About the Project
Searching for Rental Assistance
Despite rental assistance programs being broadly available, they continue to be difficult to find. Being a renter over the past decade has exposed me to the wide scope of issues renters face on a regular basis, and the lack of awareness that comes with knowing which resources can be accessed. From troublesome roommates to working through messy leasing agreements, I’ve been privy to learn how to combat these issues.
As a result, I co-founded a startup that sought to improve the rental experience through providing access to bespoke tools for renters. In collaboration with my co-founder, we developed a tool called the Rental Health Check. The Rental Health Check was a comprehensive process that utilized Appsheet, Glide, Google Sheets, Make, and Mailchimp to optimize the rental experience for tenants and provide on-demand access to rental assistance programs.
While the process wasn’t perfect, it certainly delivered. In less than 5 minutes, renters and curious users could enter specific details and determine which resources they should be accessing.
The Tech Stack for Rental Assistance
Google Sheets
Google Sheets was the backbone of this project. I prefer to use a tool like this because of how easily it integrates into existing projects, and how accessible it is overall. In this context, Google Sheets centralized all the data collected from tenants and landlords for easy access and analysis. We aggregated specific state-based figures to calculate and determine which resources any user should be accessing.
Appsheet
With Appsheet, another Google tool, I developed a desktop and mobile experience for those facilitating a Rental Health Check. Because Appsheet works seamlessly with Google Sheets, it was easy to plug and play.
Glide
Glide enabled tenants to monitor their Rental Health Check progress, view their results, and to access resources they might need. Again, a service that takes full advantage of connecting directly to a Google Sheet.
Make
Make automated various rental processes, such as sending Rental Health Check updates and reminders, to save time and improve communication. It tied the process together, and automated aspects such as adding new subscribers to Mailchimp and notifying team members of changes made to individual Rental Health Checks.
Mailchimp
Finally, Mailchimp automated email communication with tenants and landlords, providing valuable updates, and improving their overall experience. When a new form was submitted, the user would be added to the relevant group on Mailchimp, thus enabling users to receive relevant email updates.
Challenges
The most difficult aspect of this project was keeping everything in alignment once an update was applied. If a new column was added to the Google Sheet, then we needed to account for the impacts downstream. In some cases, we opted to build in a set amount of pre-filled columns to mitigate this issue.
Looking back, if I were to pursue a similar project, I would rely less on services like Make for executing automated processes. While they’re useful, they add another layer of complexity that can be managed through Google’s services.