Update Real Estate & Car Values in LunchMoney

Tool to update real estate and car values in LunchMoney. Supports scraping values from Zillow, Redfin, and Kelly Bluebook.

Why build this tool rather than the existing scripts out there?

• The Kelly Bluebook page structure changed and the existing logic wasn't working for me
• I wanted a single tool to manage both real estate and cars
• Wanted a good excuse to play around with puppeteer

Usage

I wrote this using node 17, but I imagine it will work with much older versions. Use asdf install to setup node if you haven't already.

cp .env-example .env
# generate a API key and add it to .env

touch assets.json
# add your assets to assets.json

npm install
node dist/index.js

Or, if you have a docker container setup, you can run it directly:

docker exec -i ca32c16fa00e node dist/index.js

assets.json File Path

The program first checks for the environment variable ASSET_PATH which should be a string path to the assets.json file to use. For example: /home/assets.json. If the environment variable doesn't exist, it then checks inside the current working directory of the node process. For docker deployments, this is inside the /app folder.

assets.json Structure

Specify the assets to be updated in the assets.json file. The key of the hash is the LunchMoney asset ID.

{
  "23760": {
    "__comment": "you can specify a zillow and redfin link to set the balance as the average of the two",
    "url": "https://www.zillow.com/homes/your-home/123/",
    "redfin": "https://www.redfin.com/STATE/CITY/yourhome/home/123"
  },
  "23759": {
    "__comment": "kelly blue book link",
    "url": "https://www.kbb.com/your/car/year/model/?condition=good&intent=trade-in-sell&mileage=100000&modalview=false&options=6763005%7ctrue&pricetype=private-party",
    "mileageStart": 132800,
    "mileageDate": "11/29/23",
    "yearlyMileage": 8000
  },
  "23759": {
    "__comment": "a car that is more damaged than it looks",
    "url": "https://www.kbb.com/your/car/year/model/?condition=good&intent=trade-in-sell&mileage=100000&modalview=false&options=6763005%7ctrue&pricetype=private-party",
    "adjustment": -500
  }
}

Note that mileage can be optionally specified. If it is, the tool will calculate the depreciation based on the mileage and the date of the last update.

Docker Deployment

https://hub.docker.com/r/iloveitaly/lunchmoney-assets

Here's the docker-compose file I use:

lunchmoney_assets:
  container_name: lunchmoney-assets
  image: iloveitaly/lunchmoney-assets:latest
  restart: unless-stopped
  environment:
    - SCHEDULE=@monthly
    - LUNCH_MONEY_API_KEY=THE_KEY

Copy your assets config into the container:

docker compose cp ./lunch-money-assets.json lunchmoney_assets:./app/assets.json

Or, if you are using docker without compose:

docker cp ./lunch-money-assets.json lunchmoney_assets:./app/assets.json

Set a SCHEDULE environment variable when starting the container to update the assets at a regular interval. The value should be a cron expression.

docker run -d --name lunchmoney-assets -e SCHEDULE="0 0 * * *" iloveitaly/lunchmoney-assets

Development

Setup your env (I use direnv):

cp .envrc-example .envrc

Compile typescript:

npm run dev

Get a list of all accounts in your lunchmoney account:

http GET https://dev.lunchmoney.app/v1/assets -A bearer -a $LUNCH_MONEY_API_KEY | jqp

# or match against a specific account
http GET https://dev.lunchmoney.app/v1/assets -A bearer -a $LUNCH_MONEY_API_KEY | jq '.assets | map(select(.name == "Camry"))'

TODO

• throw a user-friendly error if assets.json is not defined
• It seems as though the KBB logic only works for private party priced URLs. Not sure why.
• Automatically calculate additional mileage based on time passed