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Information Page

This help screen, which shows the context of the layout and definition of terms.

Active Listings

Properties still being advertised for rent.  This is the current competition.

Completed Listings

Listings that are no longer being advertised.  This provides a guide as what the market has done in the past.

Number of listings

Range

There is a range of potential rent for every property, from top of the market to below market.  Knowing the range is especially helpful in determining whether to bump up the rent near renewal time.  The completed listings should be considered to be the accepted rent range, however check with the active listings to be sure that the market hasn't turned against you.  There is a rule of thumb to keep the rent increase below $20 per month, else the tenant might not renew.  It is also better to increase the rent by a little each year rather than make a sharp adjustment.  Making modest upward adjustments will allow the tenant to budget for the increase.  Don't be fooled into thinking that an excessive rent increase will still be cheaper for them than moving.  Many will move purely upon the principal of the matter.  Tenant turnover is several times more expensive than the amount returned by rental increases so keep the adjustments low and show them that your costs have also increased.  Tenants understand that prices go up every year.

Price-Points

These are listings at or near the same price.  In Real Rent Comps, if the rent is within $5 of each other, they are considered to be effectively the same.  This makes it easy to indicate a well established level of rent for a certain type of home.  This is good to know in order to place your rent price at or perhaps just below that level.  If you're seeing multiple levels, this certainly doesn't indicate a problem.  Many times landlords will try to get the best possible tenant by offering a lower price level than the going rate (which causes more prospective tenants to view and apply for the property, allowing the landlord to select the best one).  This will be seen as multiple levels in the rent price.  When these levels are detected, they are highlighted yellow.  When multiple price points are seen within the same graph, they are alternately highlighted yellow and white to differentiate the levels.

Remove

Takes the listing out of consideration for your current analysis, but keeps the listing available for future searches.  This is useful when it is believed that a listing may hurt rather than help your analysis.

Images

Photographs and attention grabbing icons associated with the listing.  For photographs, click on the "Photos" list to pop-up pictures associated with the listing.

FYI:
  a) 12% of ads have photos
  b) 10% of ads have attention getting icons.

Description

This is the advertisement as it originally appeared in the newspaper.

Phone

There are two aspects to this:

A) Sorting
Sorting by phone number is helpful to determine multiple listings by the same landlord/agent, which is interesting to know if a few individuals have a big presence in the area of interest.  It can also help to point out agent listings (many times, listings that have a agent will not denote their advertisements with "AGENT").  When listings are sorted by phone number this information comes to light.

B) Filtering
This filter was established to allow users to see the effect of not listing a phone number in the ad.  A very small number of landlords will force potential tenants to drive by the property in order to get the phone number for the landlord.  The philosophy is that doing so will generate higher caliber questions and, more importantly, concentrate the phone calls to potential tenants who have seen the property and are really interested.  When advertising a property for rent, the phone may be constantly ringing and the same few questions will be asked over and over again.  This gets a bit tiresome for the landlord and can interfere with day-jobs.  Given that the number of landlords doing this is incredibly small, I doubt that this filter should be used to gather comp information.  It is provided to give a measure of insight of how long it might take to rent a house when employing this method, without the risk of going through this yourself.

FYI:
  a) 1% do not list a phone number
  b) 50% of listings are posted by Agents

List Date

The date that the property was initially listed for rent.

DOM

Days on market.  That is, the number of days that the property has been advertised for rent.  Note that when the Days on Market is over 30 days, Real Rent Comps will mark the DOM entry red to indicate a potential problem.  Many properties will generally be listed for 1 to 3 weeks.  If a property is still listed for rent after 30 days, the listing should probably not be considered as a comp (unless this is normal for the area).  Usually when a listing takes a long time to close, the following is at fault:
1) The rent is too high for the area (see how it compares with other active and completed listings)
2) The renovation is not up to par (not clean, functional, up to the standards of the neighborhood, grass not mowed, debris in yard, etc.)
3) Poor salesmanship (not answering the phone, missing sign in the yard, unable to let potential tenants see the property - which includes not having pictures available, language barriers, poor personal appearance/demeanor, not making potential tenant feel welcome, etc.)
4) Not finding the "right" tenant (which is a factor of one or more of the above)
5) Extenuating circumstances (any matters beyond immediate control, such as offensive neighbors, graffiti on a nearby house, loose/noisy animals, etc.)

