Tip for estimating market rent

[Yaniv Tivon]

Hi everyone,

I'm not sure whether this is commonly known so here goes.

I find that a lot of the rent estimators like Rentometer can be highly inaccurate. But at the same time there aren't many active comparable rental properties nearby, which makes determining the market rent of a property difficult.

I found that using rental listings that are inactive but were recently active provides me with a lot more data for determining market rent.

To do this I go to the Zillow rent estimator tool and enter my property's address as well as a (very) rough estimate of the rent. I can also enter other criteria such as number of beds or baths to make the data as relevant as possible. 

Once I enter the data Zillow spits out a price range for the properties shown and a map with all of the active and inactive properties in the area. This has been valuable because it allowed me to easily choose comparable properties that are in the same neighborhood as mine.

Hope this can help someone.