Investing in real estate in 2022 is all about choosing the right rental estimate website to use when planning and analyzing your investment.
Table of Contents
- Why Estimate Your Rental Income?
- Why Mashvisor Is the Best Rental Website in 2022
- Conclusion
In the past decade, rental estimate websites have been improving constantly in terms of their data accuracy and update frequency.
But what exactly do rental estimate websites do? What are the best online platforms that exist in 2022 when estimating your rental income and everything related to it?
In this article, we will try to answer the above questions and show you the best online rental estimate website by showcasing how Mashvisor’s rental income estimating tools work.
But first, let’s talk about rental income and why it’s important to estimate it.
Why Estimate Your Rental Income?
Estimating your rental income is a step you can’t ignore when investing in rental real estate properties.
The rental income generated by the properties is, without a doubt, the most important and appealing aspect of investing in them. It is why rental homes are the most popular type of investment in real estate.
When you invest in a rental property, the amount of rental income it generates is that property’s primary source of income. It will make up most of its net operating income.
If you’re an investor, then you know that the NOI estimate of any investment is essential for determining its return on investment, which is the ultimate goal of any investment.
So, how exactly do you estimate the rental income of real estate properties? Why do you need a rental estimate website to estimate rent?
How to Estimate the Rental Income
Estimating the rental income of a property means figuring out its current rental rate and how much it could be in the future based on its historical performance.
In theory, it is a simple thing to do. You get historical data about the property you want to analyze and your spreadsheet containing the property’s rental income from the past five or ten years.
Afterward, you run the math to determine the rate at which the rental income’s gone up or down over the years. You then project that value to estimate future growth.
Of course, several issues may arise when trying to do it.
Firstly, the rate at which rental rates increase or decrease can be very unpredictable without taking into consideration external factors such as the market or area surrounding it before you estimate it.
Secondly, getting such types of real estate data about rental properties is not a simple task if you’re not using a rental estimate website. It is especially difficult if the property you’re analyzing lacks any historical rental data for comparison.
Lastly, the process might be simple when you want to estimate the rental income for a single property, but what if you’re trying to analyze an entire market or several properties to decide which one to buy?
Related: How to Find Properties That Promise High Rental Income
How a Rental Estimate Website Solves the Problem
A rental estimate website is an online platform that specializes in providing and breaking down real estate rental data to make it accessible and useable by any real estate investor.
While different rental estimate websites may provide different kinds of tools and data, one thing that they all got in common is that they specialize in rental real estate estimates and analytics. In terms of the solutions they offer, rental estimate websites may help solve one or all of the problems mentioned above.
Firstly, by using advanced algorithms that take into account large amounts of data from multiple sources and by considering external factors and adjusting results accordingly, rental estimate websites solve the problem of unpredictability.
Although the level of accuracy that most rental estimate websites provide isn’t perfect, the practicality and speed at which they can predict or estimate the rental income make it a key asset to investors.
Secondly, by using similar machine-learning algorithms and techniques, rental estimate websites can provide rental data on properties without such data.
In other words, if a property is new or has never been rented out, a rental estimate website can tell you what the property can be rented out for now and in the future based on its features and the market it’s in.
Finally, and most importantly, most rental estimate websites allow you to get such types of data and more for hundreds or thousands of properties at once, although it can be pricey using some platforms.
Some rental estimate websites, like Mashvisor, are unique in that they offer all of the abovementioned solutions in addition to market-wide data and analytics, making them a perfect tool for rental investors.
Why Mashvisor Is the Best Rental Website in 2022
Mashvisor is an online platform that specializes in rental data, estimates, and analysis, making it one of the few good options when it comes to rental estimate websites in 2022.
However, while there are other good options that you can use, many consider Mashvisor the best option. It is because of the levels of diversity and accuracy in terms of the data provided.
With other rental estimate websites, you might find yourself looking for a certain type of data that you couldn’t find or wish you could use a tool to make things easier for you.