Rent

This is the advertised rent price for the property.  This is different from the "effective rent".

Eff. Rent

Effective rent.  This value takes into consideration lost rent due to the days on market.  For example, consider two landlords who have similar properties for rent.  Landlord A requested $1000 per month for rent and has it rented in 1 week.  Landlord B requests $1100 per month for rent but it took 6 weeks to get a renter for it.  Which landlord is actually better off?  The effective rent can tell you this.  Here is the math for Landlord A:

Lost rent due to DOM (for the year) = $1000/month x (12months/year) / (365days/year) x 7DOM = $230.14/year
Effective rent = $1000/month - ($230.14/year / 12 months) = $980.82/month

By the way, the effective rent for Landlord B is $973.42.  As can be seen, the effective rent is a useful tool for determining whether it is better to hold out for higher rent, or to accept a lower amount in order to get a higher overall return.

Flag

Removes a listing from the site.  Doing this should be done with caution as it will affect other users.  If the listing has something wrong with it, users are given the opportunity to let Real Rent Comps know.

Average (specifically the Median)

The median is the rent price that lies midway between the lowest and highest rent prices.  The median is less affected by potentially extreme values in the range of rent prices, so it is considered to be more accurate than the mean.  All averages in Real Rent Comps are expressed as medians.

Mean

The mean is calculated by adding together all the values, and then dividing this by the number of values.  This is what most people "mean" when they talk about averages (it is commonly used because it is easy to compute).  As long as the data is symmetrically distributed (that is, if when you plot them you get a nice symmetrical shape) it is OK to use - but it can yield incorrect results by a few extreme values, and if the data is not symmetrical (ie. skewed) it can be downright misleading.  Real Rent Comps does provide calculations using the mean since it is not as useful as the median value when dealing with data distributions.

Average Completed DOM

This is the median of the Completed Listings' Days on Market values.  This should give an approximation of how many days that it takes to find a renter.  Steps can be taken to rent a property in fewer days (for example, offering a lower rent).  The value is used as a benchmark for the Effective Rent calculation, as it is carried forward to the Expected DOM field.

Your List Price

This is the rent price at which you're intending to offer for your property. 
 

Expected DOM

This is the Days on Market value as derived from the median of the Completed Listings. 

Effective Rent Calculation

When advertising a unit for lease, landlords may be asked by potential tenants if the advertised rent "is the best that they can do".  That is, they're trying to get a lower rent price than the advertised amount.  There are times when the rent should be lowered.  Here are some examples:
1) When they can move in before the typical Days on Market period expires (the form for the Effective Rent Calculator will help you to determine the minimum that you should be willing to accept)
2) If you find the "right" tenant (if their application comes back stellar, then reduced rent will likely offset costs by selecting the "wrong" tenant)

Once you have an idea of what the rent should be from the rent comp report, then enter this along with the Days On Market average from the Completed Listings.  This will give you the Effective Rent that you would have received after a typical lease-up period.  This is also the minimum that should be accepted if they can move in immediately.

Subdivision

This field is used to filter by the submarket.  Be as specific as possible but note that the results will be grabbed from the actual listing.  Suggestions for this (going from most specific to least specific): subdivision name (leave out the section number), zip code, then area (e.g. Alief, Katy, etc.).  It is recommended to use both the Subdivision and Intersection field types in the same search.

Intersection

There are two fields: one for each major street located near the property.  Some listings do not use the Subdivision in the advertisement, and use Intersection instead.  If there are variations in which the streets may be displayed, enter all variations in the field for the same search.

