Establishing your property’s rental value is something you need to do before you even begin marketing it or screening tenants. You need to know how much rent to charge, and that depends on the market and what good tenants are willing to pay.
Check Comparable Rents Online
The easiest way to estimate the value of your rental is to look at other homes for rent in your area. Zillow, Trulia, and a host of other rental websites can be used to check. See what’s going on in your neighborhood. Keep in mind that your value depends on what you have to offer. Certain factors will be included in your rental value, such as whether you’re paying for a gardener or a pool company. We always recommend you include a professional gardener and a pool service. This is your tenant’s home, but it’s not their investment. They won’t care for the yard or the pool to the standards that you may expect.
Increasing Rental Value with Upgrades
When we’re talking about value of your property, things like new carpet and fresh paint and updated appliances will make a difference. You don’t have to have all these things, but they can be a marketing tool, and certain features will bring in more money. When you’re looking at properties online, it seems like everyone has the same two or three bedrooms to offer, but if your neighbor is renting a property without new carpet or modern appliances, you might earn more. That neighbor could be renting a home for $1,500 per month. Your new refrigerator and fresh paint won’t mean you can charge $2,500, but it might earn you an extra $100 or $150 every month.
Another way to figure out your rental value is by typing your property’s address into Google. If you do that, you’ll get a list of ways to find the value on your property.
Professional Property Management and Rental Analysis
At The Equity Group, we use a couple of different systems for placing a rental value on the properties we manage. We have a rent match system that can pick up rental values in particular areas. We gather data on the properties that have recently rented, and we look at the listing prices for rental homes that are new to the market. Our analysis includes information on how old the home is, the number of bedrooms and bathrooms it has, and what the square footage is. This gives us a lot of information, and it helps us price your property more accurately. We also use Rent Range, which charges for every rental survey, but provides outstanding levels of detail as well as demographics for specific neighborhoods. All of the information we get from these sources is up to date. It’s a great reason to lease your property through a professional manager.
For individual landlords who are managing on their own, start with Google. Do your research and figure out what your property is worth. There’s no one way to do it. Gather the information and use it to price your home. If you decide you’d like some help, please contact us at The Equity Group.
