Rent Roll

A rental property can contain many leases with different dates and charges, and a rent roll puts those details into one report that shows what is let, what is vacant and what each occupied space should bring in. A typical row identifies the unit, tenant, rent, lease start and expiry, while some rolls also record size, deposits, parking, other charges and overdue amounts, so the exact fields vary by property and purpose.

Date the report, because a rent roll is a snapshot, not a permanent truth, and new leases, departures, concessions and arrears can make a file from last quarter unsuitable for a decision today. Include vacant spaces so readers can reconcile the report to the whole property, since showing only occupied units can overstate occupancy and hide future leasing work, and label potential market rent for a vacant unit separately from contracted rent.

Total scheduled rent carefully: if 36 leased units each have annual rent of $60,000, the annual contracted amount is $2.16 million, before arrears, concessions, vacancy on other units and operating costs. Lease terms can be as important as the total, because if many contracts expire in one month, income may be at risk even when today's rent looks healthy, and a lease-expiry profile turns those dates into a planning view.

Check concessions, since a stated base rent may differ from the cash payable during a rent-free period or discount, and show both the contracted headline amount and the actual billing schedule where needed. Security deposits should be recorded separately from rental income because they may be held or applied under local legal rules, and including them in rent totals would confuse cash held with rent earned.

Arrears may appear on the roll, but a current-rent list is not a full debtor ledger, so compare overdue balances with accounting records before relying on them, remembering that payments posted after the report date can change the picture. A lender may request a rent roll during underwriting, and a buyer may use one in due diligence, with JPMorgan noting its role in judging income potential, vacancy and lease expiries.

Neither party should treat the seller's spreadsheet alone as verified cash flow, so reconcile sample rows to signed leases and payment records, checking whether the tenant name, rent, start date, concessions and renewal option match. A discrepancy can affect the forecast and valuation.

Unit identifiers need to be stable, because a renumbered space or combined suite can otherwise appear twice or disappear, so keep a record of changes and map the rent roll to the physical inventory. Commercial properties may have base rent and separate service or common-area charges, and residential properties may have parking or pet fees, so separate categories avoid treating a pass-through as comparable base rent.

Local rent controls, subsidies or special terms can limit a simple "raise to market" assumption, as a roll can flag these facts but does not replace reviewing the underlying lease and law, and a comparison alone should never be used to promise an increase. Owners can use the report for renewals, budgeting and occupancy review, updating it when material lease events occur and producing a dated version for formal decisions.

Protect tenant information, since a rent roll contains names, addresses and financial details, so share only what a recipient needs through an appropriate secure route and consider redacting personal fields for broad circulation. The rent roll is a map of contracted income, not a profit statement, so combine it with collections, expenses, maintenance needs and financing information to judge an investment.