Square Feet (including "+ or -")

This is the size of the home.  In other words, this is livable space (garage space is not included).  The exact size of the home is not something that tenants generally focus upon; approximately 10% of tenants will ask about this and about 15% of listings contain square footage information.  That both of these numbers are low is no coincidence.  Tenants typically gauge the size of the home in a more subjective way (e.g. two homes of the same square footage may feel different due to an open floor-plan in one, different layouts, paint colors, etc.).  Using a calculation such as price per square foot to extrapolate the rent only serves as a quick and dirty way to get a rough approximation about how to price the property, but this is generally not a method likewise employed by tenants.  Listings that advertise the square footage of the home will be removed from the results if they fall outside of the zone specified in the Search.  Given that only a handful of listings display the size, listings that do not specify the square footage will be reported in the results.  By having the size filter not remove the listings which do not mention size, we're not limiting our analysis to only 15% of the data.

Year Built (including "+ or -")

This is the range in age of properties that will be considered.  Listings that advertise the age of the home will be removed from the results if they fall outside of this zone.  Listings that do not specify the age will be reported in the results, since about 2% of the ads include this information.

Type

Single Family Houses (freestanding/detached) and n-plex (duplex, quad-plex, etc.) can be selected for comparables.  Other types of properties, such as townhomes/condos, apartments, manufactured homes, rooms, and vacation rentals are being planned for a future release of this site.

Amenities

These are features of the property that makes it more attractive to tenants.  Think of it as what makes the property special.

Pools

Pools are generally seen as a liability for rental property, as a source for a potential lawsuit and as a maintenance issue.  Nonetheless, if the equity is high enough during the purchase, many landlords will buy properties with pools and they can serve as a great renting point in the summer months.  There are three options for Pools in the form.  Private means that it is on the premises and Area means that it is in the community center.  FYI: 1% of ads mention a private pool.

Tenant

The criteria for tenants allowed to occupy the property will also influence the rent price as well as the days spent in marketing the property.  For example, it is logical to assume that not allowing pets on the property will increase the days on market since the tenant selection will be made from a smaller pool.  Another example is that the rent will be higher for a Lease to Own property.  When agents and appraisers pull comps on a property, they may either apply "rules of thumb" with regard to the market differences with different types of leases, or just ignore these factors altogether.  For example the MLS rent comps do not differentiate whether the comparable properties accept Section 8 tenants.  FYI:
  a) 2% of ads do not want smokers
  b) 5% of ads do not want pets
  c) 6% of ads offer lease/purchase

Section 8

Government subsidized tenants.  Landlord opinions about this vary from "preferred type of tenant" to "I'll never accept them again".  Proponents tend to focus upon the facts that the government is more reliable in paying and the tenants stay longer.  Others focus on the facts the tenant will not maintain the property in the same manner as non-Section 8 tenants, and the landlord is essentially unable to realize any money from them if they are sued for damages.  Approximately 10% of ads actively seek out Section 8 tenants.

Type Face

Newspapers charge to make the printed characters stand out, as can be seen with bold face, italicized lettering, etc.  Real Rent Comps allows for an unbiased way to test whether this makes any difference.  Run a Search with these features and one without and see whether the median rent or DOM changes.

FYI:
  a) 40% of ads use bold face
  b) 2% of ads use italicized lettering
  c) 10% of ads use a header

Months advertised

Displays the closed listings within the specified number of months.  This is important to factor in "the velocity of the market".  The rental market changes over time as conditions change (i.e. interest rate, natural disasters, unemployment rate, etc.).  It is generally assumed that the market is essentially the same as it was in the previous 6 months.  Real Rent Comps also provides the ability to select a Custom Date Range, which allows users to examine how the rental market changes throughout the year (in the summer when school is out, when tax refunds are received, during the holidays, etc.).  This is a powerful tool that can be employed to pinpoint the best time of the year to schedule lease renewals.

Tips

1) When accessing pages, the browser might display a banner showing that content has been blocked.  This is simply caused by elements of the website written to enhance customer experience, such as the site's ability to create a new window to display Help content and the context sensitive Help screen.  If the browser isn't instructed to unblock the content, you will still see all of the data provided by Real Rent Comps, but clicking on the Help icons will navigate away from the current page into the Help area.

2) The "Account Profile" link, also seen when initially registering for this service, contains the option to receive information from Real Rent Comps.  This will contain useful tips on renting that extends the scope of the site.  For example how to get coupons for Home Depot, where to find the best priced fixtures, techniques for handling problems with tenants, etc.