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Hotpads.com Property Search Scraper - Advanced Real Estate Data Extraction Tool

Introduction

HotPads stands as a reputable online real estate rental marketplace, focusing primarily on urban areas and cities across the United States, offering the largest and most trusted apartment and home rental site with verified listings and fraud protection technology. In today's competitive real estate market, accessing accurate and timely rental data is crucial for investors, analysts, property managers, and market researchers who need to make informed decisions based on comprehensive market intelligence.

The challenge of manually collecting property data from HotPads becomes overwhelming when dealing with thousands of listings across multiple markets. Our HotPads Property Search Scraper addresses this pain point by automating the data extraction process, enabling users to gather extensive property information efficiently and systematically for market analysis, competitive research, and investment decision-making.

Scraper Overview

The HotPads Property Search Scraper is a sophisticated data extraction tool designed to automate the collection of rental property information from HotPads.com. Since HotPads launched in 2005 as a rentals and real estate marketplace that enables users to search for housing using an interactive map, the platform has accumulated vast amounts of property data that our scraper can efficiently harvest.

This tool excels in extracting comprehensive property details including pricing, location data, amenities, property specifications, and market indicators. The scraper is built with advanced anti-detection mechanisms, proxy rotation capabilities, and robust error handling to ensure reliable data collection even from large-scale property searches.

Key Advantages:

• Scalable Data Collection: Process thousands of property listings simultaneously
• Real-time Market Intelligence: Access current pricing and availability data
• Comprehensive Data Fields: Extract 30+ data fields per property listing
• Geographic Flexibility: Target specific cities, neighborhoods, or regions
• Anti-Detection Technology: Built-in proxy support and request throttling

Target Users:

• Real estate investors and analysts
• Property management companies
• Market research firms
• Academic researchers studying housing trends
• Developers seeking market intelligence
• Real estate agents tracking competition

Input and Output Details

Example url 1: https://hotpads.com/new-york-ny/apartments-for-rent?lat=40.6975&lon=-73.9797&z=10

Example url 2: https://hotpads.com/mountain-view-ca/apartments-for-rent

Example url 3: https://hotpads.com/los-banos-ca/apartments-for-rent

Example Screenshot of property list by query page:

Input Format

The scraper accepts a JSON configuration that defines the scraping parameters and target URLs. Here's the detailed input structure:

{
  "max_retries_per_url": 2, // Maximum waiting time when accessing the links you provided.
  "proxy": { // Add a proxy to ensure that during the data collection process, you are not detected as a bot.
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": [
      "RESIDENTIAL" 
    ],
    "apifyProxyCountry": "SG" // You should choose an Country that coincides with the Country you want to collect data from
  },
  "max_items_per_url": 20,
  "urls": [ // Links to property list by query pages.
    "https://hotpads.com/new-york-ny/apartments-for-rent?lat=40.6975&lon=-73.9797&z=10",
    "https://hotpads.com/los-banos-ca/apartments-for-rent",
    "https://hotpads.com/mountain-view-ca/apartments-for-rent"
  ]
}

Input Field Explanations:

• max_retries_per_url: Sets the maximum number of retry attempts for each URL if the initial request fails
• proxy: Configuration for proxy usage to avoid bot detection and geographic restrictions
• useApifyProxy: Boolean flag to enable Apify's proxy infrastructure
• apifyProxyGroups: Specifies proxy type (RESIDENTIAL recommended for better success rates)
• apifyProxyCountry: Two-letter country code for proxy location (should match target market)
• max_items_per_url: Limits the number of properties extracted per search URL
• urls: Array of HotPads search result URLs targeting specific markets or criteria

Input Requirements:

• URLs must be valid HotPads search result pages
• Proxy country should align with the target geographic market
• Consider rate limiting with max_items_per_url for large datasets

Output Format

You get the output from the Hotpads.com Property Search Scraper stored in a tab. The following is an example of the Information Fields collected after running the Actor.

