Houzz Professional Scraper

Extract comprehensive professional and contractor data from Houzz.com quickly and reliably. This scraper collects detailed information about professionals including contact details, ratings, reviews, and location data.

What does Houzz Professional Scraper do?

This actor scrapes professional listings from Houzz.com, extracting detailed information about contractors, architects, interior designers, and other home improvement professionals. It uses advanced JSON extraction techniques for maximum speed and reliability.

Key capabilities:

• Fast JSON-based data extraction
• Automatic pagination handling
• Comprehensive professional information
• Flexible search by profession and location
• Deduplication of results
• Proxy support for reliable scraping

Why scrape Houzz professionals?

Lead Generation

Build targeted lists of contractors and professionals for B2B outreach, partnerships, or market analysis.

Market Research

Analyze professional distribution, pricing trends, and service availability across different locations and specialties.

Competitive Analysis

Track competitor ratings, reviews, and service offerings to improve your own business strategy.

Data Enrichment

Enhance existing databases with verified professional contact information and business details.

Features

✅ Multiple extraction methods - JSON parsing, JSON-LD, and HTML fallback for maximum reliability
✅ Automatic pagination - Seamlessly handles multi-page results
✅ Comprehensive data - Name, address, phone, ratings, reviews, and more
✅ Flexible input - Search by profession/location or provide direct URLs
✅ Deduplication - Automatically removes duplicate entries
✅ Proxy support - Built-in Apify Proxy integration to avoid blocking
✅ Fast performance - Optimized for speed and cost-efficiency

How to use

Basic Usage

1. Choose your search method:

   • Option A: Enter profession and location (e.g., "carpenter" in "Boston")
   • Option B: Provide direct Houzz search URLs

2. Configure limits:

   • Set maximum number of professionals to collect
   • Set maximum pages to visit (15 professionals per page)

3. Run the actor and download results in JSON, CSV, or Excel format

Example Configuration

{
  "profession": "carpenter",
  "location": "Boston",
  "results_wanted": 50,
  "max_pages": 5,
  "collectDetails": true
}

Using Direct URLs

{
  "startUrls": [
    {
      "url": "https://www.houzz.com/professionals/carpenter/probr0-bo~t_11831"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://www.houzz.com/professionals/plumber/new-york"
    }
  ],
  "results_wanted": 100
}

Input Configuration

Field	Type	Description	Required
startUrls	Array	Direct Houzz professional search URLs. If provided, overrides profession/location.	No
profession	String	Type of professional (e.g., "carpenter", "plumber", "electrician", "architect", "interior-designer")	No
location	String	City name or Houzz location code (e.g., "Boston", "New York", "probr0-bo")	No
collectDetails	Boolean	Extract comprehensive professional information (default: true)	No
results_wanted	Integer	Maximum number of professionals to collect (default: 50)	No
max_pages	Integer	Maximum pages to visit - safety limit (default: 10, 15 professionals per page)	No
proxyConfiguration	Object	Proxy settings - residential proxies recommended	No
dedupe	Boolean	Remove duplicate professionals (default: true)	No

Output Format

Each professional record contains the following fields:

{
  "name": "Rick's Woodworking",
  "address": "123 Main Street, Boston, MA 02101",
  "city": "Boston",
  "state": "MA",
  "zip": "02101",
  "country": "US",
  "phone": "+1-617-555-0123",
  "latitude": 42.3601,
  "longitude": -71.0589,
  "rating": 4.9,
  "review_count": 117,
  "description": "Custom woodworking and carpentry services...",
  "profile_url": "https://www.houzz.com/professionals/carpenter/ricks-woodworking-pfvwus-pf~123456",
  "image_url": "https://st.hzcdn.com/...",
  "professional_id": "123456"
}

Output Fields

Field	Type	Description
name	String	Professional or company name
address	String	Full formatted address
city	String	City name
state	String	State or province code
zip	String	Postal/ZIP code
country	String	Country code
phone	String	Contact phone number
latitude	Number	Geographic latitude
longitude	Number	Geographic longitude
rating	Number	Average rating (0-5 scale)
review_count	Number	Total number of reviews
description	String	Professional bio or company description
profile_url	String	Full Houzz profile URL
image_url	String	Profile or logo image URL
professional_id	String	Unique Houzz professional identifier

Use Cases

🏗️ Construction & Contracting

Build databases of contractors for project bidding, subcontractor sourcing, or partnership opportunities.

📊 Market Analysis

Analyze professional density, service availability, and pricing across different markets and regions.

🎯 Sales & Marketing

Generate targeted lead lists for B2B sales, marketing campaigns, or business development initiatives.

🔍 Competitive Intelligence

Monitor competitor ratings, review trends, and service offerings to inform business strategy.

📱 App Development

Populate professional directories, comparison tools, or recommendation engines with verified data.

📈 Business Intelligence

Enrich CRM systems, market research databases, or analytics platforms with professional data.

Performance Tips

Optimize Speed

• Use reasonable results_wanted values (50-200) for faster runs
• Enable proxy configuration to avoid rate limiting
• Set appropriate max_pages to control execution time

Reduce Costs

• Start with smaller batches to test your configuration
• Use datacenter proxies for non-sensitive scraping
• Enable deduplication to avoid processing duplicates

Improve Reliability

• Always use Apify Proxy (residential recommended)
• Keep maxConcurrency at default (5) to avoid blocking
• Monitor run logs for extraction method used (JSON preferred)

Troubleshooting

No results returned

Solution: Verify your profession and location are valid. Try using a direct Houzz URL in startUrls instead.

Incomplete data fields

Solution: Some professionals may not have all fields populated on Houzz. This is expected behavior.

Scraper timing out

Solution: Reduce results_wanted or max_pages. Enable proxy configuration if not already active.

Duplicate results

Solution: Ensure dedupe is set to true in your input configuration.

Blocked or rate limited

Solution: Enable Apify Proxy with residential proxies. Reduce concurrency if issues persist.

Legal and Ethical Considerations

Responsible Scraping

• Respect robots.txt and terms of service
• Use reasonable rate limits and delays
• Only collect publicly available information
• Comply with data protection regulations (GDPR, CCPA)
• Do not use scraped data for spam or harassment

Data Privacy

All data collected is publicly available on Houzz.com. Ensure your use of this data complies with applicable privacy laws and regulations.

Terms of Service

Review and comply with Houzz's Terms of Service before scraping. This tool is for educational and research purposes.

Support

Need help or have questions? Contact Apify support or check the Apify documentation.

---

Note: This scraper extracts publicly available data from Houzz.com. Always ensure your use complies with applicable laws and Houzz's terms of service.