How to figure out rents

[Dylan D.]

There is a house in an area where there are no other houses for rent within 10 miles that are similar. How would you guys go about figuring out what rents should be? 

[Kyle J.]

@Dylan D.  Here's a few ideas:

1) Check other websites to see if maybe there are some active listings that maybe you just haven't found yet.  You didn't mention what site(s) you checked, but there are actually quite a lot out there (some just aren't as well known as the big name ones like Zillow, Rentometer, Trulia, etc).  There are some lesser known ones that can provide very comprehensive reports on local rental markets and help you estimate rent.  Perhaps try reading this blog post I wrote a couple years back and see if you get any ideas for sites/resources you haven't checked yet: How to Determine Fair Market Rent.

2) Check websites like Rentometer that search OLD rental listings (not just active ones) to see if you can get any data that way.  Some of these websites pull data from up to several years prior.  Surely there must have been some rental listings at some point. 

3) Lastly, consider contacting local property management companies and interviewing them to find out what their recommendations would be. After all, they should be the experts on the local area.

Good luck.