[ // List of property information
  {
    "active": true,
    "address": {
      "street": "7 Dekalb Ave",
      "city": "Brooklyn",
      "state": "NY",
      "zip": "11201",
      "neighborhood": "Downtown",
      "hide_street": false
    },
    "alias_encoded": "2y2s1uqyhea6h",
    "amenities": {
      "has_available_in_select_units": false,
      "amenities": [],
      "model_amenities": [],
      "highlights": [
        {
          "id": "pets",
          "display": "Pets",
          "types": [
            "Cats and Dogs Allowed"
          ]
        },
        {
          "id": "parking",
          "display": "Parking",
          "types": [
            "No Parking"
          ]
        }
      ],
      "condensed_amenities": {
        "pets": "Cats and Dogs Allowed"
      },
      "pet_policies": null
    },
    "building": false,
    "created": 1739571012460,
    "display_name": "7 Dekalb",
    "geo": {
      "lat": 40.69047,
      "lon": -73.9828402,
      "quad": "032010110310021331210123330"
    },
    "icon_type": "building",
    "is_apartment_bldg": true,
    "listing_min_max_price_beds": {
      "d_a_t_a__m_o_d_e_l": "ModelCollection",
      "min_price": 4396,
      "max_price": 6701,
      "min_beds": 1,
      "max_beds": 2,
      "min_baths": 0,
      "max_baths": 0,
      "min_sqft": 0,
      "max_sqft": 0,
      "bed_display": "1 to 2 beds",
      "bed_display_all_available": "1 and 2 bedrooms",
      "bath_display": "",
      "price_display": "$4,396+",
      "price_display_range": "$4,396 - $6,701",
      "sqft_display": "",
      "bed_display_compact": "1-2 bd",
      "bed_display_semi_compact": "1 - 2 beds",
      "bath_display_compact": "",
      "bath_display_semi_compact": ""
    },
    "is_bonus_listing": false,
    "is_claimed_free_listing": false,
    "is_paid_and_not_demoted": true,
    "is_demoted": false,
    "is_paid_multifamily": true,
    "listing_type": "rental",
    "malone_lot_id_encoded": "248s2tz",
    "trusted": true,
    "photo_count": 38,
    "preview_photo": {
      "url": "https://photos.zillowstatic.com/fp/39cc222b7b0801076c72afe830edaddf-rentals_medium_500_500.webp",
      "caption": ""
    },
    "preview_photo_med": {
      "url": "https://photos.zillowstatic.com/fp/39cc222b7b0801076c72afe830edaddf-rentals_medium_500_500.webp",
      "caption": ""
    },
    "thumb_photo": {
      "url": "https://photos.zillowstatic.com/fp/39cc222b7b0801076c72afe830edaddf-rentals_thumb_180_180.webp",
      "caption": ""
    },
    "med_photo_urls": [
      "https://photos.zillowstatic.com/fp/39cc222b7b0801076c72afe830edaddf-rentals_medium_500_500.webp",
      "https://photos.zillowstatic.com/fp/633b950750f29339d99ef198bd5b44eb-rentals_medium_500_500.webp",
      "https://photos.zillowstatic.com/fp/5cf7f3ddd0e6e0c4a2a057647290d5fa-rentals_medium_500_500.webp",
      "https://photos.zillowstatic.com/fp/03e70bfbccf5df6d449ff2cc72e496d9-rentals_medium_500_500.webp",
      "https://photos.zillowstatic.com/fp/5fb92f6426bc146bd15f4d2f416bdf8d-rentals_medium_500_500.webp",
      "https://photos.zillowstatic.com/fp/378eafdc74405251660d7aca603e3be5-rentals_medium_500_500.webp",
      "https://photos.zillowstatic.com/fp/9a33189121f7ab2fc5727fdb17ec1634-rentals_medium_500_500.webp",
      "https://photos.zillowstatic.com/fp/d1b7b31abbbcf801bddef9c1674a4778-rentals_medium_500_500.webp",
      "https://photos.zillowstatic.com/fp/d67ffa8699f07c2b4a8204ac52941314-rentals_medium_500_500.webp",
      "https://photos.zillowstatic.com/fp/428094ba624752d82c75c9a7b9ee2e2d-rentals_medium_500_500.webp",
      "https://photos.zillowstatic.com/fp/cf4fa001c57183516f9a66c1acdce451-rentals_medium_500_500.webp",
      "https://photos.zillowstatic.com/fp/d5d61a740dbd7c6ce5bc5206a91f5d03-rentals_medium_500_500.webp",
      "https://photos.zillowstatic.com/fp/5515ddd84efc4ee041edd903c593ae96-rentals_medium_500_500.webp",
      "https://photos.zillowstatic.com/fp/bcad7e777fbc94d69815f0f06d3c1c2a-rentals_medium_500_500.webp",
      "https://photos.zillowstatic.com/fp/bb9ce4dbc23424228fca92da9c9aee65-rentals_medium_500_500.webp",
