Rent is the number on the sign. This works out the rest of it, then
tells you whether you can actually carry it.
What a real Blacksburg listing advertised
$1,150
→
What it costs once everything is counted
$1,388
Never mentioned in the listing
$238 a month
Utilities, parking, the move in fee spread over the lease,
and the cost of driving to campus. On a $2,400 monthly income that is
the difference between 48 percent of your pay and 58 percent.
Your shortlist
Saved places ranked by true monthly cost
Place
Advertised
True cost
Hidden
Of income
Remove
Kept in this browser. The shortlist is only sent to the server when you ask
for a written comparison, and it is not stored.
1
Give it the listing
A screenshot works best. The price sits at the top of a
listing page and the fees are usually buried further down, so grab
both. Up to six.
Drop a screenshot here
or click to choose a file, or press Ctrl and V to paste one
Used alongside your screenshots,
not instead of them. It can return a cached copy, so where the two
disagree the screenshot wins.
Things the listing does not say.
If the leasing office has told you something, put it here. It is
treated as more reliable than the listing.
Or paste the listing text
2
Check the numbers
Anything the listing did not state is left blank, so a
figure you see is a figure somebody supplied. Your income is used to
do the sums and is not stored.
Sets the electricity rate.
Admin and application fees. Not
the deposit, you get that back.
Work out the commute for me
3
What it actually costs
0% of your income
Going by the listing alone it looks like 0%.
Within the guideline
30%50%
Monthly cost breakdown
Item
Per month
True monthly cost
0
Left after housing
0
This listing has a move in special, and it expires.
Wording worth noticing
More than half your income would go to housing.
Rental assistance and emergency housing programmes exist for
this. Calling 211 reaches local housing and utility help in most of the
United States.
Ask about these before you sign
The listing said nothing about the charges below, which
does not mean they are not charged. These are routine in US rentals and
they are what catches people renting for the first time. The figures are
broad national ranges so you know roughly what is at stake, not this
building's prices.
How the utility figure was worked out
Utility
Basis
Per month
If rents rise, what this looks like in three years
These are ranges built from how rents
have moved in the past. Nobody can predict what your landlord will do.
Read them as low, middle and high cases.
Case
Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
What would move the number most
What can you afford, and where
Three separate things, kept separate. What this area
typically costs according to HUD, what you can carry on your income, and
what is actually there. We do not put a price on a specific building
unless that building told us one.
If you do not know what to put in
the boxes, say it in your own words instead. It fills them in and you
can correct anything it gets wrong.
More accurate than a town name.
A cheaper town usually means
a longer trip. This takes it off your ceiling.
Your line
$0
What HUD says this area costs
Size
Typical rent
Against your ceiling
What is actually there
Real buildings from Google, with no rent attached because
Google does not publish rent. Open one, screenshot its pricing, then run
it through "Check a place" for the real number.