Your favorite way to find Rental Comps

[Daniel Hoghoughi]

Hello!

Looking for advice on finding Rental Comps! My realtor is able to pull recently "closed" and "active" lease agreements from the MLS which helps. But sometimes I these results don't really show true Comparable Houses. It leaves a lot of guess work.

I have asked rental property managers for rental comps in the past but I kind of feel bad wasting their time since I know I’ll be managing the property myself and will never use their services.

What’s your go to method for accurate rental comps?

I’m in the San Fernando Valley & Burbank area in CA if that makes a difference.

Thanks in Advance!

[Jay Dimacali]

@Daniel Hoghoughi

I keep track of the same type of properties around my rentals. Whenever I see a for rent sign on a similar property that jot the name and number down and do the calling for their rent amounts. Most important thing I found is to call once the for rent sign is gone and to tell them I'm a prospective customer and when they tell me it's rented I go 'oh that's too bad' and ask how much did it rent for? Now I got an actual comp. I just keep track of properties around my area that way.

As for Craigslist I have listed my property with a price that is a bit higher than I would originally shoot for. I don't give the address maybe just cross streets. Then I count how many calls I get for a property. I'm in the San Fernando Valley and if I get around 10 calls for a property at a listed price then that has usually been a good price for me. Just working to find what the market will bear.