Determine Rental Rates: How do you do it?

[William Huston]

I am trying to figure out a better way to determine rental rates on a property when i am running numbers, lately i had been using rentometer and it would lockup after 10 tries, but someone mentioned if you went into incognito mode on chrome that it wouldn't know who you were and allow you to run 10 more, exit out of browser, go back into incognito mode again and get 10 more.. wash and repeat..

Well.... as of a few days ago, this little trick stop working for some reason, so i have been trying to figure out a better way to judge these prices.. 

I read a few use zillow, but im a little worried about using this as a measure. I feel like with the market being so quick to rise in prices, that a lot of the rentals are a little pushing the limits and im unsure if they are actually renting at this rate or these are rates that are just sitting on the market unrented.

Example, the neighborhood i currently stay in, i am in the process of fixing up a small 2/1/1 i purchased a year ago when i was going through my divorce. Knowing some of the neighbors in my area, i know that most are paying around 850/month for 2/1's similar to mine. Now if i go on zillow, there is currently 3 active for rent $1000,$975, and $1100. I cant for the life of me find any neighbor currently paying these high of a price, the house 2 houses down from me, family moved in around May of this year, they are paying $875 and its a 2/2/1