# BizBen Scraper - California Businesses for Sale (`pshivam/bizben-scraper`) Actor

Scrape businesses for sale from BizBen, California's largest marketplace (plus other US states): asking price, revenue, cash flow, down payment, year established, employees, lease, category and description. Filter by state, county, city, category, price or cash flow. Export to Excel, CSV or API.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/pshivam/bizben-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Shivam Prajapati](https://apify.com/pshivam) (community)
- **Categories:** Business, Lead generation
- **Security:** Limited permissions
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $2.10 / 1,000 listings

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## BizBen Scraper - California Businesses for Sale

Get **businesses for sale from [BizBen](https://www.bizben.com)**, California's largest business-for-sale marketplace with **6,000+ listings** (about half in California, the rest across the US, including Transworld Business Advisors listings): asking price, revenue, cash flow, down payment, year established, employees, FF\&E, inventory, lease details, category, business types and the full description. Filter by state, county, city, category, price or cash flow, and export to Excel, CSV, JSON or the API.

**Actively maintained.** Last update: 2026-11-04. Every release passes 310+ automated tests on saved BizBen pages plus a check against the live site, and Apify test-runs it every day.

### What can you use it for?

- **Find a business to buy in California.** Screen every restaurant, liquor store, gas station, laundromat or route business in your county by price and cash flow instead of paging through the site.
- **Deal flow for buyers, brokers and SBA lenders.** Schedule a daily run and send new listings to Google Sheets, Slack or your CRM; use the `attributes` field to find SBA pre-qualified, absentee-run or real-estate-included deals.
- **Valuation comps.** Asking price, revenue and cash flow for thousands of small businesses: compute price-to-cash-flow multiples by type, county or state.
- **Market research.** Count listings and asking prices by category and county, track what comes to market.

### What data do you get?

Fields marked *details* are filled when **Open each listing for full details** is on (the default).

| Field | What it is |
|---|---|
| `listingId` | BizBen posting ID (e.g. `177992`), or `tw:92422` for a listing from a broker network |
| `url` | Link to the listing |
| `title` | Headline |
| `source` | `BizBen`, or the broker network, e.g. Transworld Business Advisors |
| `isFastTrack` | A paid FastTrack (promoted) listing |
| `askingPrice` | Asking price in USD (empty for "Call/Email") |
| `priceText` | The price as shown |
| `revenue` | Yearly revenue (gross sales) in USD |
| `cashFlow` | Yearly cash flow (seller's discretionary earnings) in USD |
| `downPayment` | Down payment as given, e.g. "$100,000" or "35~40% SBA" (*details*) |
| `ffeValue` | Furniture, fixtures & equipment value (*details*) |
| `inventoryValue` | Inventory value (*details*) |
| `yearEstablished` | Year the business started (*details*) |
| `employees` | Number of employees (*details*) |
| `reasonForSale` | Why the owner is selling (*details*) |
| `supportAndTraining` | Training and support the seller offers (*details*) |
| `squareFeet` | Premises size (*details*) |
| `leaseExpiration` | Lease expiration date (*details*) |
| `leaseTerms` | Lease terms and options as given (*details*) |
| `category` | BizBen category, e.g. "Restaurants & Food" (*details*) |
| `businessTypes` | Business types, e.g. Bakery, Liquor Store (*details*) |
| `attributes` | e.g. Absentee Run, SBA Loan Pre-Qualified, Real Estate Included, For Sale By Owner (*details*) |
| `location` | Location as shown, e.g. "Compton, Los Angeles County, California" |
| `city` / `county` / `state` / `stateCode` | The location split into parts |
| `summary` | Short summary from the results page |
| `description` | Full description (*details*) |
| `listingNumber` | The broker's own listing number (*details*) |
| `imageUrl` | Main picture (empty when the listing only has BizBen's stock picture) |
| `datePosted` / `dateUpdated` | When the listing was posted and last updated, YYYY-MM-DD (*details*) |
| `hasDetails` | `true` if the listing page was opened |
| `foundOn` | The results page where the listing was found |
| `scrapedAt` | When it was scraped (UTC) |

#### Privacy

BizBen listing pages show the seller's or broker's name, phone and e-mail. The scraper **never collects them**: it skips the contact box, the contact line under the description and the contact form, and it removes any e-mail address, phone number, web link or contact name typed into the description (replaced with `[removed]`).