When it comes to Mashvisor’s rental estimate website, all the data that you need to make a rental analysis and plan your investment based on sophisticated data will be available to you quickly and in an easy-to-understand format.
To better understand what makes Mashvisor the best rental estimate website, let’s take a look at the tools and features that it provides.
Mashvisor’s Tools and Features for Estimating Rental Income
Before getting started in talking about the rental estimating tools and features, it’s important to point out that Mashvisor isn’t just a rental estimate website.
One of the biggest advantages of using Mashvisor as your website of choice to estimate rental income is that it comes with a variety of extremely useful tools and features.
From the moment you decide that you want to invest, Mashvisor can begin to provide you with useful insights and information that are difficult to get from somewhere else.
By utilizing a user-friendly interactive map tool, the platform allows you to search for investment properties and gain market insights, all in an intuitive, visual, and engaging manner.
Using several optional filters relating to the price, rental income, or other specifics about the properties you’re interested in, you can easily scan markets for investment opportunities and find hidden gems with promising estimates.
Of course, all of your research gets further enhanced when you discover the rental estimate and analytics aspects of Mashvisor’s website.
How to Use Mashvisor to Estimate Rental Income
Mashvisor shines when it comes to providing insights, analytics, and estimates related to the rental income of individual properties or entire markets.
By gathering data from several trusted sources, including the MLS and Airbnb, the website can compare and analyze hundreds of thousands of real estate properties using information such as:
- Properties’ historical prices
- Historical rental income
- Property types
- Street addresses
- Size of property
- Age of property
- Number of bedrooms and bathrooms
- Airbnb daily rate
- Occupancy rates and much more
Using all the above data, a machine-learning algorithm can analyze entire markets and produce useful estimates about each property based on the market that it’s in.
It includes estimating both the rental income and the expenses related to each property, allowing you to see insights about important metrics that are used for evaluating your investment, such as cap rate and cash on cash return.
Users then use all the data and insights through different tools. They either search for properties using the map tool or analyze individual properties using the rental income estimates calculator.
Related: Cap Rate vs. Cash on Cash Return: How to Calculate Rate of Return in Real Estate Investing?
Rental Income Calculator
The rental income calculator is Mashvisor’s interactive rental property analyzing tool, which is where you will find the greatest value for estimating your rental income and return on investment.
By clicking on any property on the platform, whether using the map tool or any other feature, you will open that property’s calculator page. Here, you will find all the basic information about the property, such as its size, age, owner’s contact info, images, and more.
Below it, you will find the calculator tool that includes two sections. The first section shows you the rental income, cash flow, cap rate, and cash on cash return rate of the property.
They are all metrics related to the income that the property generates based on its net operating income and the costs and expenses related to it, which are in the bottom half of the calculator.
In the bottom section, you will find a list of all the costs and expenses that are taken into consideration, which include the closing costs, monthly expenses, taxes, and much more. It can be modified, so you can add or remove certain expenses or change the ones that are provided by our AI.
Attached to the tool is a mortgage calculator, of course, which includes options for 15-year and 30-year mortgages, fixed and adjusted rates, and the option to modify the down payment and interest rate.
Rental Comps
Another thing that you will see when you’re on the property’s analytics page is a section dedicated to rental comps.
The rental comps table will show you comparable properties in the market with their similarity score so you can compare them based on their rental income, price, occupancy rate, and more.
It is a unique tool that can save investors a lot of time that they would otherwise spend on gathering such information and determining the comparable properties before using a spreadsheet to compare them.
Additionally, a graph section shows you what the payback period will look like based on your property’s return on investment calculations.
By using the cap rate and cash on cash return metrics, the rental estimate website can show you how long it will take for your property to generate enough profit to pay for itself so you can further plan your investment.
Mashvisor’s rental comps feature shows comparable properties in the market with their similarity score, so you can compare them based on their occupancy rate, daily rate, rental income, and more.
