June 26th, 2007 by George

Jeez, I really despise writing that check every month for rent. None of the money goes to work for me, but merely goes to pay off my landlord’s mortgage. Not to mention, the appreiciation the landlord is seeing month-in and month-out on the property.

But, am I actually paying too much for rent, comparitively speaking? What are others in my area paying? Are there better deals out there that I don’t know about? Am I just wasting my money every month, when I could purchase a home and put my money to work for me?

Well, Rentometer has come to your aid. The rentometer website is a visual tool to help you decide just that.

Input your information into the rentometer homepage…

Simple input, simple interface. A few seconds later you get your results.

The results give you a range of rent rates in your area of interest. Low, High, and the median, and then compare what you are paying to those numbers.

Drawbacks:

• The rentometer does not account for your particular location. Remember, you get what you pay for.

• The rentometer does not account for number of bathrooms.

• The rentometer is only as good as the information entered into it. It is only an approximate average of rent costs, and is not definitive, due to its drawbacks.

• The rentometer does not account for amenities: pools, fitness centers, etc.

• The rentometer is geared towards renters, therefore, you can imagine where their funding comes from.

But, for a cool visual tool and information resource, rentometer does it’s job. However, that being said, you still have to decide is it better to rent or buy (see dontrenew.com’s blog post on this matter).

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