
• agent/broker
• photos
• lat/lon
• source URL and source timestamp

Important cautions

• “Publicly visible” does not always mean “free to republish.”
• Real estate sites often restrict automated collection in their terms.
• Listings change frequently, so you need deduping and update tracking.

If you want, I can help you choose the best method for your country/region, budget, and whether you need API access or scraping.