Estimating rents when renting a house separately

[Jason Wu]

Hi BPers!

I'm new to real estate investing and have been looking at rental properties in the greater Seattle area. To achieve better cash flow, I was considering renting a house separately and hoping to get some advice on how to set the rent correctly. Below are some data points:

2-story SFH (3b3b, 1,800 sqft): 2b2b (w/ kitchen) on the upper floor and 1b1b (w/ kitchen) on the lower floor; each with separate entrance and only laundry is shared

The estimated rent for the entire house is $3,500, and a standalone 2b2b house can be rented at $2,800 and 1b1b at $1,800, how should I set the rents if I want to rent the upper and lower floor separately? Directionally I know they should be lower than the standalone rents but not sure by how much.

Would love to hear your thoughts!

[Sherief Elbassuoni]

@Jason Wu, you can pull the comps out of different platforms like rentometer, zillow, apartment.com. 

Not all potential tenants are cool with sharing half of the house with someone else, so you may be slightly lower than the comps