#### Example result

```json
{
  "listingId": "9849655",
  "title": "ASK $3.65M: Liquor with Property: Month Sales $150K: Lot 9612sf, Building 7055sf",
  "source": "BizBen",
  "isFastTrack": true,
  "askingPrice": 3650000,
  "revenue": 1800000,
  "cashFlow": 264000,
  "downPayment": "$1,000,000",
  "yearEstablished": 2022,
  "employees": 8,
  "reasonForSale": "To purchase gas station",
  "squareFeet": 7055,
  "category": "Retail",
  "businessTypes": ["Liquor Store"],
  "attributes": ["Absentee Run", "License (Liquor, etc.)", "Real Estate Included", "SBA Loan Pre-Qualified", "Training And Support"],
  "location": "Compton, Los Angeles County, California",
  "city": "Compton",
  "county": "Los Angeles County",
  "stateCode": "CA",
  "datePosted": "2026-09-21",
  "hasDetails": true
}
```

### How to use it

1. Optionally pick **Locations** (states, counties or cities) and **Categories**.
2. Optionally add a **Keyword**, a price range or a minimum cash flow.
3. Set **Maximum listings**, click **Start**, and download the results.

Every location is searched with every category, and duplicates are removed. With several searches, *Maximum listings* is shared fairly between them. With no location, every state is searched.

#### Input options

| Option | What it does |
|---|---|
| `locations` | States, counties or cities, e.g. `california-state-ca`, `alameda-county-california-ca`, `houston-texas-tx` (names like "Texas" or "CA" work too) |
| `categories` | Categories, e.g. `bakery-for-sale`, `liquor-store-for-sale` |
| `keyword` | Only listings whose title, summary, type or attributes contain this word, e.g. "SBA" or "absentee" |
| `minPrice` / `maxPrice` | Asking price range in USD (listings without a price are kept) |
| `minCashFlow` | Minimum yearly cash flow in USD (listings that don't give it are kept) |
| `startUrls` | BizBen results pages or single listing URLs, scraped as given |
| `includeDetails` | Open each listing for the full set of fields (default on). Turn off for a fast, cheaper run |
| `onlyNew` | Skip listings that earlier runs of the same search returned: you get and pay only for ones you haven't had (the first run works as usual) |
| `maxItems` | Stop after this many listings |
| `maxConcurrency` | Pages loaded at the same time (keep low to be polite) |

#### Fast mode vs. full details

- **Full details (default):** opens every listing for all the fields above.
- **Fast mode (`includeDetails` off):** reads only the results pages, about 40x fewer requests: title, price, sometimes cash flow, location, summary and picture.

### How much does it cost?

You pay **$3.00 per 1,000 listings** returned (plus a tiny $0.00005 per run start). Platform usage is included.

| Listings | Cost |
|---|---|
| 100 | $0.30 |
| All of California (~3,000) | about $9 |
| Everything (~6,000) | about $18 |

Apify's free plan gives you $5 of credit every month. Set a spending limit on any run and the scraper stops exactly there.

### Use it via API, on a schedule, or with your tools

- **Schedule it** daily to catch new listings.
- **Only new listings:** turn it on in a scheduled run or task and each run returns only listings you haven't had yet, so you never pay twice for the same listing.
- **Integrations:** send results to Google Sheets, Slack, e-mail, Zapier, Make or a webhook.
- **API:** run it from your own code and download results as JSON, CSV or Excel.

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>")
run = client.actor("pshivam/bizben-scraper").call(run_input={"locations": ["Los Angeles County, CA"], "minCashFlow": 100000, "maxItems": 200})
for business in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(business["title"], business["askingPrice"], business["cashFlow"])
```

#### Use it in Clay, n8n, Make or Zapier

Actor: `pshivam/bizben-scraper`. Paste this input and change the filters to yours:

