I found a neat tool that gauges whether you are paying too much for rent, it’s called RentOMeter. Simply enter your address, how many bedrooms you have, and how many units are in your building, and the tool will let you know what’s up.

I’m currently renting right now, and also looking to buy a house sometime in the next .5-2 years. I’m currently renting a newly-built townhouse with 3 bedrooms, den and 3.5 bathrooms. One of the bedrooms has been converted into an office that I use for ActiveTuning, and the den has been converted into a working office. It’s about 2,000 sq/ft with a 2-car garage in Northern Virginia (expensive area). Between my roommate and I, we’re paying $1,780/month. We started out at $1,730, and it was raised $50/month after the first year. A third year was just signed, and the rent has stayed the same. The location is great, it’s really in the middle of everything that I need, and it’s about 30 minutes from Washington DC and an hour from Baltimore. Comparing our rent prices from what I’ve seen, I feel that we’re getting a good deal for what we got…lets see what the RentOMeter thinks:

The reason I put 4 bedrooms in is because the den can actually be converted into a bedroom (in fact one of our neighbors rents it out). So it looks like my deal is pretty good. Give it a shot, and let me know if you’re overpaying (or charging!) or not.

Note: For those of you interested in integrating RentOMeter on your site, there is an API, so you can integrate it with a little work.