Posted by Mark LaNore on January 23, 2001 at 18:09:49:
Tim -
Look no further than your local Sunday newspaper where the greatest amount of ‘for rent/lease’ ads will appear. If you live in a fairly large community, the paper may be divided along several geographical areas. Study the rents for these different areas and compare them with # of bedrooms /baths. You might even go as far as calling the ads and asking questions about the rental units in terms of amenities, square footage, address of property, ect. If you are computer literate, you might even go so far as building a database of this data. Another source is contacting property management firms in the community. Ask for rental hot sheets that list the properties that they have for rent or lease. Ask the property managers if any of the properties they have available are eligible for lease option. If any are, ask what the fair market rent would be if the lease rate is higher than fair market rent for the size, type of property. Armed with this information, you can use as a guide to gage how to price your properties you become involved with.
Good luck!
Mark
First Pacific Group
info@fpg2k.com