Asking rent is a number somebody typed in. Lowball sits on top of zillow.com. Open any rental and it shows what the place is worth against similar listings nearby, how long it has really been sitting, whether the owner is in a position to cut, and a price to offer. Then it writes the message, comps attached, ready to paste into the contact form. You decide whether to send it.
Lowball850 Example St, Unit 4
31 days listed · 46% of listings like this have already cut, typically 4.1%
Asking$2,900
Offer this$2,175
$6,300 a year below asking, if it lands near $2,375
Likely to settle at $2,375$525/mo off
Similar nearby (8)$2,488
Typical asking$2,404
How we got this
Leverage High · confidence medium
Example panel. Numbers are illustrative; your listing gets its own.
Keep it one tap away: open lowball.rent/check, then tap Share, then Add to Home Screen.
On a computer too? The free browser extension shows the same thing right on zillow.com.
Lease ending instead? The renewal letter works on your phone: lowball.rent/renew
Free. No account. No ads. A browser extension for Chrome and Firefox on a computer. Works on zillow.com listings and search results anywhere in the US. Sharing listing data to improve estimates is optional and anonymous; nothing about you is sold. Not affiliated with Zillow.
The landlord has a reason to listen
Every month a place sits empty costs the owner a full month of rent. At 45 days on market, three more weeks empty costs more than a 6% cut spread over a year. Lowball shows that math for the listing in front of you, so you are not asking blind.
Asking is a guess. Here is how often it moves.
42%of listings past 30 days have already cut the price. Median cut 4.2%.
46%of listings that have sat 31 to 60 days have cut, typically 4.1%. By 61 to 90 days, 51%. Past 90 days the share drops to 30%: those are the holdouts.
3.6%more is what stale listings ask over fresh ones with the same bedroom count in the same ZIP. The sitters are the overpriced ones.
From our September 2026 snapshot of San Diego County rentals, 5,370 listings. These count listings still posted, so a listing that cut and then rented has already left the sample. Counts are about listings, never about any landlord. Past cuts do not predict any one listing. Estimates are estimates. The extension itself works on any zillow.com rental in the US. How we measure.
How it works
Every number comes with its evidence: the nearby comps, the real days on market, price cuts, posted specials, and the listing site's own rent estimate shown beside ours for comparison. You see the reasoning, not just a figure.
1
Open a listing. See what it's worth.
The panel shows what similar places nearby ask and how long this one has really been up: Lowball reads the price history, so a relist that reset the site's counter still shows its true age. It shows the share of listings like it that have already cut and by how much, how much longer it is likely to sit (a listing under two months old typically has 24 more days to go; past two months, 66), and what another empty month costs the owner. That last number is the landlord's side of the table.
2
Get your number.
An offer price, a likely-to-settle price, and the difference over a year if it lands there. Apartment buildings get per-unit numbers and their posted specials turned into the real effective rent.
3
Send the message.
One click writes a polite note with one number and the comps behind it, ready to paste into Zillow's contact form. Tap the levers you can offer, flexible move-in, a longer lease, autopay, and they go into the letter. Then it is their move. If a place asks well over what similar listings nearby ask and you do not love it, skip it and spend the afternoon somewhere better.
4
Or scan the whole search page first.
On search results every listing gets a tag at once: how much a month it asks over or under similar listings nearby, with a number to offer. The most negotiable ones rise to the top, so you know which are worth the email before you open a single listing.
Cut $150 · $310/mo over similar · offer $2,325$95/mo over similar · offer $2,650At market · offer $2,275Under market · offer $1,925
Example tags from a search page. Numbers are illustrative.
Wait. Can I actually do this?
Can I negotiate rent at all?
Yes. About 70% of US rental properties are owned by individuals, not corporations, and the standard advice for pricing a unit is to pull three to five nearby active listings plus a couple of recent rentals and adjust. Those are asking prices, not signed leases. Lowball shows you the comps that number was built on, and what the listings like it did next.
