Four routes exist. One of them, scraping a portal, gives you rows but no right to show them. The other three come with a licence, each on different conditions. This page is by HousingFeed, which sells one of the three; the other two are described from their own pages, checked 2026-09-20.
| Route | Who grants the right to display | Rentals | Access | Fits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Portal partner programme (Zillow Group rentals network, Apartments.com partner feeds) | The portal, to partners it selects; Zillow's programme takes listings in from property managers and is not an outbound API | Yes | Application; Zillow's feed testing "typically takes 4-6 weeks" | Property managers syndicating out; large partners |
| MLS / IDX feed (Bridge Interactive, SimplyRETS) | The MLS, to its members, under IDX rules | One property type among mostly for-sale listings | Bridge "invite only"; SimplyRETS from $49 a month with your own MLS credentials | Brokerages |
| Manager-direct licence (HousingFeed Display Feed) | HousingFeed, for listings property managers publish on their own sites, with attribution and link-back | Yes, rentals only | Sample in one business day; order form; 30 days free | Marketplaces, housing apps, assistants that are not brokerages |
| Scraping a portal (Apify actors, RealtyAPI, your own crawler) | Nobody. The portal's terms govern and do not permit republishing | Yes, as rows | Immediate | Research and internal tools only |
The manager-direct route: US rental listings collected from property managers' and owners' own websites and leasing software, verified weekly, licensed for display in your product with the manager named and linked. Portal listings are excluded by design. Coverage is thinner where a metro's rentals are mostly single units posted only on portals; the Zillow comparison publishes that gap per metro so you see it before you decide. For research without display, the Data API covers 30 countries, portals included, pay per row.
You can fetch the pages; you cannot republish what they show. The portals' terms do not grant third parties a right to display their listings, and the scraper vendors say so in their own words ("comply with each site's Terms of Service"). Use scraped rows for research, not for a product that shows them.
Only if you want MLS data. MLS and IDX feeds are the brokerage route: for-sale heavy, rentals thin, access via the MLS. A rental marketplace that is not a brokerage does not need one.
License inventory that is already published. Manager-direct listings come with the manager named and linked and enquiries routed to them, so your marketplace has supply on day one while your own landlord-submitted listings sit beside it.
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