Have you ever wondered if you pay too much for your rent? Wonder no more. Folks at iiProperty have the answer for your. Rentometer is a new mashup that tells you if the rent you are paying is too much, too little, or just the right amount.
The web site uses “data from publicly available sources on the internet and in print” to get the pricing. You enter your property type, the address and it will show where you are compared to similar rental listings in your area and will even mark them on a mini map using Google Maps API.
The interface is very clean and straightforward. The only suggestion I have for them is to clarify their sources. For some reason I am having hard time buying the pitch if I don’t see what the original source is.
Also take a look at MyNewPlace. It uses a similar idea for mashup except they give you much more details and more options for refining your search (plus you can rent that “similar” property via them and they will give you a $100 cash back!). MyNewPlace will not average out the prices for you so you will have to make some of your own research however with so many other factors affecting the rent (besides number of bedrooms) the estimate Rentometer gives can only be used as a rough starting point. Compared to MyNewPlace Rentometer looks more like a toy or… maybe it is just a way for iiProperty to promote its brand?
i seriously wish half of these tools were around fifteen years ago when i found my first apartment and everything was a matter of blind luck. heck, you can even take the mynewplace mashup one step further and check out the traffic patterns in the areas you’re scouting w/ this little tool — http://blog.fortiusone.com/200.....oiq-mashup
John Musser has a huge collection of mashups at ProgrammableWeb
http://www.programmableweb.com/mashups
I keep coming back to his site to test a new idea or just to check what is out there.