      "https://photos.zillowstatic.com/fp/7f2e7cdcb34a3536d94cf420e12e6cb5-rentals_medium_500_500.webp",
      "https://photos.zillowstatic.com/fp/e7d5350ee89ce750405197b8b6456020-rentals_medium_500_500.webp",
      "https://photos.zillowstatic.com/fp/e3b1734cfe497a4612d96b2062306d6c-rentals_medium_500_500.webp",
      "https://photos.zillowstatic.com/fp/f92d386ca4adb6d2e368d6b65d768f77-rentals_medium_500_500.webp",
      "https://photos.zillowstatic.com/fp/61d0682858466b1c4afa108f9690eacb-rentals_medium_500_500.webp",
      "https://photos.zillowstatic.com/fp/e7f5007e78b65f7b4dfc4525d2408a9e-rentals_medium_500_500.webp",
      "https://photos.zillowstatic.com/fp/e88f2b8c4050638f03042a15bad1baec-rentals_medium_500_500.webp",
      "https://photos.zillowstatic.com/fp/571fb43d95ca8480fdd6a2212e76b443-rentals_medium_500_500.webp",
      "https://photos.zillowstatic.com/fp/d12368f39be16872dab29fe9168b2763-rentals_medium_500_500.webp",
      "https://photos.zillowstatic.com/fp/6b4854c197b7d571979048b34529003e-rentals_medium_500_500.webp",
      "https://photos.zillowstatic.com/fp/e181fce81c43cb6473d5dad749404307-rentals_medium_500_500.webp",
      "https://photos.zillowstatic.com/fp/29fe8d868747b686d9887087c7561c11-rentals_medium_500_500.webp",
      "https://photos.zillowstatic.com/fp/6c5ddc594d70380f419394892dabb392-rentals_medium_500_500.webp",
      "https://photos.zillowstatic.com/fp/0751bfed1eba06168092ba408cbf9fb6-rentals_medium_500_500.webp",
      "https://photos.zillowstatic.com/fp/304eeeaa6fa606c4223067e618b7056d-rentals_medium_500_500.webp",
      "https://photos.zillowstatic.com/fp/51e0c2997ae3a367ba1056ca69beb6a2-rentals_medium_500_500.webp",
      "https://photos.zillowstatic.com/fp/f6c2b83b8d0e1d82a589fadec476428b-rentals_medium_500_500.webp",
      "https://photos.zillowstatic.com/fp/842f419c9d18bb76d8c2ed61b5b23891-rentals_medium_500_500.webp",
      "https://photos.zillowstatic.com/fp/a236b153171faf7931006bf3fe9ef9a7-rentals_medium_500_500.webp",
      "https://photos.zillowstatic.com/fp/865694ec1afb6e402884b3dcad4ee4bb-rentals_medium_500_500.webp",
      "https://photos.zillowstatic.com/fp/ef295b2417896bd43b15521dfce862fc-rentals_medium_500_500.webp",
      "https://photos.zillowstatic.com/fp/16ba59eab61b23de05e5404ee904097b-rentals_medium_500_500.webp",
      "https://photos.zillowstatic.com/fp/339ad421b3ac2878cbc3118bfc1bcb35-rentals_medium_500_500.webp"
    ],
    "priority": 0,
    "score": 20,
    "property_type": "large",
    "recency_time": {
      "display_diff": "5 months",
      "seconds_diff": 12083560,
      "minutes_diff": 201393,
      "hours_diff": 3357,
      "days_diff": 140,
      "weeks_diff": 20,
      "months_diff": 5
    },
    "unit_count": 1,
    "search_keyword": "Apartments for Rent",
    "unit": "",
    "updated_time": {
      "display_diff": "3d",
      "seconds_diff": 242299,
      "minutes_diff": 4039,
      "hours_diff": 68,
      "days_diff": 3,
      "weeks_diff": 1,
      "months_diff": 1
    },
    "uri_building": "/7-dekalb-brooklyn-ny-11201-248s2tz/building",
    "uri_malone": "/7-dekalb-brooklyn-ny-11201-248s2tz/pad",
    "url_malone_unit": "",
    "uri_v2": "/7-dekalb-brooklyn-ny-11201-248s2tz/pad",
    "user_item_types": [
      "undefined"
    ],
    "student_housing": false,
    "senior_housing": false,
    "military_housing": false,
    "income_restricted": false,
    "has_special_offers": true,
    "models": [
      {
        "num_beds": 1,
        "low_price": 4396,
        "high_price": 4397
      },
      {
        "num_beds": 2,
        "low_price": 6688,
        "high_price": 6701
      }
    ],
    "neighborhood": "Downtown",
    "has3d_tour": false,
    "broker": {
      "is_broker_exclusive_listing": false,
      "company_name": "Avanath Realty Inc.",
      "company_phone_number": null,
      "contact_name": null,
      "agent_license_type": null,
      "is_broker_listing": false
    },
    "full_description": "7 Dekalb",
    "rental_application_status": "undecided",
    "model_type_unit_count": 3,
    "from_url": "https://hotpads.com/new-york-ny/apartments-for-rent"
  }, // ... Many other property details
]

