RentCast Review & Pricing Explained – Is It Worth It for Investors?

The Hardest Part of Real Estate Investing

What’s the hardest part about being a real estate investor?

Is it managing tenants? Negotiating with contractors? Estimating rents?

Yes, all of those are tough—but for me, my biggest challenge is finding a deal.

Because it doesn’t matter how good your underwriting is if you never have anything worth running the numbers on.

So when I first discovered RentCast—a data platform built for real estate investors—my question was simple: Will this help me find deals?

And for me at least, if the answer is no, I’m not interested.

So in this newsletter, I’ll walk you through what RentCast is, who it’s for, how much it costs, and whether or not I think it’s worth it—especially if you’re like me and you’re trying to use the data to find on-market deals.

And just to be clear—this week's newsletter is not sponsored. If you don’t believe me, just know that I currently have 2 subscribers...

Let’s dive in.

What Is RentCast?

RentCast is a rental data platform for real estate investors, and it’s built around two different products: a web application and an API.

The web app is what most people will start with. It’s designed for quick rental estimates, market analysis by zip code, and portfolio tracking. Think of it as a simple, easy-to-use tool for getting comps, estimating rent, or even just to check how your existing rentals are performing.

In addition to the Web App, RentCast offers an API— and this is the part that really caught my attention.

I have a goal of building my own AI-powered app to automatically find on-market deals. And I needed a legal, scalable, and reliable way to pull property data and rent comps. That led me down a rabbit hole of real estate APIs, and RentCast really stood out.

Here’s what the API offers.

You can research a specific property—meaning you can get sale price history, public data, and a rent estimate for any address.

You can research a market—which means you can pull rent trends, average prices, and many other insights for any zip code in the U.S.

And you can search for deals—meaning the API gives you access to active and inactive listings nationwide, not just in one market.

And that last piece—nationwide on-market listing access—that’s what really makes RentCast stand out for people like me, those looking to use data to help find their next deal.

Who Should Use It (And Who Shouldn’t)

So who is RentCast actually for?

Well, if you’re a long-term rental investor, this tool is built for you.

If you’re buying out of state and want to understand zip-code level rent trends—this tool is also built for you.

If you’re using the BRRRR strategy and you want to validate that a property will cash flow after refinancing—this tool is for you.

In short, if you’re trying to build a long-term rental portfolio, RentCast has the data you need.

Now on the flip side, if you're a short-term rental investor, RentCast probably isn’t the right fit.

There’s no data on Airbnb performance and no nightly rate estimates.

I also think RentCast may be challenging for a flipper, but I’ll save that for a future newsletter. I got some ideas about how it might work - but that’s to be determined.

But regardless, if long-term rentals are a part of your investment strategy—this may be worth adding to your toolbox.

Key Features Overview

Now let’s take a closer look at what RentCast actually does.

On the web app side, there are three main features.

The first feature is rent estimates. Type in any address and RentCast gives you a rent estimate, along with rental comps in the area. You can compare number of beds, baths, square footage, and see what similar units are renting for.

The second feature is market analysis. You can look up any zip code in the U.S. and get a snapshot of rent trends over time. This is great if you're comparing multiple cities or trying to get a feel for which neighborhoods are worth investing in.

And the third feature is portfolio tracking. You can upload your existing rental properties and keep tabs on how much rent you're collecting versus the current market average. It's like your personal landlord dashboard that updates itself over time.

Now on the API side, things get more flexible—but also more technical.

The API lets you:

Pull rent estimates and property data by address
Analyze rent trends by zip code
Search nationwide active listings
Integrate all of that into your own custom tools, dashboards, or deal finders

So if you’re a builder, a coder, or just someone who’s trying to leverage AI to automate deal screening—like myself—RentCast’s API could be a foundational data layer.

Pricing Tiers Explained

Alright—so sounds great and all, but what does this all cost?

Well, the web app and the API have slightly different pricing models, so let’s start with the web app.

The RentCast web app has both a free and a paid plan.

As of the publishing of this newsletter, the free plan allows you to pull up to 5 rental comps per rental estimate, and track up to 5 properties in your portfolio

Then there’s the Pro Plan, which currently costs $12 per month billed annually.

This plan allows you to pull up to 20 rental comps per rental estimate, and track up to 50 properties in your portfolio, along with several other features.

Now for their API, that’s priced a bit differently. For access to the API, RentCast has a range of options.

They have plans starting from $0 per month, for up to 50 monthly API requests, all the way up to over $400 per month, for up to 25,000 monthly API requests.

So really it seems like you have some options, and honestly I don’t think it’s cost prohibitive for an individual real estate investor to start building their own tools based on this data.

Pros and Cons

Now that we understand RentCast’s pricing, let’s talk about the pros and cons.

What do I like about RentCast—and where could it be better.

Starting with the pros.

If you’re using the Web App, the UI is very fast and clean. Everything loads quickly and feels intuitive.

The rent estimate tool is pretty good as well. It’s not always perfect, but it gives you a good starting point, and I particularly like that it provides you with a detailed list of specific comps.

So this means, if you’re serious about a property and considering next steps, like putting in an offer, you can easily do a little work on your own to really pressure test each comp individually, and build up your confidence in underwriting.

In addition to rent estimates, zip-code market trends are also super helpful for quick analyses, especially if you’re an out-of-state investor or simply new to the market.

But what I like most about RentCast, and honestly, is the whole reason why I’m using it, is their API.

It’s awesome that they give investors direct access to their data, especially because it’s nationwide on-market active listings.

That type of data is extremely rare and is usually tightly guarded by individual MLSs. They don’t grant access to just random individual real estate investors very easily, especially if you don't have a real estate license.

So that’s a big win for RentCast.

Now for the cons.

In my opinion, this is a long-term rental first tool. So if you’re interested in other real estate investment strategies, like short-term rentals, flipping, co-living, etc.,, this probably isn't the most optimal tool for those strategies.

Additionally, RentCast on-market data is not directly from the MLS. It’s instead based on third-party derived information, so it’s not quite as “official” as data directly sourced from the MLS.

But at the time of publishing this newsletter, they still claim to have roughly 96% nationwide coverage for residential sales and rental properties as well. So in my opinion, not having “official” MLS data doesn’t seem like too much of a limitation.

Is RentCast Worth It?

So—we’ve reached a verdict.

Is RentCast worth it?

My honest answer—yes. At least for me it is. I want to leverage AI to elevate my real estate investing. And for that, I need data.

Good, high quality, on-market data. And because of that, I think RentCast is a no-brainer.

But if you’re not convinced, check out my other recent newsletter on the Best Real Estate Data APIs for investors.

I investigated dozens of other real estate data sources and revealed which other APIs may also be useful, and which ones likely aren't. You can click on the link below.

And lastly, don’t forget to subscribe. We’ve got a lot more content coming.

Thanks for reading, and see you in the next newsletter.

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