Want to know if you’re paying too much for rent? This site can help
It’s the season of lease renewals, which means you might be faced with a rent increase. How do you know if an increase is reasonable and necessary to cover your landlord’s expenses, or whether you should negotiate for a lower rent?
This is where Rentometer comes in.
Rentometer was founded in 2006 with the slogan “Paying too much for rent? Charging too little?” It lets landlords research how much they should be getting paid and tenants research how much they should be paying based on the surrounding area.
“It was really to solve a simple problem,” said Michael Lapsley, an early investor turned president of Rentometer. “Which is when you need a fast and easy rent comp.”
All you have to do is go to the site’s homepage and type in your address, how much you pay, and how many bedrooms you have. Then the system will spit out the average rent, median rent, what percentile your rent is in, and a map with similar listings in the surrounding area.
“The data has really been fine tuned over the past couple of years. It’s very current,” Liz Boksanski, director of media and production for Rentometer, said.
Lapsley noted that the data, which includes mostly listings currently on the market, is updated every day.
There is also a “Pro” option that you can pay for, most often used by landlords and investors, gives even more data, including the size of the units, number of bathrooms, and other analytics that can be used to determine fair rents.
“Landlords use it to see if they are being competitive, as they could often be asking for more,” Boksanski said. “Renters can use it to see if they are being overcharged to push back on a lease agreement.”
Check out your address on Rentometer here.
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