It is a wonder the rate at which the real estate industry is expanding. So naturally, the property dealers are trying to keep up with the changing market trends. However, such a volatile industry does not change in days, and several external forces influence it.
Real estate agents are often quizzing themselves on what the demand is like or which neighborhood is the most sought after.
You can answer these questions by performing proper research, which involves browsing through massive amounts of data. Then, web scraping services come into the picture, and it involves collecting data and presenting it in a structured format.
Now, if you want to choose the more straightforward means of scraping real estate data from the web, this page will explain just that. So, keep reading to know more!
Why you should scrape real estate data
The real estate industry is dynamic, and therefore, the market players within it have to be on their toes. To outsmart your competition, you mustn't fall behind. It is where web scraping comes into function. It ensures that the extracted data coming under the realm of real estate is accurate, reliable, and up to date. Once you have the required information, it will be reasonably easy to predict fluctuations in the real estate market.
Web scraping is a valuable method to obtain data as it helps businesses make informed decisions and set competitive pricing strategies to earn a significant profit. And since the information needed should not be outdated, web scraping is the most practical solution.
Usually, the web scraping services are employed to extract the following real estate data
Type of property
Sale price
Location
Size
Amenities
Monthly rental price
Parking spaces
Property agent
Information on these areas can influence the functioning of businesses. It places a significant advantage in the hands of agents as they become aware of the market trends and understand their properties better. Following this, the next step would be landing a potential buyer.
8 Ways real estate data can help you!
1. Appraising property value
It is necessary to estimate the value of a property. There are a couple of reasons for this, and it could be that you are trying to list it online or trying to get a loan before you buy the property. All this would make you want to know what is the value of the property.
Plus, if you're in a competitive industry, it is better to know more than your competition. Here is where web scraping comes to the rescue. It allows you to extract real estate data from a publicly available listing website. With this information, you will be in a better position to state your case in regards to the pricing of the property. And stand at a favorable point from where you can accurately estimate the value of a property.
2. Property location
Any real estate agent knows that location is one of the fundamental aspects of estimating the value of a property. However, it is not so easy to obtain data of the specific area you wish to analyze. But, it is not that much of a daunting task with web scraping as you can filter the data and extract only that which is relevant to you.
3. Data over emotions
Numeric data points like the square footage, age, last sold price, etc., influence the property's value. Even your emotions could sway or cloud your decisions. There are instances where people don't think twice before purchasing a property because they have emotional reasoning.
However, it is wise to go through the raw numbers before making the purchase. It will pave the way for a much more informed form of decision-making. If you're buying a property for investment purposes, a decision arrived by studying the data is helpful. Here again, web scraping helps you to see data points in a structured way.
4. Tracking vacancy rates
The vacancy rate is one of the vital points in deciding whether the property is worth purchasing. If the vacancy rate is declining, the rents will shoot up as the demand is higher. But, an increase in the vacancy rates means the demand is lower, which will also bring down the rents.
Unfortunately, the real estate agents use a fixed vacancy rate when assessing a property and ignore the actual data. It is because they don't have the luxury of time to conduct extensive research. Accurate vacancy rates are calculated by gathering fresh pricing and rent data, along with recent property completions, and by calculating the lease lengths.
5. Market direction
When a market is as dynamic as the real estate industry, it is challenging to keep up with it. But, to stay in the game, you should know which direction the market is heading into and where it will be in the future.
It is possible with the help of insights that are present in the raw data of the real estate market. Although unfortunately, one person can't manually collect all the data, it is conveniently available through a web scraping solution.
6. Maximize rental yield
Before considering an investment in real estate, you need to find the properties in any neighborhood with the best rental yield. It is possible through scraping data from real estate websites. You can also obtain information regarding the regions having the highest return on investment (ROI). With such high-level data, businesses can have a strategic lead on their competition.
7. Sound investment decisions
As an investor of the 21st century, your decisions should be data-driven. Ambiguity has taken a backseat ever since the internet came into existence. And with the internet also came a considerable volume of data. Web scraping helps you to obtain fresh real estate data to assist you in your investment analysis.
8. Monitoring competition
With data scraping, you can collect pricing intelligence data in real-time. A crucial aspect that can allow you to overtake your competition. When you have the data in real-time, you rework your pricing strategies in a way that will be beneficial to your customers and your business.
Web scraping is taking the real estate industry by storm, and the value of the data in the real estate industry will only gain prominence over time. Although a new concept, it has already shown how it can impact the way market players in the real estate industry operate.
Why scraping real estate data is a challenge?
Sometimes what comes of an easy task may turn out to be quite complex if not done right. Therefore, even if you consider extracting real estate data, the points you must consider are below before going ahead.
Identify target website(s)
Define the data points you want to extract
Create a scraper tool
Store the data in a database
Mine the data to get insights
Data can be obsolete if not updated continuously
Have a quality assurance system in place so that the data you extracted is not junk
You should know that scraping data is not a one-time thing and should be done regularly for better results. But there are many challenges upon extracting data from the web at a large scale.
Scraper maintenance
Javascript rendering
Proxy management
Data quality
All these challenges are not easily solvable and take up a lot of resources. Unless web scraping is the core of your business, it is an excellent choice to employ a professional web scraping service provider like Datahut who can solve these challenges for you. Not only do you get quality data, but you also won't have to face any problems while obtaining it.
Data extraction solutions for scraping real estate data
Extracting a vast amount of data from various online sources is challenging, and you need proficient knowledge and resources. However, you can go about it by one of the below methods.
1. Building an in-house web scraper:
This mechanism requires the support of proxies which are fundamental in the web scraping process. Proxies allow the collection of data under numerous IP addresses from the desired public data sources.
2. Using an API:
Not every website provides APIs. But even when they do, only limited data can be obtained. Although publicly available data is accessible, you don't have a direct means to procure it.
3. Outsourcing data extraction tools:
If you choose to employ a third party for scraping solutions like Datahut, you remove the hassle of the data gathering process. You will be able to focus your time on already collected and structured data to derive results.
Every one of the above holds value in its way. While an in-house scraper will cause you to have intimate knowledge of the tool and give you the liberty to customize it, it will also require constant maintenance and time, and investment. On the other hand, a web scraping service by a professional provides high-quality data. It also saves time as there is an elimination of the entire process that goes into collecting data. Outsourcing this service further allows you to analyze the already collected data.
It's a Wrap
The real estate industry is transforming with the scraping of real estate data. It also provides a potential for the market players who adapt to the constant technological developments. Those who seize the opportunity to leverage data will be the ones who will have the best chance to stay ahead in the race.
Datahut will help you achieve this edge in the market. One-stop solution for all your real estate web scraping needs. At Datahut, we will give you the desired results at an affordable price. So why the wait? Contact us for an effective scraping solution.
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