Hey, Arthur Banks, I'm kinda at the same place as you...Getting ready to do my first rental. The big difference is that I'm going to be renting out the house that my family currently lives in when we move into our new house this fall so I have lots of time to research prices.
To get a handle on the rental prices in my area, I've worked with RE agent to set up some automated searches on MRIS and ListingBook to return comparable rentals (on the market and recently rented). I've also asked him to do a rental CMA on the property. I know this has it's limitations because I believe it only covers those properties that are listed to rent via an agent. To make up for this I'm doing some of my own research on Craigslist and by calling the numbers I see on For Rent signs in my neighborhood.
I haven't done this yet, but you could probably call up some property management companies in your area and get some info from them.
I hope this is somewhat helpful.
By the way, can you point me to the BP podcast where they talk about not relying on realtors? I've listened to most of them so far and don't recall this reference, so I'd like to give it another listen.