Won't the landlord be annoyed?
You are sending one polite message with a number and the evidence for it. That is what a serious tenant looks like. They can say no, and you are exactly where you were. Every empty month costs an owner a full month of rent; once a listing has sat past a month, the letter says so in one line.
It's a big complex and the rent ends in $47. They won't budge.
Not on base rent. Software-priced buildings cannot cut the number at the leasing desk. The desk can give a month free and waive fees, about 8% off. Lowball reads the posted specials, shows the effective rent, and the letter asks for the version of the discount the desk can actually say yes to. More below.
Is this legit?
It is a free browser extension that runs only on zillow.com and sends listing facts to one server, ours. Every estimate opens to show how it was built, and we publish how often our estimates land at lowball.rent/accuracy. Lowball is not affiliated with Zillow. Estimates are estimates.
Is it free?
Yes. No account, no ads, no card. The extension does not sell your personal information. Sharing the listings you view to improve estimates is optional and anonymous.
Big buildings don't cut rent. They give months free.
Managed buildings almost never cut base rent. They offer a month free instead: one month free on a 12-month lease is 8.3% off, two months is 16.7%. At the leasing desk, a month free plus waived fees is about 8%. That is a real discount this year, but your lease usually still says the higher number, and next year's increase is typically calculated from that, not from what you actually paid.
You pay $2,610
A $2,847 unit with one month free on a 12-month lease. That is your effective rent.
Your lease says $2,847
A concession usually does not change the number on the agreement, and that number is what carries forward.
Year two: $2,961
Say the building raises rent 4%, applied to $2,847. Against the $2,610 you were actually paying, that is a 13.4% jump.
The day to deal with this is the day you sign, when you have nothing at stake. At renewal you have moving costs, a deposit and time off work all arguing against you. You can ask for both: the free month, and either a lower base rent or a cap on the renewal increase, written into the lease.
Lowball reads posted specials and shows the effective rent behind them, so you can compare the real number against the lease number before you sign. Lease already ending? Lowball writes the renewal letter too: lowball.rent/renew
The asking price is a guess
Individual owners, not corporations, own about 70% of US rental properties, the smaller buildings, about 38% of all rental units. The standard advice for pricing one is to pull three to five nearby active listings plus a couple of recent rentals and adjust. Those are asking prices, not signed rents. A listing that has been sitting is a high guess, and it becomes the comparison for the next owner down the street. The error does not correct itself. It spreads.
In our own data, listings that have sat ask 3.6% more than fresh listings with the same bedroom count in the same ZIP. The places that sit are usually the overpriced ones, and they are the ones everyone else is pricing against.
Lowball prices a listing against the comparable listings nearby, all at once, shows how listings like it have actually behaved, how many cut, by how much, how much longer they sat, and gives you the number and the note. Then you ask.
Sources: US Census Rental Housing Finance Survey via Congressional Research Service report R47332; landlord pricing guidance from Avail and Azibo, 2026. The 3.6% figure is from our September 2026 San Diego County snapshot; method on the accuracy page.
Install
Lowball is a free browser extension for Chrome and Firefox on a computer (Edge, Brave and the other Chromium browsers install the Chrome version). It does not run in phone browsers. It runs only on zillow.com and sends listing facts to one server, ours. It works on any zillow.com rental in the US: in San Diego and some other areas the estimate comes from a model trained on local listings; everywhere else it comes from the comparable listings on the page you are already looking at. Houses, condos and apartment buildings, specials included.
What the extension collects: listing facts, not your identity
To score a listing, the extension sends that listing's facts to our server: price, beds, baths, size, location, days listed, price history. No name, email, phone, Zillow account, or searches. Our server does not store your IP address; it holds it in memory briefly to limit request rates. If you opt in, the listings you view also help improve estimates for everyone, tagged with a random install ID so you can ask us to delete them. Turn sharing off any time from the panel. Nothing about you is sold.
Lowball850 Example St, Unit 4