Setting the rent for a new lease? Start with comparable rentals, not a guess.
Rent isn’t one exact number. It’s a range, and good comps narrow it. The trick is making each comp look like your rental. A comp with a garage you don’t have is worth a little less to you. One without the washer and dryer you include is worth a little more. Once three to five comps are adjusted, the range shows up, and your condition and timing decide where you land in it.
We put that process on one page so you can work through it with a pen. The Kitsap Rent Comp Worksheet has a column for your rental and up to five comps, each with an adjustments column. It covers location, home type, size, beds and baths, age and condition, parking, laundry, yard, utilities, pet policy, recent updates, asking rent, specials and days on market. At the bottom you write your low, high and proposed rent, and why.
It also lists the Washington rules to keep in mind while you price, from the renewal-increase cap to how pet deposits and fees work.
Download the Kitsap Rent Comp Worksheet (PDF)
How to use it
- Match on 4 things: location, home type, size, and age and condition.
- Find your comps: active rental listings and local property managers’ sites, filtered to your area. Write down the date and source for each one.
- Adjust for differences: comp has something yours doesn’t? Enter a minus. Missing something yours has? Enter a plus.
- Count collected rent, not asking rent: spread a free month or other special over the lease.
- Read time on market: a comp that has sat for weeks is a ceiling, not a target.
- Price inside the range your adjusted comps give you.
Washington rules to keep in mind
- Comps set the rent when a unit turns over. A renewal increase is capped at 10% for 2027 (9.683% for 2026), per the WA Department of Commerce, and needs at least 90 days’ written notice. An increase notice served now takes effect in 2027, so the 2027 cap applies. Some rentals are exempt (RCW 59.18.700; RCW 59.18.710; RCW 59.18.140; Commerce’s HB 1217 Landlord Resource Center).
- Nonrefundable fees, pet fees included, must be in a written lease and labeled nonrefundable (RCW 59.18.285).
- Assistance animals aren’t pets. No pet deposit, fee or pet rent applies to them (RCW 49.60.222; WAC 162-38-100; federal Fair Housing Act).
- If deposits plus nonrefundable fees, pet ones included, add up to more than 25% of the first month’s rent, the tenant can ask in writing to pay them in installments (RCW 59.18.610).
- State law doesn’t cap pet deposits, but some Washington cities set their own limits. Check your city’s code.
- Compare properties, never people. No preferences based on source of income (RCW 59.18.255) or any protected class.
Questions about pricing a Kitsap rental? Contact Kristel.
Idea credit: James Orr, Real Estate Financial Planner. Educational only, not legal or financial advice. Talk to an attorney about your lease and notices.
Revival Realty LLC · Kristel Daugherty, Managing Broker · Equal Housing Opportunity
