How to Set the Monthly Rent for your Oahu Rental Property
Part 3 – RESEARCH RENTALS AND SETTING THE RENTAL RANGE
In our previous post, we chatted a bit about what criteria to use when viewing your Oahu rental property and other Oahu rental properties. You should have a pretty good list of the attributes your property offers, and also a list of advantages, or a small list of shortcomings. We need to find out for how much other Oahu rental properties in your area have rented, and for how much available properties are being offered.
In Hawaii, in order to manage Oahu rental properties, one must be a licensed real estate salesperson, with few exceptions. A licensed real estate salesperson will have access to the multiple listing service (MLS) – where she can both list rentals and find rentals. While only a very small percentage of available Oahu rental properties are listed on the MLS, this little bit of information gives agents an advantage – when reported, we can learn what property rented, for how much, and maybe information about the terms of the lease. Even if you decide to manage your own property – make friends with a local property manager, learn from them as much as you can about your local market and other Oahu rental properties.
Using MLS data is my first step – I search for properties that have rented in the last year and for current properties on offer in the area. I also look at as many properties available for rent that I can find from other sources such as Craigslist, Zillow, Trulia, AHRN, Star-Advertiser, Military-by-owner, etc.. As with any statistical sample, there will be outliers. Outliers in the rental market are rents for properties that are priced far too low, or far too high — I drop these from my calculations. I compare the attributes of the Oahu rental properties on this list to my own.
Following this, you should be able to develop a rental range. This is the range I, as a property manager, would propose to you – advertising for rent at the bottom of the range and the property will rent fast. Advertise at the higher end, and your property will sit for a while – but it will still rent. It is important to keep your finger on the pulse of this range, and importantly to set your annual budget using the low number. If you would like to know what your rental range is, contact Home Shoppe Hawaii now – it’s free, and we all benefit from pricing rentals correctly!
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