California Realtor cannot give rental comps?

[Rohan D.]

I have a friend who is looking at potential homes in NorCal as an investment. It surprised me when he told me "his realtor does not have lease comps or rental comps" for a certain neighborhood he is currently looking at. The exact words were "I don't have lease comps"

To me, that could mean two things:

1. Realtor is not able to pull rental comps from MLS/other source? or does not know how to do it?

2. Or the realtor was able to pull up the rental comps, but there is no data to share. Meaning no homes rented.

#2 is highly unlikely since its a busy section of the town.

I want to ask experts here if my observations are true? Does California not allow licensed realtors to pull up rental or lease comps? 
Am I missing a crucial piece of information here?

As far I my experience from other states goes (other than CA). I've had no issues getting rental comps from a realtor.

Thank you in advance for your inputs BP community!

PS: The idea of retrieving rental/lease comps is not only to gauge what the house will rent for, rather get an idea of how many days on an average homes stay in the market (DOM). Directly affecting vacancy rate.

[Dustin Allen]

@Rohan D.

It is only going to show up in the MLS if someone listed it in the MLS for lease in the first place. It is a category in our MLS but nobody uses it. The property management companies run their own websites, marketing and generally list on all the 3rd party websites like Zillow, trulia,...

I would seek out a Property Management company in the area you are looking at and ask them all these questions. Real Estate is local and every market is different. California is a huge state and I don’t operate the same way they do in LA or San Francisco. Go local.