Utilities when Marketing Rental -HELP!

[Joseph Escamilla]

Hey everyone - I currently have a triplex under renovation and one unit is ready to be rented out. The utility setup is unique. All 3 units share water , 2 out of 3 share gas, and electric is completely separate. To make things less complicated we increased rent by a flat fee of $250 (average of the past) and are saying tenants are only responsible for electric. 

My question is am I allowed to market the rental saying rent is $1,050/m and then in the description show that utilities are $250/m? For some reason my Realtor is telling me I MUST list it at $1300/m and then just put in the description that water and gas are included.  My worries are 1) for people that filter by price we wont even show up.  And 2) for potential residents comparing my unit to other units with same bed/bath count and sq footage I will automatically look like a much higher price especially if people are just browsing and not reading the description. 

Is it a law that I have to list it at the higher price? It just doesn't make sense to me since I am trying to convey how much the unit costs for the space. I don't think anyone will be taken aback that they also have to pay for utilities. If anything I think it's a benefit that they don't have to create account with utility companies and they can be frivolous with their water/gas usage! 

Hopefully someone with experience with this can help out. Thank you in advance!

Joe 

[Nathan Gesner]

You would have to check the laws to see if that's a requirement. I've done it both ways and tend to get a better response when rent and utility are listed separately. When you list for the total amount, people assume that's the rent rate and utilities will be in addition to that amount.