rental-data MCP server

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that exposes a multifamily rental dataset (markets, properties, rent, occupancy) to LLM tools like Claude Desktop or Claude Code — you ask questions in plain English, the model calls these tools to get real numbers back.

Built as a portfolio project mapped to: "Build and maintain MCP server integrations that expose data to LLM-powered tools."

What's here

• data/make_data.py — generates a synthetic-but-realistic rental dataset (8 markets, 4 properties each, 12 months, 4 unit types = ~1,500 rows), with two deliberate anomalies baked in so the anomaly tool has something to find.
• server.py — the MCP server itself. Three tools:
  • average_rent_by_market(unit_type) — average rent per market, latest month
  • occupancy_anomalies(threshold_pct) — flags month-over-month occupancy drops
  • property_summary(property_name) — rent trend + current occupancy for one property
• requirements.txt — one dependency, pinned.

1. Setup (5 minutes)

cd mcp-rental-server
python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt
python3 data/make_data.py     # generates data/rentals.csv

2. Test it standalone (no Claude needed yet)

python3 -c "
from server import average_rent_by_market, occupancy_anomalies, property_summary
print(average_rent_by_market('2BR'))
print(occupancy_anomalies())
print(property_summary('AtlantaRidge1'))
"

You should see rent numbers by market, a flagged anomaly at AtlantaRidge2, and a rent trend summary. If that prints cleanly, the server logic works — the rest is just wiring it into a chat client.

3. Connect it to Claude Desktop

Find (or create) Claude Desktop's config file:

• Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

Add this (use the absolute path to your project + venv python):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "rental-data": {
      "command": "/absolute/path/to/mcp-rental-server/venv/bin/python3",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/mcp-rental-server/server.py"]
    }
  }
}

On Mac, get the absolute path with pwd while inside the project folder. Fully quit and reopen Claude Desktop. You should see a small tools/plug icon in the chat box — click it to confirm rental-data is connected with 3 tools.

4. Demo prompts (use these in your screen recording)

• "What's the average 2BR rent across all markets?"
• "Are there any properties with anomalous occupancy drops?"
• "Give me a summary of AtlantaRidge2 — what's going on with it?"
• "Which market has the highest 3BR rent, and how does that compare to Charlotte?"

Watch Claude call the tool (it'll show up as a tool-use step) and answer using the real numbers, not a hallucinated guess. That contrast — grounded vs. ungrounded answers — is worth narrating out loud in the video.

5. Upgrade path: swap SQLite for real Databricks/Delta

This is the part worth mentioning verbally in your interview even if you don't demo it live: server.py loads data/rentals.csv into SQLite purely so the project runs with zero external accounts. The tool signatures (average_rent_by_market, etc.) don't change if you point them at a real warehouse — only load_data() and the query strings do.

To do the real version:

1. Spin up Databricks Community Edition (free) at databricks.com/try-databricks
2. Create a Unity Catalog table from the same CSV (or a public Kaggle rental dataset) as a Delta table
3. Replace the SQLite connection with the databricks-sql-connector package:

   from databricks import sql
   conn = sql.connect(
       server_hostname="<your-workspace>.cloud.databricks.com",
       http_path="<your-warehouse-http-path>",
       access_token="<personal-access-token>",
   )
   

4. Swap _conn.execute(...) calls to use this connection instead — same SQL, different backend.

Doing this swap for real (even against a tiny Databricks Community Edition table) is the single highest-leverage next step if you have extra time, since it's the literal technology named in the JD.

Repo structure

mcp-rental-server/
├── README.md
├── requirements.txt
├── server.py
└── data/
    ├── make_data.py
    └── rentals.csv   (generated, gitignored — see below)

Suggested .gitignore:

venv/
__pycache__/
*.pyc
data/rentals.csv

(Keep make_data.py in the repo so anyone cloning it can regenerate the dataset — cleaner than committing generated data.)