Choosing the right URLs

The effectiveness of your website monitoring filter depends heavily on choosing the right websites. This guide explains what makes a good website, how to construct them for major portals, and common mistakes to avoid.

The Golden Rule

Your website must be a search results page that lists multiple properties. Not a homepage. Not a single listing page. Not a portal's main landing page.

The URL should be the exact address you see in your browser after applying your search filters on the portal.

Search Results Page vs. Other Pages

Page Type	Example	Works as Source?
Search results with filters	`idealista.com/en/venta-viviendas/madrid/centro/`	✅ Yes
Portal homepage	`idealista.com`	❌ No
Single listing	`idealista.com/inmueble/12345678/`	❌ No
Login page	`idealista.com/login`	❌ No
Agent profile	`idealista.com/pro/agent-name/`	❌ No

How to Get the Right URL

Go to the real estate portal in your web browser
Use the portal's built-in filters to narrow down:
- Location: Your target city, neighborhood, or area
- Property type: Apartment, house, studio, etc.
- Price range: A broad range (remember, FilterWise's AI will do the precise filtering)
- Rooms: Your minimum room count
Once the search results are displayed, copy the URL from your browser's address bar
Paste this URL as a source in FilterWise

Portal-Specific Tips

SeLoger (France)

SeLoger generates long URLs with encoded search parameters. After applying your filters, the URL looks something like:

https://www.seloger.com/list.htm?tri=initial&enterprise=0&natures=1,2&places=[{ci:750111}]&price=NaN/500000&rooms=3,4,5

Tips:

Sort by "Most recent" for best results
Include surrounding neighborhoods to broaden the search
The URL can be very long — that's normal

Idealista (Spain/Portugal/Italy)

Idealista uses clean, readable URLs:

https://www.idealista.com/en/venta-viviendas/madrid/centro/con-precio-hasta_400000,de-dos-dormitorios/

Tips:

Use the language-specific subdomain for your market
Idealista's URL structure encodes filters directly — you can sometimes edit the URL to adjust criteria

Immobilienscout24 (Germany)

Immobilienscout24 URLs encode the search as a path:

https://www.immobilienscout24.de/Suche/de/berlin/berlin/wohnung-kaufen?price=-500000.0&numberofrooms=2.0-

Tips:

Use "Suche" (search) URLs, not "expose" (single listing) URLs
Include price and room parameters in the URL

Rightmove (UK)

Rightmove uses query parameters:

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/find.html?locationIdentifier=REGION%5E87490&maxPrice=500000&minBedrooms=2

Tips:

The locationIdentifier parameter is critical — make sure it's included
Add sortType=6 to sort by newest first

LeBonCoin (France)

⚠️ LeBonCoin actively blocks automated scanning. We recommend using email forwarding for LeBonCoin rather than website monitoring. See Dealing with blocked sites.

URL Parameters That Matter

Sorting

Many portals let you sort results by date (newest first). This is ideal for scanning because:

New listings appear at the top of the page
FilterWise doesn't need to paginate deeply
You catch new listings faster

Look for sort parameters like sort=date, tri=date, or sortType=6 in the URL.

Pagination

FilterWise scans the first page of results by default. For most active searches, the first page (20-50 listings) captures all new listings since the last scan.

If your search is very broad, consider splitting it into multiple narrower searches (e.g., by neighborhood) to ensure coverage.

Geographic Filters

Always include a geographic filter in your URL. Without one, you'll get listings from the entire country, wasting your analysis quota on irrelevant locations.

Testing Your URL

Before adding a website:

Open it in an incognito/private browser window — if it works without cookies or login, it'll work for FilterWise
Check that listings are displayed — you should see a grid or list of properties
Count the visible listings — aim for pages with 10-50 listings
Verify it refreshes — the page should show different/new listings over time

Common Mistakes

Using a URL that requires login: Some portals show limited results to non-logged-in users. Test in incognito.
Including session tokens: Some URLs contain temporary session IDs that expire. Remove parameters like sessionId or token.
Too broad a search: Searching an entire country generates too many listings. Filter by city at minimum.
Too narrow a search: Searching a single street rarely produces enough listings. Stay at the neighborhood or city level.
Using map view URLs: Some portals encode the map position in the URL. These can be unreliable — use list view instead.