Pricing Against the Buildings Near Yours: A Landlord’s Comp Check

A comp check is a short, repeatable comparison of your rental with the buildings near it: what they ask, what they actually get after free weeks and other concessions, and how fast they lease. Done well, it takes an hour and answers two questions every landlord faces: what to list a vacant unit for, and how much to raise a sitting tenant at renewal.

The guide to how much to charge for rent covers pricing a home the first time. This one is the method for keeping a building priced right, year after year.

Pick the right comparables

Look for four to six rentals that a tenant choosing your unit would also consider:

• Same bedrooms, similar size. Within about 15% of your square footage.
• Similar age and condition. A 1960s walk-up competes with other walk-ups and with houses split into flats more than with a new building with a gym.
• Same side of the lines renters care about. The school zone, the train line, the highway.
• Leased recently. In the last 60 to 90 days. Homes still listed after weeks show you the ceiling, not the market.

Leave out furnished and short-term rentals, rooms for rent and income-restricted units. They answer to different renters.

Record the real numbers

For each comparable, note the asking rent, any concession, the lease term, what the rent includes (heat, water, parking, laundry), the fees, and how many days it took to lease. Then work out the effective rent.

A rent concession such as free weeks lowers what the tenant really pays over the lease. Spread it across the term:

The new building across the street asks $1,895 for a 1-bedroom, with six weeks free on a 13-month lease.

Effective rent = $1,895 × (13 − 1.5) ÷ 13 = $1,676.35 a month.

The sign says $1,895. The market says $1,676.

Adjust for the differences

Now make each comparable look like your unit. If a comparable lacks something yours has, add its value to that comparable’s rent. If it has something yours lacks, subtract. The values come from pairs of rentals that differ mainly in that one feature; the guide to features good tenants pay for shows how.

Your unit: a 700-square-foot 1-bedroom in a six-unit 1960s walk-up, heat included, street parking, laundry in the basement. The example values: heat included is worth $60 a month on this street, an off-street space $50, in-unit laundry $75, a building gym $25.

Comparable	Effective rent	Differences from yours	Adjustment	Adjusted
A: walk-up next door, leased in 14 days	$1,550.00	Tenant pays heat	+$60	$1,610.00
B: walk-up two blocks away, leased in 10 days	$1,675.00	Has off-street parking	−$50	$1,625.00
C: new building, leased in 21 days	$1,676.35	In-unit laundry, gym; tenant pays heat	−$40	$1,636.35
D: house split into flats	$1,725.00	Heat included; still listed after 38 days	—	ceiling

A, B and C adjust to $1,610.00 to $1,636.35, an average of about $1,624. D, empty at $1,725 after five weeks, marks the ceiling.

Your unit’s market rent is about $1,625.

If the adjustments on a comparable add up to more than about 15% of its rent, it is too different to lean on. Replace it.

Hold it against your rent roll

Your rent roll shows what each unit actually pays. Set it beside the market number:

Your six 1-bedrooms pay $1,475, $1,500, $1,525, $1,550, $1,595 and $1,625. Against a $1,625 market, the gaps are $150, $125, $100, $75, $30 and $0.

That is $480 a month below market, or $5,760 a year.

Not all of that is money lost. A long-staying tenant $75 under market costs you $900 a year; replacing that tenant costs a vacant month plus cleaning and paint. The comp check tells you where the gaps are. Your tenants tell you which ones are worth closing.

Bring it to the renewal

A lease renewal is where the comp check pays. Raise toward market in steps a good tenant can accept, with the notice your state requires.

A tenant pays $1,500 on a fixed-term lease ending January 31, 2027, and has paid on time for two years. Market is $1,625, which would be an 8.3% raise.

A 4% raise brings the rent to $1,560. You leave $65 a month, $780 a year, on the table. A vacant month at $1,625 plus $600 of cleaning and paint would cost $2,225.

The rent increase calculator shows the new rent and when it can start. Check the notice period in the rent increase notice by state table before you send anything, and check for rent control: a few states and some cities cap yearly increases, and the cap beats the comp check.

At the new rent, make sure the tenants you want can still qualify: the rent-to-income calculator shows that $1,625 at a 3× screen needs $4,875 a month.

Read the direction, not just the level

A single check gives you a level. Three checks a few months apart give you a direction:

• Softening: days on market rising, concessions spreading, price cuts on listings that used to lease in a week.
• Tightening: leases in under two weeks, several applicants per unit, concessions disappearing.

In a softening market, price at the low end of your adjusted range to lease fast. In a tight one, the top of the range is fair, and the ceiling may move up.

Public data as a cross-check

HUD publishes Fair Market Rents for every county and metro area. They are set at the 40th percentile of rents paid by recent movers for standard-quality units, utilities included, so they run below the middle of the market. They matter if you rent to voucher holders, and they make a useful sanity check. They are not a price for your unit.

The Census Bureau’s American Community Survey reports median rents by area too, but it trails the market. Your own comparables, checked this month, beat any published average.

Keep a comp sheet

Keep one spreadsheet with the date, each comparable, its effective rent, adjustments and days on market. Add a row each quarter. By the second year, you will know your street’s seasonal swings and which features renters there really pay for, which is worth more than any single number.

For the whole property, the NOI calculator shows what closing the rent-roll gap would add to net operating income.