We tried this in NYC: use craigslist. Post an ad "by owner" in craigslist with a few good pictures and a solid description of the place (enough that you shouldn't really be bombarded with any emails containing follow up questions). You'll get a pretty good feel immediately as to whether or not you mispriced the place based on how many (or how few) responses you get requesting to see your condo in person. Then its only a few mouse clicks to adjust the price if needed...

in so cal, we found the craigslisters to be bargain-hunters so we also tried realtor.com, but then we had the opposite problem with units there being too high-priced. in the end, we found a happy medium in between both, after a little editing depending on the response from renters.

This is cool, but who knows how accurate it is? You answer a few questions, and it's supposed to tell you whether or not your rent is a good deal for your area. You could certainly use it to calculate how much to charge for rent as well.
http://www.rentometer.com/

Give the Rent-o-meter a try. :-)

www.rentometer.com

Oh darn, someone beat me to it. I missed that link in the previous post...must have been reading too fast. :-x

See this blog for a current-ish (and scary) square foot rental rate for Class A (usually modern high rise buildings) apartments. My husband and I went through pricing the upper unit of our two-flat in Ravenswood Manor last spring. We spent a lot of time on Craigslist to see what was out there. Our square foot rate is about half of what is quoted in the blog ($1.17/SF).

We had a lot of people come see the place--we charged a fee for the application to run the credit check which meant that if people weren't serious, they weren't going to fill out an app. However, with the real estate market the way it is now, I think it would be easier as there are less people buying. We ended up throwing in free laundry and waiting a month to get our tenant. We probably didn't charge enough but the goal was to have the rent cover half of the mortgage (taxes, insurance, water bill not included). The tenant pays their own heat so that was a factor in the rent as well.

See this NYT article too.

Craigslist has a virtual monopoly these days on apartment rentals. Most people won't bother with an agent(a la Realtor.com) unless looking for a unit renting for 3K/month or more. The Reader is a joke as are the other papers in town. The best way by far for an owner to gauge an appropriate rent is to search for similar units on craigslist. Use the keyword section, you can sort by neighborhood, amenity and most importantly, price range.

It's true that things are only worth what people are willing to pay for them, so be careful. Greed is no excuse for an apartment sitting empty with a unreasonably high asking price. On the other hand, renting a killer unit for a song only to discover your goof by doing research after the fact can't be a pleasant feeling.

Disclosure: I'm a Real Estate Broker, and I should probably also take this opportunity to say that I wish Chicago would implement the same fee structure on craigslist that NYC already has. As someone who uses it constantly for business I would GLADLY pay for my listings in order to weed out the 1000-2000 garbage postings thrown up daily.

p.s. this thread is about Chicago, right? Twas my intention.

I used rentometer to figure out a ballpark number, but keep in mind amenities (washer/dryer, utilities included, etc), nearby shops and transportation, and overall condition when looking at that number. I made mine slightly higher than everything I saw in my 'hood because it was newly renovated to the max.