Renting Research Bot

Overview

The Renting Research Bot is a Python automation tool designed to streamline the process of collecting rental property data from Housing.com. It scrapes details such as property location, price, and links, and automatically fills a Google Form with the gathered data. Built using Selenium for automation and BeautifulSoup for web scraping, this bot offers an efficient solution for real estate research, enabling users to quickly collect and manage rental property information.

Problem Statement

Finding rental properties in a bustling city like Jaipur can be overwhelming due to the sheer volume of listings and the time-consuming process of gathering information. The Renting Research Bot aims to simplify this task by automating the data collection process, allowing users to quickly find suitable rental options without the hassle of manual searches.

Table of Contents

• Features
• Requirements
• Installation
• Usage
• Customization
• Data Files
• Contributing
• License

Features

• Automated Web Scraping: Uses BeautifulSoup to extract property details such as location, price, and links from Housing.com.
• Form Automation: Employs Selenium to fill out and submit a Google Form with the collected data.
• Scalable and Extendable: Easily customizable to work with other real estate websites and data fields.

Requirements

• Python 3.x
• Google Chrome installed
• ChromeDriver (Ensure the version matches your installed Google Chrome)
• Required Python libraries (listed in requirements.txt)

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/<your-github-username>/renting-research-bot.git
   cd renting-research-bot

2. Install dependencies:

   pip install -r requirements.txt

3. Set up ChromeDriver:

   • Download ChromeDriver from here.
   • Make sure the version matches your installed Google Chrome.
   • Add ChromeDriver to your system PATH or specify its location in the script.

Usage

1. Configure the script:

   • Update the url variable with the desired Housing.com search URL.
   • Update the form_url with the target Google Form URL.

2. Run the script:

   python renting_research_bot.py

3. Output:

   • The bot will scrape data from Housing.com and fill out the specified Google Form automatically.

Customization

• Adding More Fields: Modify the BeautifulSoup selectors to scrape additional details from the Housing.com page if needed.

• Changing the Form Structure: If the Google Form layout changes, update the XPath expressions in the Selenium section of the script to match the new form structure.

Data Files

This repository includes:

• Excel File: Renting_Research_Data.xlsx - Contains the collected rental data from the Google Form.
• Screenshot: form_screenshot.png - A screenshot of the Google Form used for data collection.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! If you have suggestions for improvements or encounter any issues, please open an issue or submit a pull request.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

Contact

For any questions or support, please contact Aditya Agarwal.