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Apartment hunting in Victoria? There's a web app for that

ItB次元官网网址檚 been a rite of passage for University of Victoria students for decades B次元官网网址 the panicked, desperate scramble to find housing
22272saanichSN-rentalmap
Lars Grammel and Jamie Starke

ItB次元官网网址檚 been a rite of passage for University of Victoria students for decades B次元官网网址 the panicked, desperate scramble to find housing before the September semester begins.

One of those UVic students, a computer science PhD student, found his apartment hunting experience so maddening and time consuming, he did what any self-respecting comp-sci guy would do. He wrote a web app to solve the problem.

Jamie Starke, 28, and Lars Grammel, 31, both with UVicB次元官网网址檚 computer human interaction software engineering lab (CHISEL), have created a web tool that combs through rental service databases and plots those rentals on a street map of Greater Victoria, which also shows all bus routes that serve UVic.

The web app, called the , has slider widgets to customize a search to price, number of bedrooms, shared accommodation, and distance from a bus stop on a UVic route. It updates itself at 6 a.m. every day.

Starke conceived of the idea while apartment hunting with his wife in April. Not deeply familiar with the neighbourhoods of the region and their proximity to UVic, he found it frustrating to search between no less than 21 rental service agencies, plus Craigslist and UsedVictoria for an apartment that fit their budget and needs.

B次元官网网址淲hen I came here two years ago, looking for a place was terrible. This time around I had a better idea about Victoria, but Fairfield versus Fernwood? I get mixed up all the time,B次元官网网址 Starke said. B次元官网网址淎nd many times it looked like I found something that looked good with a good price, it was way out in Langford or Sooke.B次元官网网址

Starke teamed up with Grammel, who specializes in mapping visualization tools, and wrote the code to comb through websites and databases for relevant data B次元官网网址 price, location, style and number of bedrooms. The information is out there, Starke said, but teasing it from websites was no simple task.

B次元官网网址淚 decided instead of working four hours a night to find a place to live, IB次元官网网址檇 work on (the rental map) three hours each night, and only one hour looking for an apartment,B次元官网网址 he said laughing.

It worked. The web tool went live in May and his wife used it to successfully zero in on a new home. B次元官网网址淲e found a nice basement suite that met everything we wanted," he said. "It was a good sign I was doing something right.B次元官网网址

The Victoria Rental Map remains UVic-centic in terms of bus routes, but Starke plans to add transit lines that will help students attending Royal Roads, the two Camosun College campuses and for the downtown core. And of course, you donB次元官网网址檛 need to be a student to use the tool.

B次元官网网址淢y goal is to make it as easy as possible for students so they donB次元官网网址檛 have to go through all the pain I did originally,B次元官网网址 Starke said. B次元官网网址淚B次元官网网址檓 quite happy with the result. It helped me find a place and others are finding it useful. It validates the time we put in.B次元官网网址

Some minor glitches remain B次元官网网址 it runs a bit slow on the iPad and doesnB次元官网网址檛 work at all on older Internet Explorer browsers, but Starke plans on improving the program when he can. ThereB次元官网网址檚 no mobile phone app and there probably wonB次元官网网址檛 be.

B次元官网网址漈hat is a lot of work and isnB次元官网网址檛 planned soon. This is something Lars and I are doing in our free time.B次元官网网址

See for the Victoria Rental Map.

editor@saanichnews.com

 





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