Mashable reported today that HopStop, a site that tells users how to get from Point A to Point B using mass transit, has released an API.
This adds to a slowly growing list of free real estate or real estate-relevant API's. Google Maps is the granddaddy of API's in our space, but there's more out there now for real estate web developers to work with.
For brokers, online real estate companies, MLS organizations or anyone looking to create a richer online real estate experience, these can be invaluable resources.
And – let me say it again — they are free.
Here's list of API's I've seen put to good use, with links to their documentation. I'm sure I am missing something – so please point that out.
Yelp: Local business reviews
Walkscore: Determine the "walkability" of any listing or neighborhood
Education.com: Comprehensive school data
Zillow: Home values, demographics, market trends and more
Cyberhomes: Home values, sold data and market trends
Trulia: Market data, trends
Flickr: Photos that can be displayed by geotags
Eventful: Community events and meetings
– Brian Boero


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Brian-
One quick note, and one additional API to note. Zillow also has sold data in our API. I wouldn't normally point that out on a post like this, but I've heard from at least one developer that they didn't know Zillow had that data available in our API (and they chose to use cyberhomes as a result).
And the other API to note is the walk score API – http://www.walkscore.com/api.shtml
Brian-
For readers interested in seeing some of the API's you speak of in action check out "Cool Tools" on Dwellicious, a veritable smorgasbord of real estate APIs!
http://dwellicious.com/lontok/bookmarks/1324
Panoramio(a Google company) is one we use that shows photos in the neighborhood of bookmarked listings.
@Drew
Thanks for pointing that out!
@Greg
Panoramio is a good one, thanks. You've done a great job with implementing some of these.
Geez, not sure what I was thinking in pointing out Walk Score. I read this post way to fast…
I wanted to expand on the specifics included in the Cyberhomes API. In addition to everything mentioned, also pull neighborhood data, comparable properties, and chart data.
Hi Mark
Vidlisting has developed a growing set of customer facing API related to real estate video. The APIs are slowly being documented at http://api.forsalebylocals.com
You can even convert videos programatically using our API set and have the converted video returned to your own server.
We also have a new web developer program which gives web developers the ability to use and resell all of our internal APIs on commercial projects without attribution back to Vidlisting. This gives web developers access to the rich full set of platform multimedia and content management APIs used to build sites like http://Vidlisting.com and http://educationalmedialibrary.com (which is a premium content educational video site operated in collaboration with NAR)
Tony
Mark, just want to remind you that Estately.com also has transit search, so people and agents can identify homes within a quarter mile of mass transit stations in nearly all of our markets – Washington, Oregon, California, New York and Chicago.