🏠 Zillow Motivated Seller & Price Drop Scraper

An investment-grade real estate deal screener and lead generator for real estate wholesalers, fix-and-flippers, and acquisition managers.

Instead of dumping thousands of retail properties at full market price, this Actor automatically applies algorithmic deal filters to isolate distressed, high-equity, motivated sellers across any US city, state, or ZIP code.

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🎯 Why Wholesalers & Investors Use This Scraper

Wholesale deal finders and house flippers make $5,000 to $25,000+ per contract assignment, but waste 20+ hours a week sifting through overpriced retail listings.

This Actor automates deal discovery across the three strongest indicators of seller distress:

1. For Sale By Owner (FSBO): Direct homeowner listings without real estate agents taking 6% commissions or blocking investor negotiations.
2. Consecutive Price Drops: Properties where sellers have dropped the price multiple times and accumulated significant discounts below their initial asking price.
3. Distress NLP Keyword Detection: Instant text scanning of property descriptions for urgency and structural keywords: "must sell", "as-is", "estate sale", "tlc", "needs work", "probate", "cash only", and "handyman special".

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⚡ Key Capabilities

• Automated Price Cut Velocity Tracking: Computes total price drop dollar amount, total discount percentage from original listing price, and count of consecutive cuts.
• Normalized Deal Score Index (0–100): Proprietary investor scoring model ranking properties by distress level so you can target the most motivated sellers first.
• Regex Contact Harvester: Extracts direct homeowner phone numbers and emails embedded inside listing descriptions and owner contact remarks.
• PerimeterX / Anti-Bot Hardened: Pre-configured to route through Apify Residential Proxies (RESIDENTIAL) to seamlessly bypass Zillow bot challenges.
• Instant Webhook Alerts: Connects directly to Discord or Slack to notify acquisition teams the moment a 75+ Deal Score opportunity is discovered.
• Zero Synthetic Data Guarantee: Strictly 100% real property listings from Zillow.

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📊 Deal Score Index Explained

Every property is evaluated and assigned an objective 0 to 100 Deal Score:

Score Range	Deal Classification	Investor Action
80 – 100	🚨 High-Conviction Distressed Deal	Immediate outreach. Typically FSBO + $\ge$ 15% discount + multiple price cuts + distress keywords.
60 – 79	⚠️ Strong Motivated Opportunity	Prime negotiation candidate. Significant price reduction or stale inventory (>60 days on market).
40 – 59	ℹ️ Moderate Opportunity	Recent price reduction or emerging motivated seller.
< 40	💤 Low Motivation / Retail Trim	Filtered out by default to save you time and money.

Scoring Breakdown:

• +25 points: For Sale By Owner (FSBO)
• Up to +30 points: Price cut magnitude ($\ge$ 15% cut = 30 pts; 10–14% cut = 20 pts; 5–9% cut = 10 pts)
• Up to +15 points: Consecutive price cuts (3+ drops = 15 pts; 2 drops = 10 pts)
• Up to +20 points: Distress keywords in description (2+ keywords = 20 pts; 1 keyword = 12 pts)
• Up to +10 points: Stale Days on Market (> 90 DOM = 10 pts; 60–90 DOM = 7 pts)

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⚙️ Input Configuration

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
location	String	"Dallas, TX"	Target market (City, State like "Atlanta, GA" or 5-digit ZIP like "75201").
listingType	String	"ALL"	Filter representation: "ALL", "FSBO_ONLY" (homeowners), or "AGENT_ONLY".
minPriceDropPercent	Integer	5	Minimum percentage discount from original listing price (0 to 90%).
minPriceDropsCount	Integer	1	Minimum number of separate price drops recorded on Zillow (1 to 10).
minDaysOnZillow	Integer	14	Minimum days listed on Zillow (DOM) to target stale inventory (0 to 730).
distressKeywordsOnly	Boolean	false	When true, only returns properties containing distress phrases in description.
customKeywords	Array	[]	Optional extra keywords to search (e.g. ["code violation", "tax lien"]).
minDealScore	Integer	40	Minimum Deal Score threshold (0 to 100).
maxResults	Integer	40	Maximum motivated seller deals to collect per run (up to 500).
proxyConfiguration	Object	RESIDENTIAL	Apify Residential Proxy configuration (strongly recommended for Zillow).
webhookUrl	String	""	Optional Discord or Slack webhook URL for real-time high-conviction deal alerts.

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📋 Sample Output Record

Each item in your default dataset is enriched with full property specifications, price drop metrics, and direct contact details:

{
  "zpid": "26849102",
  "dealScore": 85,
  "address": "4512 Meadowbrook Dr, Dallas, TX 75201",
  "city": "Dallas",
  "state": "TX",
  "zipcode": "75201",
  "price": 275000,
  "priceFormatted": "$275,000",
  "originalPrice": 325000,
  "originalPriceFormatted": "$325,000",
  "priceCutAmount": 50000,
  "priceCutAmountFormatted": "-$50,000",
  "priceCutPercent": 15.4,
  "priceCutPercentFormatted": "-15.4%",
  "priceDropCount": 2,
  "daysOnZillow": 68,
  "listingType": "FSBO",
  "distressKeywordsFound": [
    "as-is",
    "must sell",
    "cash only"
  ],
  "distressKeywordsDisplay": "as-is, must sell, cash only",
  "sellerContactPhone": "(214) 555-0199",
  "sellerContactEmail": "meadowbrook_owner@gmail.com",
  "agentName": "",
  "brokerName": "",
  "zillowUrl": "https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/26849102_zpid/",
  "zestimate": 310000,
  "pricePerSqft": 152,
  "bedrooms": 3,
  "bathrooms": 2.0,
  "livingAreaSqft": 1810,
  "yearBuilt": 1978,
  "lotSize": "7,405 sqft",
  "propertyType": "SINGLE_FAMILY",
  "imgSrc": "https://photos.zillowstatic.com/fp/sample.jpg",
  "descriptionExcerpt": "Must sell this month due to relocation! Sold strictly as-is, cash only. Bring your contractor and all offers...",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-09-20T14:20:00.000Z"
}

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🔔 Discord & Slack Webhook Notifications

Integrate directly into your wholesale team's communication channel:

1. Paste your incoming Discord or Slack webhook URL into webhookUrl.
2. When the Actor discovers properties scoring 75+, it posts an instant alert card with:
   • Calculated Price Cut & Discount %
   • Direct Seller Phone Number
   • Keywords identified
   • Direct clickable link to the Zillow listing

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💰 Monetization & Economics

• Pricing Model: Pay-Per-Event (PPE)
  • Actor Startup: $0.01 per run
  • Qualified Deal Record: $0.01 per motivated seller lead
• Platform Usage: Paid by user (isPPEPlatformUsagePaidByUser: true).
• Proxy Optimization: Extracts pure JSON payloads without downloading heavy images or video, keeping proxy consumption under 3–5 MB per run.