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Pricing Guide · First-Time Landlords

How much can I rent my house for? Here is the actual method.

Most people answer this with a number a neighbour mentioned or a figure that would cover the mortgage. Renters do not care about either. They pay roughly what similar homes nearby are renting for right now, so that is where the answer starts, and then you adjust for your house and subtract what it really costs you to own it.

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The method

Five steps, about twenty minutes.

This is the same sequence a property manager runs before quoting a landlord a number, minus the meeting.

1Get the midpointLook up your address for a rent estimate. That is the typical rent for a home like yours nearby, and it is your starting range, not your price.
2Read the comps, not just the numberOpen the comparable rentals behind it. If they are all newer builds and yours is from 1974, the midpoint is optimistic. If they are all smaller, it is conservative.
3Adjust for your houseIn-unit laundry, parking, a renovated kitchen, central air, and a yard move you up. Dated finishes, no parking, and a third-floor walk-up move you down.
4Adjust for timingListing in peak season means more applicants and less haggling. Listing in the slowest month of your market means pricing to fill rather than pricing to win.
5Test it for a weekPublish, then watch. Lots of enquiries and no applications usually means the listing, not the price. Almost no enquiries in the first week usually means the price.
What you keep

The rent is not the income.

The number that decides whether this is worth doing is what is left after everything the house costs you. Write it out before you list, because the gap between the headline rent and the money that stays in your account surprises most first-time landlords.

Monthly rentthe number you just researched
Less mortgage, taxes, insurancethe fixed bill
Less HOA or condo duesif any
Less a maintenance allowancethings break on their own schedule
Less a vacancy allowanceno unit is rented every month forever
What you actually keepyour real cash flow

A common starting point is setting aside roughly 1 percent of the property value a year for maintenance and about a month of rent a year for vacancy, then adjusting once you have your own history. Older houses need more, newer ones less.

Run it in the ROI calculator
A warning about shortcuts

The 1 percent rule does not price your house.

You will run into rules that say monthly rent should be about 1 percent of the purchase price, or some fraction of the home's value. Those are buying filters: quick ways for an investor to skim listings and decide what to look at. They tell you nothing about what a renter in your neighbourhood will pay this month, because renters have never seen your purchase price.

If your comparable rentals say $2,000 and the 1 percent rule says $3,200, the rule is not revealing hidden value. It is telling you that you paid a price the local rental market does not support, which is worth knowing, but it is not a price you can list at.

How rent estimates work

Get the number, then get the tenant.

Look up your address for an estimate and its comparables, then list the property, collect the enquiries, and screen whoever applies. That whole first stretch is free.

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