I’m building a novel rental search app (similar to something like StreetEasy but with new functionality), and I’m trying to figure out how to legally get real-time rental listings and property photos.
Most APIs I’ve found either rely on scraping (e.g., “StreetEasy API” on RapidAPI, HasData, etc.) or they provide only limited data without images (RentCast, MappedBy, ATTOM, etc.). None seem like a viable option for a real consumer-facing product.
From what I’ve read, the proper path might involve MLS access, or partnering with someone who already has MLS API access, but I’m not sure how realistic that is for startups.
So my question is:
What’s the legitimate way for a new consumer-facing r





