Remove duplicate listings from your exported data

Why are duplicate listings present in your data?

Duplicate listings are present in your data because there is no way to ask Zillow to exclude the listings that you have already seen.

Let's take a simple example, you are looking for a house in a specific area and you have already seen 10 listings. You export the data of these 10 listings and you want to export the data of the next 10 listings.

Unfortunately, Zillow's algorithm is a black-box, that means there is no way to predict that the properties shown in the next 10 listings will be different from the previous 10 listings. In fact, it is very likely that you will see some of the same listings again.

Also in the case that you are looking for a very specific type of property, then Zillow may not be able to find exactly what you are looking for.

In this case Zillow will show you properties that may be somewhat relevant to your search, but not exactly what you are looking for.

This algorithm is not perfect and it is not Zillow's fault. It is just the way it is. It works the same way as when Google shows you non-relevant search results.

As an investor or a future home-buyer, you do not want to waste time by looking at the same listings over and over again. You want to see and export new listings that you haven't seen before.

This explanation is just scratching the surface of the problem. In fact, there are many other reasons why duplicate listings could be present in your data but we will not go into details here as it is out of the scope of this guide.

How to remove duplicate listings from your exported data?

Zillow Data Exporter gives you the ability to remove duplicate listings from your exported data.

To begin with, you need to enable the duplicate listing filter setting as shown in the screenshot below:

Secondly, you have to choose the look-back period for the duplicate listing filter. The look-back period is the period of time that Zillow Data Exporter will look back into to check if a listing is a duplicate.

You can choose one of four look-back periods:

• 1 hour
• 1 day (24 hours)
• 1 week (7 days)
• 1 month

Let's assume that you want to export only listings that you haven't exported in the last 24 hours. In this case you need to choose the look-back period of 1 day (24 hours).

When the export happens, Zillow Data Exporter will compare the exported properties to the properties that have already been exported in the last 24 hours.

If a property has already been exported in the last 24 hours, then it will be excluded from the exported data, otherwise it will be included.

The screenshot below shows the look-back period setting:

Disable and reset the filter

If for some reason you want to export all the listings without the duplicate listing filter, then you can disable the duplicate listing filter as shown in the screenshot below:

You can also choose to reset the filter. This will remove the references to the previously exported listings. This operation cannot be undone.

It will remove all the references to the previously exported listings, so that the next export will include all the listings.

As seen in the screenshot below you will be required to click the confirm button to reset the filter:

Conclusion

This guide showed you how to remove duplicate listings from your exported data. This is a very useful feature that will save you a lot of time and you won't have to wonder if you have already exported a listing or not.

If you have any questions or feedback, please feel free to contact me at support@propertydatalabs.com.