```json
{"locations": ["los-angeles-county-california-ca"], "minCashFlow": 100000, "onlyNew": true, "maxItems": 500}
```

- **Clay:** create a table from an **Apify** source to pull in the results of a scheduled run of this Actor (it refreshes every 24 hours by default), or use the **Run Apify Actor** enrichment and paste the input.
- **n8n:** add the **Apify** node, choose **Run Actor and get dataset items**, pick this Actor and paste the input.
- **Make:** use **Run an Actor** with *Run synchronously* on, then **Get Dataset Items** with the run's dataset ID.
- **Zapier:** schedule this Actor in Apify, then use the **Finished Actor Run** trigger and **Fetch Dataset Items**. (Zapier stops waiting for **Run Actor** after 30 seconds, and a run usually takes about a minute.)

### Good to know

- **Filters are checked before a listing is opened**, so you only pay for matches. Locations and categories are BizBen's own pages.
- **Not every category has a page for every place.** Then the scraper searches the category in the state (or nationwide) and keeps only listings in your place; you see a note in the run log.
- **FastTrack listings come first** on BizBen's pages, then the rest.
- **Figures are the seller's own**, as published on BizBen. Many listings say "Call/Email" instead of a figure.

### This scraper vs. the alternatives

| | This scraper | Copying from BizBen by hand | Building your own scraper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100 listings with full details | About 1 minute | Hours (open and copy each page) | Days to build, then upkeep |
| Output | Excel, CSV, JSON or API; 36 fields per listing | A spreadsheet you type | Whatever you code |
| Asking price, revenue, cash flow, down payment | Numbers in USD, ready to sort | Retyped by hand | You write the parsing |
| Only new listings each day | Built in (`onlyNew`) | Compare lists yourself | You build it |
| When the site changes | We fix it; Apify test-runs it daily | - | You fix it |
| Seller contact details | Removed | Your responsibility | Your responsibility |
| Cost | $3.00 per 1,000 listings | Your time | Your time plus hosting |

### FAQ

#### How many listings are there?

6,000+: about 3,100 in California and the rest across other US states.

#### How much does it cost?

$3.00 per 1,000 listings (less on paid Apify plans), so 300 listings cost $0.90 and every California listing about $9.

#### Is it legal to scrape BizBen?

This scraper reads public listing pages at a polite speed, follows the site's robots.txt and returns business data with contact details removed. You are responsible for how you use the data; check the site's terms for your use case.

#### Can I get the seller's or broker's contact details?

No. Use the listing `url` to contact them through BizBen.

#### Why do some listings have two IDs like `tw:92422`?

Those come from a broker network (Transworld Business Advisors) and are shown on BizBen too; `listingNumber` is the broker's own number.

#### How do I get only new listings every day?

Save your search as a task, turn on **Only new listings** and schedule it daily. Each run then skips the listings earlier runs returned, so you get and pay only for ones you haven't had. Tip: set *Maximum listings* above the number of listings your search has, so the first run gets them all and later runs return just the new ones.

### Ready-made examples

Open one, click **Try for free**, and get data in about a minute:

- [Businesses for Sale in California (BizBen)](https://apify.com/pshivam/bizben-scraper/examples/bizben-businesses-for-sale-california)
- [Businesses for Sale in Los Angeles County (BizBen)](https://apify.com/pshivam/bizben-scraper/examples/bizben-los-angeles-county-businesses-for-sale)
- [Restaurants for Sale in California (BizBen)](https://apify.com/pshivam/bizben-scraper/examples/bizben-restaurants-for-sale-california)
- [Gas Stations for Sale in California (BizBen)](https://apify.com/pshivam/bizben-scraper/examples/bizben-gas-stations-for-sale)
- [Liquor Stores for Sale in California (BizBen)](https://apify.com/pshivam/bizben-scraper/examples/bizben-liquor-stores-for-sale)
- [SBA Pre-Qualified Businesses With $100k+ Cash Flow](https://apify.com/pshivam/bizben-scraper/examples/bizben-sba-businesses-100k-cash-flow)
- [Businesses for Sale in Texas (BizBen)](https://apify.com/pshivam/bizben-scraper/examples/bizben-businesses-for-sale-texas)
- [Laundromats for Sale (BizBen)](https://apify.com/pshivam/bizben-scraper/examples/bizben-laundromats-for-sale)
- [Businesses for Sale in San Diego County (BizBen)](https://apify.com/pshivam/bizben-scraper/examples/bizben-san-diego-county-businesses-for-sale)
- [Daycare Centers & Preschools for Sale (BizBen)](https://apify.com/pshivam/bizben-scraper/examples/bizben-daycare-centers-for-sale)

### More business-for-sale scrapers

- [BusinessBroker.net Scraper - Businesses for Sale](https://apify.com/pshivam/businessbroker-net-scraper): US businesses for sale with asking price, revenue, cash flow and location.
- [Daltons Business Scraper - Businesses for Sale UK](https://apify.com/pshivam/daltons-business-scraper): UK businesses for sale with asking price, leasehold or freehold, turnover, net profit and location.