How Mashvisor Compares to Other Websites
When choosing the right rental estimate website, it’s always good to look at all the available best options before choosing one.
Although Mashvisor is the best option in most cases, let’s see how it compares to other rental estimate websites. What we’re taking into consideration here are the tools and features that each website offers, the accuracy of the data provided, and the user interface and website navigation.
Mashvisor vs. Rentometer
Rentometer is a specialized rental estimates website focusing solely on the said feature. The platform is simple and effective in what it does, which is to estimate the amount of rent that you can get from properties in different markets.
The rental estimate tool comes with an easy-to-use UI. The user interface allows you to search for specific addresses or markets of different sizes, such as neighborhoods or cities. You can use other filters to specify your criteria in terms of rent amount, the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, or the miles radius of your search.
The tool will then tell you how much the average and median rental rates are for properties that match your criteria in your chosen market.
With getting a quick rental estimate of a market or property, Rentometer’s simple tool is designed for efficiency and speed. You can also use it to search for specific addresses without needing to sign up. They offer a free trial.
However, compared to Mashvisor’s platform and the amount of data and analytics tools, Rentometer is seen as more of a beginner’s tool that can be used to practice your analysis techniques.
But when it comes to making a serious investment and maximizing your profits, you will need the depth of analysis and variety of data that Mashvisor offers.
Related: Is Rentometer Accurate? And How Does it Compare to Mashvisor?
Mashvisor vs. Redfin Rental Estimate
Redfin is an interesting option that is very popular among real estate investors, although it is not exactly a rental estimate website. In the past, Redfin was one of the leading websites for real estate data and analysis.
However, nowadays, Redfin is known for its mobile app that is used to obtain up-to-date MLS data and receive customized notifications and alarms about new properties that pop up on the market.
It is a great tool that any investor can take advantage of, as it helps you keep up with today’s fast-moving market and react quickly to guarantee a good deal. But as a tool on its own, Redfin does not provide nearly as much data analytics and insights as you would need to make an informed decision.
Mashvisor vs. Zillow
Many consider Zillow one of the top sources of real estate data, analytics, and rental estimates. It is also the most similar to Mashvisor in terms of its functionality and the diversity of tools they provide.
And while Zillow is one of the oldest rental estimate websites on the internet, some believe that it’s fallen behind drastically in recent years. It is because competitors such as Mashvisor gained momentum using more modernized technology and algorithms, attracting users and agents alike.
Nowadays, when comparing Mashvisor and Zillow in terms of the features they offer, the comparison is fair. The results may depend on the user’s personal preference about the UI and the way the data is presented.
However, when comparing all features, you’ll find that Mashvisor offers several features that Zillow lacks, including:
- Rental comps
- Neighborhood analytics
- Focus on both traditional and Airbnb rentals
- Utilizing both cap rates and cash on cash return metrics for both rental strategies
- Customizable investment calculator
Zillow’s biggest advantage, however, is that many of its features are free to use.
But Mashvisor offers a 7-day free trial that allows you to test all the tools and decide whether it is the platform you’re looking for before committing to a subscription.
Conclusion
All real estate investors who want to invest in rental properties must use a rental estimate website in 2022.
Estimating the rental income of specific properties or the market average is an extremely important step in determining the success rate of your investment. Since not all properties provide such data, and it can be challenging to get access to such types of data, investors rely on rental estimate websites to get their insights.
Mashvisor is the best option available to you online as it allows you to carry out a rental estimate analysis quickly and with ease based on up-to-date market data analysis. The platform features several tools that all utilize the above data and the calculations made by a machine-learning AI to make smart and well-informed decisions about their investments.
While there are other options that you can use, Mashvisor is the best rental estimate website in 2022, and you can try it out and see for yourself.
Give Mashvisor a try today. Click here to sign up for a 7-day free trial, followed by 15% off for life on your subscription.
