Openrent slack notifier

This program parses property listings on openrent.co.uk and if a listing is new and is suitable then it will issue a slack notification.

Be the first one to contact the landlord!

How it works

./get_properties.py gets the list of candidate properties then parses each and notifies if the property is promising.

Links to parsed properties are stored in links.json whilst data about each property is stored in text files in properties/ folder.

For example:

> cat properties/201736
{
    "id": "201736",
    "title": "1 Bed Flat, Narcissus Road, NW6",
    "location": [
        [
            "West Hampstead",
            "6 minute walk"
        ],
        [
            "Finsbury Park",
            "6 minute walk"
        ],
        [
            "Finchley Road & Frognal",
            "6 minute walk"
        ],
        [
            "West Hampstead Station",
            "7 minute walk"
        ]
    ],
    "price": 1500.0,
    "description": "Stunning refurbished 1 bedroom flat on Narcissus Rd, wood flooring throughout, high ceilings, period features, very central location 5 walk from West Hampstead station.  Fully furnished.  Period building in excellent condition Huge windows, light & bright. Large lounge, separate open plan modern fully fitted kitchen, modern bathroom, lovely bedroomInterior designed flat- colour scheme can be changed to all white if preferred by next tenants!This is a great, central, modern c (400 sq ft) beautifully presented flat.  First time available in nearly 4 years and went on 1st viewing last time available.  Long letMOVE DATE FLEXIBLE end Feb/early March",
    "available_from": "2017-02-24",
    "EPC": "B",
    "has_garden": false
}

> head -n10 links.json

[
    "192135",
    "155303",
    "185305",
    "196322",
    "177777",
    "153587",
    "181113",
    "188911",
    "188648",

Installation

pip3 install -r requirements.txt

Then add the folling to your crontab:

*/10 * * * * /usr/bin/python3 $HOME/openrent/get_properties.py

Usage

Create config.json as per example:

{
	"work_addr1": "------",
	"work_addr2": "-------",
	"slack_token": "xoxp-*****"
}

modify should_notify in ./get_properties.py as appropriate.

Also you probably want to modify query_string too:

    query_string = urlencode(
        OrderedDict(term=work_addr1,
                    within="10",
                    prices_min=1100,
                    prices_max=1500,
                    bedrooms_min=1,
                    bedrooms_max=2,
                    isLive="true"))

In my configuration I am looking at properties within 10 km's of work_addr1 and the notification includes a link to TFL directions to the work_addr2.

Example of a notification

Development

links.json is an auxiliary file, however it's useful for trying out the new logic for the notifications. Deleting a property from there will make ./get_properties.py script think that it's a new property but getting the body of that property from openrent and parsing will be skipped.