Rent Comp Worksheet
A defensible rent estimate does not require a $16-a-month subscription. It requires five real comparables and ten honest minutes. Pull current listings for units with the same bedroom count within about a mile (Zillow, Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist), enter them below, and the worksheet turns them into an estimate, a range, and a price per square foot — saved in your browser, free.
Your unit
Five comparables (same bed count, within ~1 mile, listed in the last 60 days)
Adjust $: subtract for a comp that is nicer than your unit (renovated, in-unit laundry, parking), add for one that is worse. Typical single-feature adjustment: $25–$75.
Your estimate
Sanity checks: compare against the HUD Fair Market Rent for your metro (free at huduser.gov — the House Hack Calculator has one-click FMR chips for a dozen metros), and remember that listing prices are asking rents; units that sit for weeks usually close lower.
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Once you trust the rent number, the rest of the deal math is waiting: drop it into the House Hack Calculator to see cash flow and effective housing cost, or the BRRRR Calculator if there is a renovation in the plan. For the full method with screenshots and sources, read the companion guide below the tool page.
// More free VanToVault tools
The First-Property Bundle
Playbook, deal-analyzer toolkit, and down-payment-assistance finder. Pay what you want.
Get the bundle →The $0-to-First-Property Roadmap
The five-stage plan I followed from the van years to a duplex.