Rentometer is a site that gives users an estimate of what rent prices are in the nearby vicinity of a subject property.

You can simply enter a property address, a dollar amount for monthly rent and the number of bedrooms in the rental unit.

Rentometer will compare your data with similar rental listings in the area and display some numbers and helpful visual aids showing how your rent amount compares to similar properties in the area.

Rentometer Pro: Is it Worth It?
I think the short answer is: Yes
If you want to drill deep and find all supporting information on what rent prices are in your area, Rentometer may be worth considering.

There are several features you’ll get with a pro account that aren’t available with the free version of the site.

Rentometer Property Report
The Rentometer Property Report goes much further than showing a simple gauge and map of the area. This will provide you with much more relevant detail on each property.

Granted, most of this stuff is available for free online (or through other paid services), but if my primary objective was to evaluate and purchase a rental property, there are a few things I think were particularly useful from this report.

Rental history (from the Rentometer database)
Sale information (including last sale date and sale amount)
Deed information (including mortgage amount)
These things can directly impact the analysis of a property, and potentially affect an investor’s decision on how much to offer when purchasing a new rental.

Of course, there are many other places where you can get this data – but Rentometer Pro does package everything into a neat little package in these Property Reports.

I did find in a few instances that some of these numbers came back as “unknown” (including two of my own properties, which do have a long history of being rented out… so I’m not sure why the data was missing), which was a little frustrating. I’m not sure why these numbers don’t always come through… but when they do, it’s pretty helpful to see all of this information in one place.

Rent Analysis
This is a quick way to see a MUCH more detailed view of how your subject property compares to other listed rentals in the market.

Keep in mind, with Rentometer Pro, you can specify how far back the data should go, how large the geographic radius should be from your target property, and you can even use your own custom branding (if you have a logo you’d rather include on your reports instead of the Rentometer branding).

Batch Analysis
The Batch Analysis tool is designed for users who need rent statistics for A LOT of different properties (and they don’t want to run each individual property through the system manually).

For example – if you own a large portfolio of rentals and you want to pull comps for each one (but you don’t want spend hours doing them one-at-a-time), you can easily paste ALL of these addresses into this field and generate a bulk report for each one.

The Batch Analysis function will give users basic rent comp information (i.e. mean, median, max going rent, etc.) for the whole list – and it will show multiple scenarios for each type of bedroom count.

When the report is finished, you can simply download a .csv file and play with the data to your heart’s content.

Neighborhood and Zip Code Reports
Now, suppose you don’t have one specific property in mind, but you do have a neighborhood or zip code nailed down where you’d like to pursue new opportunities. With a Rentometer Pro account, you can generate reports based on these wider areas.

These reports will look very similar to the Rent Analysis reports, with the most notable difference being that it’s outlining comparables by neighborhood and zip code, rather than basing it on one specific property profile.

Property Listings
If you’ve already exhausted every other listing platform on the internet and you’re looking for yet another free place to list your rental on the market, Rentometer has a place for that!

The listing format isn’t particularly pretty or outstanding, but it does make your property stand out a little bit more for anyone who is searching for properties on the Rentometer website.

How Useful is Rentometer… Really?
Even though Rentometer may not give you a laser-accurate, guaranteed number you can bet your life on, it’s still a helpful starting point for a number of reasons.

If you’re looking in a new market, neighborhood or zip code and you’re not intimately familiar with what normal rent rates are, Rentometer is quite useful at showing you what the “range of acceptability” is from other landlords and property managers in the same area.

Of course, you could easily hop on Craigslist or Hotpads and pull up a few similar rental listings – but if you’re looking for a quick and easy sampling of the market, it’s hard to beat what Rentometer brings to the table.

It’s a great tool to have in your toolbox.