Fake Listing to Test Rental Price?

[John Woodington]

On the last podcast, the guest said he created a fake listing for a rental he was thinking of purchasing, essentially to test the waters to see if his monthly rate estimate was correct or not.  Is this something others have tried?  I'm planning to rent out my house once we move out, but I want to know ahead of time how much I can rent it for.  Is there anything unethical about creating a fake ad for my own house just to see if I can get a bead on what it will rent for when I do in fact rent it out?

[Patrick M.]

I really don't see the difficulty in learning your market and keeping a regular eye on it to see where it is. I find it one of the more fun parts of being a landlord. I know down to a block what makes one area or one property more or less advantageous to another. I compare amenities and features and it gives me ideas in which directions to move.

It seems more and more of us are relying on websites that are running an algorithm that I believe, is less qualified then our own homework.

As for running a fake ad, while I could speculate on problems that could rear themselves- the bottom line is that any of us with a nice unit to rent can tell you that we get a lot of attention, viewings, etc. that don't materialize. Seems to me your time would be better spent learning your market.

Also as an aside- I am in a market with many "professional" landlords. One building has had some nice new units up for a couple months every now and then dropping their price ever so slightly. They have much higher over head than me and many more mouths must be fed out of that building. I can't afford that. I just listed a unit just below their figures- and they immediately dropped again. So a listing can have a real impact on the market- fake or not.