Quick Question. How do I find out what units are actually rented?

Question

I know Zillow and other sites allow you to see recently sold properties. Is there a site that can tell you weather a unit is actually rented. This will help a lot with determining if a property is in a hot rental area. For instance if owners in a area are asking $2000.00 are their units actually getting rented.

Account Closed · Answer

That is not really possible because the price of a rental is never really disclosed anywhere like the sale price of a house is. Even if they keep track of all the asking prices, asking price does not equal rented price, and the fact that something was pulled from the market does not necessarily mean it was rented.

Zillow and others are useful, but only as a vague guide...

Dawn Brenengen · Answer

@Leon Chappell Depending on the area you are looking in, the rental may be listed in MLS, so if you have an agent you work with, he may be able to find the rental price for a particular home.

Jassem A. · Answer

If you go to Price / Tax History under Zillow, it will sometimes list whether a property was posted for rent or not and when that listing was removed.  I'm sure someone could query the Zillow servers using their API or by using a web scraper/crawler to determine dates that nearby properties may have recently been rented for.  I'm assuming this and other information is how the rent Z-estimate is also determined. They also have a graph of how rent Z-estimate range changes over time which may also be of use.

Account Closed · Answer

It's extremely easy to cash flow in at least parts of NC...houses are dirt cheap and most people don't have an option to buy them, they are permanent renters!

Leon Chappell · Answer

Ryan R. really? The area I seen with the most potential to me was the Fayetteville area. I am new though. I may have evaluated the markets wrong. How long have you been investing?

Leon Chappell · Answer

Thanks @Dawn Brenengen.

Ken P. · Answer

It doesn't tell you what actual rents are, but as an alternative to Zillow you can get a good idea of asking prices by going to www.rentometer.com and checking out their results for your area(s) of interest.

Leon Chappell · Answer

Thanks for the replies. I do use Zillow just for a guide.....Hey Ryan I see you are from NC also. Are you having any luck finding rentals here? Ones that will cash flow? I just gave up and started searching in MD,and PA. Lol

Quick Question. How do I find out what units are actually rented?

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