How to Price Your Rental Right in 2026

By Bobbye Joe McMillan

Bobbye Joe McMillan is the driving force behind Cornerstone Property Management, bringing over 30 years of expertise in real estate to help clients achieve their property goals.

Every rental owner runs into the same question eventually: what should this place actually rent for? For a few years, the popular answer was to let software decide. You plugged in the property, the tool handed back a number, and that felt like the modern, efficient way to do it. In 2026, that shortcut has become a genuine liability, and it’s worth understanding why before you set your next price.

Here’s what changed. As pricing software spread across the rental industry, regulators started looking harder at how some of it actually worked. The problem was never that a computer suggested a price. It was that certain tools pooled private, nonpublic information from competing landlords and used it to nudge everyone’s pricing in the same direction. At that point, it stops looking like independent pricing and starts looking like coordination. That concern led to a federal antitrust case brought by the U.S. Department of Justice and several states, and a growing list of cities have since passed their own laws restricting coordinated, algorithm-driven rent-setting.

So the real question for an owner today isn’t only “what’s the right number?” It’s “how do I get there the right way?” Here’s how rental pricing is actually supposed to work.

1. Know what got restricted, and what didn’t. The headlines make it sound like all pricing software is suddenly illegal. It isn’t. What regulators and a growing number of cities have gone after is narrow and specific: software that pools nonpublic, competitively sensitive data from competing landlords to align their prices. Researching the market with public information, what comparable homes are openly listed and leased for, has always been fine and still is. The line runs between private shared data and public research, not between “software” and “no software.” Knowing which side you’re on is the whole game.

2. Start with real comparable rentals. The right price begins with what similar homes are actually renting for right now, and that information is out in the open. Look for homes like yours in the same area, with the same bedroom and bathroom count, and similar size and condition. Pay attention to what is actually leased, not just what someone is asking, because an asking price nobody paid tells you very little. Your mortgage, your renovation costs, and the number you’d love to get are all real to you, but they don’t set the market. What a qualified renter will actually pay for a home like yours does.

3. Adjust for your specific home. This is where a number from an automated tool falls short, because it can’t weigh what makes your property different. Updates like a renovated kitchen, in-unit laundry, central air, a garage, a fenced yard, or a pet-friendly policy can push you toward the top of your range. Dated finishes, no parking, or a less convenient location pull you toward the bottom. Beyond features, there’s timing, how quickly you need it filled, and the kind of tenant you’re trying to attract. Those are judgment calls, and judgment is exactly what an algorithm trained on everyone else’s data was never built to provide.

4. Price to your local market, and keep it current. Rent isn’t set nationally, and it isn’t set once. What’s happening on your street matters more than any national headline, and this year’s right number may be wrong next year as supply, demand, and the season shift. Lately, the market has moved enough that an outdated number can cost you in either direction, sitting vacant because it’s priced too high, or leaving money behind because it’s priced too low. Set it to today’s local market, then revisit it at renewal or whenever it’s time to re-rent. That ongoing attention is the point, and it’s the one thing no set-it-and-forget-it tool was ever going to handle for you.

The bottom line is simple. The right rent price isn’t a number a machine hands you. It’s local judgment, built on real market information and applied to your specific home, by someone who’s accountable for getting it right. That’s what I do. I’ll run the real numbers on your property, price it to today’s local market, and keep it there. Call or text me at 210-440-1223, email me at bmcmillan@cornerstonepmtx.com, or visit blog.cornerstonepmtx.com, and I’ll put together a rent analysis for your home.