The scraper returns a comprehensive dataset with 30+ fields per property listing. Here's what each output field represents:

Location and Identification Fields:

• Address: Complete street address of the property for geographic analysis
• Alias Encoded: Internal HotPads identifier for unique property tracking
• Display Name: Marketing name or building name as shown on listings
• Geo: Latitude and longitude coordinates for mapping and proximity analysis
• Neighborhood: Named area or district for local market segmentation
• URI Building, URI Malone, URL Malone Unit, URI v2: Various HotPads internal URLs and identifiers for property linking and verification

Property Classification and Features:

• Property Type: Categorization (apartment, house, condo, etc.) for market analysis
• Listing Type: Rental classification (standard, luxury, affordable housing)
• Amenities: Comma-separated list of property features (pool, gym, parking, etc.)
• Models: Available unit types and floor plans within the property
• Full Description: Complete property description including marketing copy and key features

Housing Specializations:

• Student Housing: Boolean indicator for university-area properties
• Senior Housing: Flag for age-restricted communities
• Military Housing: Indicator for military-affiliated housing
• Income Restricted: Boolean for affordable or subsidized housing programs

Market and Quality Indicators:

• Claimed Free Listing: Property listing status affecting visibility
• Paid and Not Demoted: Premium listing status indicator
• Demoted: Reduced visibility status for quality control
• Paid Multifamily: Indicator for professional property management listings
• Trusted: Quality verification status from HotPads
• Priority: Search result ranking factor for competitive analysis
• Score: HotPads internal quality rating system

Media and Marketing:

• Photo Count: Number of available property images for quality assessment
• Media Photo URLs: Direct links to property images for visual analysis
• Has Special Offers: Boolean flag for promotional pricing or incentives

Temporal Data:

• Created: Initial listing date for market timing analysis
• Updated Time: Last modification timestamp for data freshness verification

Leasing Information:

• Rental Application Status: Current application processing status
• Broker: Property management or leasing agent information

Usage Guide

Step 1: Prepare Your Target URLs Navigate to HotPads.com and perform your desired property search. Copy the search result URL, ensuring it includes your specific criteria (location, price range, property type). The URL should contain geographic parameters and filters.

Step 2: Configure Input Parameters Set up your JSON input with appropriate retry limits and proxy settings. For large-scale scraping, use residential proxies and match the proxy country to your target market for better success rates.

Step 3: Execute the Scraper Run the scraper with your configured input. Monitor the process for any error messages or rate limiting issues. The scraper will automatically handle pagination and data extraction.

Step 4: Process the Output Review the extracted data for completeness and accuracy. The output can be exported to CSV, JSON, or integrated directly into your analysis tools or database systems.

Best Practices:

• Start with smaller datasets to test your configuration
• Use geographic proxies matching your target market
• Implement delays between requests to avoid detection
• Regularly update your target URLs to capture new listings
• Validate extracted data against manual samples

Common Error Handling:

• Timeout Errors: Increase max_retries_per_url or reduce max_items_per_url
• Blocked Requests: Switch proxy groups or countries
• Missing Data Fields: Some properties may have incomplete information; handle null values appropriately
• Duplicate Entries: Implement deduplication based on Address or Alias Encoded fields

Benefits and Applications

Time Efficiency: Automate the collection of property data that would take hundreds of hours to gather manually. Whether you are looking to track housing prices, understand rental trends, or find affordable apartments, HotPads offers detailed data on listings like prices, locations, and availability, and our scraper makes this data accessible at scale.

Market Intelligence: Generate comprehensive market reports, identify pricing trends, track inventory levels, and analyze competitive positioning across different neighborhoods and property types.

Investment Analysis: Evaluate potential investment opportunities by analyzing rent-to-price ratios, amenity distributions, and market saturation levels across target markets.

Academic Research: Support housing studies, urban planning research, and socioeconomic analysis with large-scale rental market datasets.

Business Applications: Property management companies can monitor competitor pricing, developers can identify market gaps, and real estate professionals can maintain current market knowledge for client advisory services.

Conclusion

The HotPads Property Search Scraper transforms manual property research into an automated, scalable process that delivers comprehensive market intelligence. By extracting detailed property information including pricing, amenities, location data, and market indicators, this tool empowers users to make data-driven decisions in the competitive rental market.

Whether you're conducting market analysis, tracking investment opportunities, or researching housing trends, this scraper provides the foundation for informed decision-making with reliable, up-to-date property data from one of the most trusted rental platforms in the United States.

Related Actors

• Hotpads Property Details Scraper: Your comprehensive tool for extracting valuable property information from Hotpads extensive directory platform.

Your feedback

We are always working to improve Actors' performance. So, if you have any technical feedback about Hotpads.com Property Search Scraper or simply found a bug, please create an issue on the Actor's Issues tab in Apify Console.