Zillow does not offer a button that downloads listing data as a spreadsheet. If you want property data in Excel or in a CSV file, you have to move it there yourself, and there are only a handful of ways to do that. This guide goes through each method, explains why some of them fail, and ends with the approach that is reliable.
First, a short definition, because the two formats are often confused.
- An Excel file (.xlsx) stores values together with their type (number, date, text) and formatting. It opens in Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, Apple Numbers and LibreOffice.
- A CSV file (.csv) stores plain text: one line per row, values separated by commas. It has no formatting and no types. Almost every program can open it, which is why it is the standard format for moving data between systems.
If you are going to analyze the data in Excel, either format works. If you are going to import it into another tool, such as a CRM, CSV is usually what that tool expects.
Method 1: Copy and paste by hand
The simplest method is to open a listing, select each value, and paste it into a spreadsheet cell.
This works, but consider the cost. A useful row has perhaps 15 to 30 values: address, price, bedrooms, bathrooms, square footage, lot size, year built, HOA fee, taxes, and so on. Zillow spreads these across different parts of the page, and many of them sit inside collapsed sections. Collecting one listing carefully takes several minutes. Collecting fifty takes an afternoon.
There is also the question of accuracy. Manual copying introduces errors: a digit dropped from a price, a value pasted into the wrong column. These errors are hard to notice later, because the spreadsheet looks correct.
Copying by hand is reasonable for two or three properties. Beyond that, it is the slowest and least reliable method.
Method 2: Excel's "Get Data From Web"
Excel can import tables from a web page: Data → Get Data → From Other Sources → From Web, then paste a URL. Google Sheets has a similar feature in the IMPORTHTML and IMPORTXML functions.
In principle this should work. In practice it usually does not work on Zillow, for two reasons:
- Zillow builds its pages with JavaScript. The listing data is loaded and arranged by code running in your browser. Excel's importer downloads the page without running that code, so it sees very little of the data you see.
- Zillow blocks automated requests. Requests that do not come from a normal browser session are often refused or shown a verification page instead of the listing.
The result is typically an error or an empty table. This is not a setting you can fix on your side; it is how the site is built.
Method 3: A browser extension that downloads a file
A browser extension runs inside the page you are viewing, after the page has loaded. This means it can read the same data you see, which is exactly what Method 2 could not do.
Several extensions read Zillow listings and download them as a CSV or Excel file. The workflow is: open a listing or a search results page, click the extension, and a file is saved to your computer.
This is much faster than copying by hand. The limitation is that each export produces a new, separate file. If you export ten times over a week, you have ten files, which you must then combine yourself. For a one-time list this does not matter. For ongoing work, such as tracking properties over several weeks, it becomes a chore.
Method 4: Export to Google Sheets, then download
The fourth method adds one step, and that step removes the problem with Method 3.
Instead of creating a file for each export, you send each listing into a single Google Sheet. Every export adds a new row to the same sheet. When you want an Excel or CSV file, you download it from Google Sheets:
- Open the sheet in Google Sheets.
- Choose File → Download.
- Choose Microsoft Excel (.xlsx) for the whole spreadsheet, or Comma-separated values (.csv) for the current tab only.
The sheet stays as your master copy, and a file is something you create from it when needed. Because every row went into the same columns, the file is already consistent. There is nothing to merge.
This is the approach Listing2Sheets is built around. It adds a "Send to Sheets" button to Zillow listing pages and search results pages. You choose which of the available fields to include and which column each one goes into, and every export after that uses the same layout.
A practical note on numbers
Whichever method you use, check that numbers arrived as numbers. Spreadsheets distinguish between the number 352000 and the text "352000". They look identical in a cell, but only the first can be summed, averaged or sorted correctly.
Two quick checks:
- In Excel, a small green triangle in the corner of a cell means Excel is treating a number as text. Select the cells, click the warning icon, and choose Convert to Number.
- Downloading as CSV avoids the problem in most cases. A CSV file carries no types, so Excel reads each value fresh when it opens the file and recognizes numbers on its own.
Which method should you use?
The answer depends on how often you do this.
| Situation | Suitable method |
|---|---|
| Two or three properties, once | Copy and paste by hand |
| A single list you need today | An extension that downloads a file (Method 3), or Method 4 |
| Properties you collect over days or weeks | Export to one Google Sheet, download when needed (Method 4) |
| Data for another tool, such as a CRM | Method 4, downloaded as CSV |
Summary
Zillow does not provide a spreadsheet download. Importing the page directly into Excel usually fails, because the data is loaded by JavaScript and automated requests are blocked. Copying by hand works only at small scale. A browser extension solves the reading problem, because it runs inside the loaded page. Sending listings into one Google Sheet and downloading from there adds a single step, but it gives you one consistent master sheet instead of a folder of separate files.
If you want to try the Google Sheets approach, How It Works walks through the setup, which takes a few minutes. The free plan includes 100 exports a month.