Opinions on Rentometer.com & Rentmetrics.com?

[Samantha M.]

In general, do you find the rental numbers reliable using the websites rentometer.com and rentmetrics.com ?

I was looking at a property in a lower end neighborhood and was unable to find anything comparative to the subject property leased in the past 8 months. However, rentometer and rentmetrics both produce a number for me.

I am just not sure how they are getting there data, thus I am not sure if it is reliable or not. Are they somehow able to get off market rents such as craigs list?

Thanks

[Darren Sager]

@Samantha M. Someone just posted a similar question here:

http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/311/topics/97593-local-rent-figures

My response to you would be the same. Hope it helps!

[David P.]

@Darren Sager has good advice in linked post, however not all properties get listed on the MLS so getting a Realtor to get run rent comps will minimal results.

I personally like to use several sources to determine rents for a specific area like Craigslist, Zillow and MLS. I would assume that RentoMeter obtains it's information like Zillow from sources such as MLS but lacks one important understanding; the area where and the condition of the property. The process of determining the fair market value of rent for a specific property is much like an appraiser doing their due diligence and viewing the property with an objective eye.

Remember, you want to make the rental property cash flow, but the renter may shy away from it due to financial constraints. I like to go a little higher in this market to reduce some of the less desirable candidates.

[George Kalogeropoulos]

Hi Samantha,

This is George, founder of RentMetrics. I wanted to take a moment to answer your questions directly. This is not meant to be an advertisement, but to clear up any confusion that folks may have and to add to the conversation around these services.

Where does the data on RentMetrics.com come from?

Our data comes from listing partners, public records, and to a lesser extent phone surveys.

How reliable is the data?

Our entire business is built around doing the best possible job of finding all the rental data that is out there, collecting it in one place, and cleaning it up to get rid of duplication, fraud, and stale information. Our team of programmers have spent over a year building the algorithms that power RentMetrics, and we have folks on staff whose full-time job it is to find and fix problems with the data.

Why use RentMetrics vs other sites?

The key features that differentiate our service are:

1) Detailed features/amenity information & pictures of comps (this gets at David's point about area / condition of property).

2) The ability to customize how far out to look for comps, and to exclude bad comps.

3) The ability to export reports.

If anyone has any further questions about RentMetrics, please feel free to reach out directly to me at george@rentmetrics.com or by phone at (888) 735-1464.

Thanks,

George