Where do apartment posting sites get their data?

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1

I'm trying to find a good website to stick to and use to find apartments online. In my efforts to do so, I've found plenty of lists of recommended websites that vary based on city. In the past, I've also found that different websites don't always have the same apartments on them.

This all got me wondering: Other than user interfaces, what makes an apartment search site good? Is there one site that most landlords/housing companies will post to? Or do all these sites pull from the same collection of data? For example, almost all weather sources in the U.S. pull data from the National Weather Service. They may add data on top of that (like the Weather Channel), but anytime you search for U.S. weather online, it ultimately comes from the same source.

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2

I would think that apartments would function like the NOAA but all apartments are private businesses posing as communities. My guess is that it is likely that there are a few databases in common among the larger apartment companies, but as far as a unified database, I don't think so.

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Apartment posting sites usually have their content posted by landlords or the current tenants.