Centris Broker Scraper

Scrapes detailed real estate broker profiles from Centris.ca using Playwright. Optionally extracts their property listings and supports custom data extraction.

Overview

This actor visits Centris broker directory pages, extracts structured profile data, and can follow links to individual broker pages for deeper information. It's built on Apify's PlaywrightCrawler for reliable JavaScript rendering and navigation.

Key Features

Broker Profile Extraction
- Personal details: name, title, profile photo
- Contact info: phone, email, contact page URLs
- Identifiers: broker ID and profile ID
- Agency details: name, logo, agency type

Social Media Links
- Extracts LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter/X, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok profiles when available.

Optional Property Listings
- When enabled, fetches each broker's property listings including:
- Property URLs and unique IDs
- Photo galleries with full image URLs
- Titles, addresses, prices, and property types
- Thumbnail links via .property-thumbnail-summary-link selectors

Custom Data Extraction
- Use extendedOutputFunction to add custom scraping logic
- Full access to Playwright page object for advanced operations
- Custom errors don't break the main scraping process
- Merges custom data with standard broker output

How to Use

Input Configuration

Configure the actor with these parameters:

{
  "startUrls": ["https://www.centris.ca/en/real-estate-brokers"],
  "maxItems": 100,
  "endPage": 5,
  "addBrokerProperties": false,
  "proxy": true,
  "extendedOutputFunction": "return { customField: 'value' };"
}

Parameters Explained
- startUrls: Entry points for broker discovery (usually directory pages)
- maxItems: Maximum number of broker profiles to scrape (default: 100)
- endPage: Maximum directory pages to process (default: 5)
- addBrokerProperties: Set to true to include property listings (slower)
- proxy: Enables Apify Proxy for request rotation (recommended)
- extendedOutputFunction: JavaScript function returning additional data

Custom Data Extraction

The extendedOutputFunction receives three parameters:
- broker: The extracted broker object
- page: Playwright page object for additional scraping
- log: Logger for debugging

Basic Example

"extendedOutputFunction": "return { 
  scrapedAt: new Date().toISOString(),
  source: 'centris' 
};"

Advanced Example - Extract Reviews

"extendedOutputFunction": `
  const customData = {};
  try {
    const rating = await page.$eval('.rating-stars', 
      el => el.getAttribute('data-rating'));
    customData.rating = parseFloat(rating);

    const reviewCount = await page.$eval('.review-count',
      el => parseInt(el.textContent.match(/\\d+/)[0]));
    customData.reviewCount = reviewCount;
  } catch (e) {
    // Elements not found
  }
  return customData;
`

Output

The actor outputs an array of broker objects. Each includes all extracted profile data, social media links, optional property listings, and any custom fields from extendedOutputFunction.

Typical output structure:

{
  "name": "Broker Name",
  "title": "Real Estate Broker",
  "phone": "+1-234-567-8900",
  "email": "broker@example.com",
  "brokerId": "12345",
  "agency": "Example Realty",
  "socialMedia": {
    "linkedin": "https://linkedin.com/in/broker",
    "facebook": "https://facebook.com/broker"
  },
  "properties": [
    {
      "url": "https://centris.ca/property/123",
      "id": "123",
      "photos": ["https://.../photo1.jpg"],
      "title": "Modern Downtown Condo",
      "price": "$450,000"
    }
  ],
  "customField": "value"
}

Run the actor via Apify Console, API, or SDK. Use proxy configuration for production-scale runs.