- [DUB.de Scraper - Businesses for Sale in Germany](https://apify.com/pshivam/dub-de-scraper): companies for sale in Germany, Austria and Switzerland with year-by-year financials.
- [nexxt-change Scraper - Businesses for Sale & Buyers](https://apify.com/pshivam/nexxt-change-scraper): Germany's official succession marketplace, companies for sale and buyers looking for a company.
- [Website Closers Scraper - Online Businesses for Sale](https://apify.com/pshivam/website-closers-scraper): online and tech businesses for sale (eCommerce, SaaS, Amazon FBA) with asking price, cash flow and revenue, plus closed deals for valuation comps.
- [BusinessForSale AU Scraper - Australian Businesses](https://apify.com/pshivam/businessforsale-au-scraper): Australian businesses for sale with asking price, revenue and profit bands, location and category, plus sold businesses for valuation comps.
- [Transentreprise Scraper - Businesses for Sale France](https://apify.com/pshivam/transentreprise-scraper): the CCI and CMA chambers' marketplace in France with price, revenue and staff bands, sector, department and region.
- [LINK Business Scraper - Businesses for Sale NZ & AU](https://apify.com/pshivam/link-business-scraper): New Zealand's largest business broker and its Australian offices, with asking price, profit, revenue, industry and location.
- [Bpifrance Transmission Scraper - Businesses for Sale France](https://apify.com/pshivam/bpifrance-transmission-scraper): about 45,000 French businesses and shops for sale from Bpifrance's partner marketplaces, with price, revenue, EBE, staff, sector and region.

### Other scrapers

- [Trade Show Scraper - Worldwide Trade Fair Calendar](https://apify.com/pshivam/trade-show-scraper): trade shows and exhibitions worldwide with dates, venue, city, country, industries and the official website.
- [CeX Scraper - Prices, Trade-In Values & Stock](https://apify.com/pshivam/cex-scraper): CeX (webuy.com) second-hand phones, games and laptops in 11 countries with sell price, cash and voucher trade-in value, stock by store and price history.
- [DealSeek Scraper - Amazon Deals & Promo Codes](https://apify.com/pshivam/dealseek-scraper): Amazon, Walmart and eBay deals in 8 countries with final prices, verified promo codes, coupons and price history.

# Actor input Schema

## `locations` (type: `array`):

States, counties or cities (e.g. California, Los Angeles County, Houston). Leave empty for every state. Each location is searched separately.

## `categories` (type: `array`):

Business categories (e.g. Bakery, Liquor Store, Gas Station). Leave empty for all. With locations too, every category is searched in every location.

## `keyword` (type: `string`):

Only keep listings whose title, summary, type or attributes contain this word, e.g. "absentee" or "SBA". Not case-sensitive.

## `minPrice` (type: `integer`):

Skip listings with a lower asking price. Listings without a price are kept.

## `maxPrice` (type: `integer`):

Skip listings with a higher asking price. Listings without a price are kept.

## `minCashFlow` (type: `integer`):

Skip listings with a lower yearly cash flow. Listings that don't give it are kept.

## `startUrls` (type: `array`):

Optional: BizBen results pages (state, county, city or category) or single listing URLs, scraped as given.

## `includeDetails` (type: `boolean`):

On: revenue, down payment, year established, employees, FF\&E, inventory, lease, category, business types, attributes and the full description. Off: a fast, cheaper run with what the results pages show.

## `onlyNew` (type: `boolean`):

Skip listings that earlier runs of this same search already returned, so you never get or pay for the same listing twice. Turn it on for a scheduled run or a saved task to get only what's new each time. The first run works as usual and remembers what it returned, in your key-value store 'bizben-scraper-only-new' (delete it to start over).

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Stop after this many listings. You are charged per listing.

## `maxConcurrency` (type: `integer`):

Pages loaded at the same time. Keep it low to be polite to the website.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "includeDetails": true,
  "onlyNew": false,
  "maxItems": 50,
  "maxConcurrency": 4
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `listings` (type: `string`):

One row per business for sale, shown with the overview view.

## `financials` (type: `string`):

Asking price, revenue, cash flow and more as numbers for sorting and filtering.

## `runStats` (type: `string`):

Requests made, time spent and number of listings for this run (RUN_STATS record).

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "maxItems": 50
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("pshivam/bizben-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "maxItems": 50 }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("pshivam/bizben-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "maxItems": 50
}' |
apify call pshivam/bizben-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,pshivam/bizben-scraper"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/qFds9UVboIRM7d5Jg/builds/JQDJYJBgb6BH29Z3N/openapi.json