Help with pricing rents in this market? Lehigh valley specific

[Nicholas R Paust]

I'm having a hard time figuring out what are the current rent rates in my market, which is Lehigh valley.  My three main methods that I use currently are rentometer, comps from my realtor, and apartments.com. All of the data that I receive seems to be old.  It just seems like the demand is changing quick, and I can't get an accurate measure on what things should be.  What else would you suggest?

[Tom McGrew]

@Syed H. Great point - most PMs can be pretty bad at the asset management side of an investor’s portfolio and just focus on pure play property management responsibilities. I don’t know how one can be a PM and not focused on asset management AND property management

@Nicholas R Paust - with inventory tight it can be hard to gauge rent well at the moment especially when you consider factors like area, amenities, unit condition against comps, etc. If it were me, I’d be looking at Zillow and other sources to see those who are listing properties that are as similar as possible and try to see how long it’s been listed and how many applications have been submitted (at least on the Zillow Rentals side you can see this). I saw one in Bethlehem the other week that had almost 20 before noon and hadn’t been listed an entire day yet. In my experience, BP hasn’t been the best at accurately determining rent in all areas.

Also - worst case of rent is a little high? People will negotiate with you or you can reduce it if you don’t get traction on applications. Right now, I’ve been seeing 15-20 apps on vacant units that are priced with the market within a few days. Best of luck to you and feel free to DM if I can help further or if you have any questions on anything I’ve said.