Rent Calculator: What Should I Charge for Rent?

How to use the rent calculator

Enter:

• ZIP code. The tool pulls the HUD Fair Market Rent (FMR) for your area as its anchor.
• Bedrooms: zero (studio) to four, matching how HUD sets FMRs.
• Bathrooms.
• Features such as off-street parking, in-unit laundry, central air, a yard, a garage, pet-friendly terms or recent updates.

The calculator returns a suggested rent range. Treat it as a starting point and check it against real listings before you advertise.

How the suggested range works

The anchor is HUD’s FMR for your bedroom count. Two things about FMR matter here:

• It’s a gross rent, meaning rent plus tenant-paid utilities. If your tenants pay their own utilities, a unit at FMR would have a lower contract rent.
• The standard FMR is set near the 40th percentile of rents for standard-quality units. About 60% of comparable units rent for more.

So the calculator adjusts upward from the FMR for bathrooms and features that tenants pay more for, and gives a range rather than one number. The low end suits a modest unit; the high end suits an updated one with the features renters search for.

A worked example

Say HUD’s FMR for a two-bedroom in your ZIP is $1,500. Your unit has 1.5 bathrooms, in-unit laundry and off-street parking, and was painted and re-floored last year. Say the calculator suggests $1,450 to $1,650.

Now check the market. You find three current listings within a mile:

• 2 bed, 1 bath, no laundry: $1,475
• 2 bed, 1.5 bath, laundry hookups: $1,575
• 2 bed, 2 bath, in-unit laundry, garage: $1,695

Your unit sits between the second and third listings, so $1,595 to $1,625 is a sensible ask. At $1,595, an applicant at a 3x income rule needs $4,785 a month in gross income.

What a good rent looks like

A good rent fills the unit within two to three weeks with a qualified tenant. If you get a stack of applications in the first weekend, you probably priced low. If you get no inquiries after a week, you priced high or the listing needs better photos.

Run the vacancy math before you hold out for a higher number. On a $1,600 unit, each vacant day costs about $53. Holding out for an extra $50 a month brings in $600 over a year, which is about 11 days of vacancy. If the higher price takes two more weeks to fill, you’re behind.

Limits and caveats

• FMR isn’t market rent. It’s built for HUD programs and lags the market. Use it as a floor and a sanity check.
• Local listings decide. The calculator doesn’t see your street, school district or view.
• Rent caps. In California, Oregon, Washington and cities with rent control, a low starting rent limits future increases. Price carefully at the start of a tenancy.
• Fair housing. Charge the same rent to every applicant for the same unit. Don’t vary price by who’s applying.