3 ms·

How IFTTT, Mandrill, and Twilio is helping me find an apartment in SF

45 points by coloneltcb 12y ago

thoughtpalette 12y ago
Very creative solution! I love mandrills JSON API and the 12k emails on the free tier and twilios API was a breeze to work with as well. Do you find the auto-call feature to be a distraction sometimes? How does that work exactly? I wouldn't want my phone to randomly start dialing a listing it matches without myself taking a look through it first. Edit: May want to include this is from 2013 in the title.
- toomuchtodo 12y ago
  > Do you find the auto-call feature to be a distraction sometimes? How does that work exactly? I wouldn't want my phone to randomly start dialing a listing it matches without myself taking a look through it first. A cool feature would be to text you first, and if you respond with yes, then the call is initiated.
danso 12y ago
I'm guessing the OP had problems scraping from Heroku because Craigslist blacklisted Heroku's servers? In any case, parsing Craigslist apartment listings was how I practiced Ruby...Twillo/IFTTT/Mandrill didn't exist at the time, but a straight-up command-line scrape into CSV/Google Sheets is, IMHO, the right amount of engineering for the situation...unless the SF rental situation differs markedly from NYC's (pre-2008 crash), most rental situations don't require the applicant to be the first to call. It's a seller's market, and even if the seller wants to get out quick, they still want the best of several applicants to choose from, and there are things that keep the process from being an instant transaction (background checks, and the like). But having everything in a spreadsheet, so that you can quickly compare across categories (and whatever metrics you wanted to extract from the text), and then create a column to mark Y/N, or 1-10 for preference, and then another column to mark where you are in the application process...that to me was a huge time saver than just regularly browsing Craigslist and doing copy-paste into a Word doc.
- thaumasiotes 12y ago
  > unless the SF rental situation differs markedly from NYC's (pre-2008 crash), most rental situations don't require the applicant to be the first to call. It's a seller's market, and even if the seller wants to get out quick, they still want the best of several applicants to choose from, and there are things that keep the process from being an instant transaction (background checks, and the like) The SF rental situation may be more different than you expect. When I rented an apartment there (2012), I got the apartment by virtue of being the first person, of a big group who all showed up to see a different apartment in the same building, to return with a money order for the rent.
- eldavido 12y ago
  Craigslist probably blacklists all of AWS, including Heroku.
  - toomuchtodo 12y ago
    I wonder if they block Tor.
    - Torgo 12y ago
      Yes. So does Yelp.
pranade 12y ago
Great work!
MrDom 12y ago
Now if there were only a way to automate the showing up, preparing the paper work, competing against other bidders, and the remainder of the apartment leasing process. Task rabbit? Or one of those other personal assistant as a service sites?
- toomuchtodo 12y ago
  https://www.fancyhands.com/ https://www.fancyhands.com/

45 points by coloneltcb 12y ago

Very creative solution! I love mandrills JSON API and the 12k emails on the free tier and twilios API was a breeze to work with as well. Do you find the auto-call feature to be a distraction sometimes? How does that work exactly? I wouldn't want my phone to randomly start dialing a listing it matches without myself taking a look through it first. Edit: May want to include this is from 2013 in the title.

toomuchtodo 12y ago
> Do you find the auto-call feature to be a distraction sometimes? How does that work exactly? I wouldn't want my phone to randomly start dialing a listing it matches without myself taking a look through it first. A cool feature would be to text you first, and if you respond with yes, then the call is initiated.

danso 12y ago

I'm guessing the OP had problems scraping from Heroku because Craigslist blacklisted Heroku's servers? In any case, parsing Craigslist apartment listings was how I practiced Ruby...Twillo/IFTTT/Mandrill didn't exist at the time, but a straight-up command-line scrape into CSV/Google Sheets is, IMHO, the right amount of engineering for the situation...unless the SF rental situation differs markedly from NYC's (pre-2008 crash), most rental situations don't require the applicant to be the first to call. It's a seller's market, and even if the seller wants to get out quick, they still want the best of several applicants to choose from, and there are things that keep the process from being an instant transaction (background checks, and the like). But having everything in a spreadsheet, so that you can quickly compare across categories (and whatever metrics you wanted to extract from the text), and then create a column to mark Y/N, or 1-10 for preference, and then another column to mark where you are in the application process...that to me was a huge time saver than just regularly browsing Craigslist and doing copy-paste into a Word doc.

thaumasiotes 12y ago
> unless the SF rental situation differs markedly from NYC's (pre-2008 crash), most rental situations don't require the applicant to be the first to call. It's a seller's market, and even if the seller wants to get out quick, they still want the best of several applicants to choose from, and there are things that keep the process from being an instant transaction (background checks, and the like) The SF rental situation may be more different than you expect. When I rented an apartment there (2012), I got the apartment by virtue of being the first person, of a big group who all showed up to see a different apartment in the same building, to return with a money order for the rent.
eldavido 12y ago
Craigslist probably blacklists all of AWS, including Heroku.
- toomuchtodo 12y ago
  I wonder if they block Tor.
  - Torgo 12y ago
    Yes. So does Yelp.

pranade 12y ago

Great work!

MrDom 12y ago

Now if there were only a way to automate the showing up, preparing the paper work, competing against other bidders, and the remainder of the apartment leasing process. Task rabbit? Or one of those other personal assistant as a service sites?

toomuchtodo 12y ago
https://www.fancyhands.com/ https://www.fancyhands.com/