Rent Roll
A rent roll is a schedule of every unit or tenant space in a property, showing who occupies it, what they pay, and when their lease starts and ends. It shows what a property earns today and when each rent can change, which makes it the starting document for commercial real estate underwriting.
Why the rent roll matters
Underwriters build the income side of a property model from the rent roll. It shows current occupancy, in-place rents and the lease expiration schedule, which together show how much income is secure and how much is exposed to turnover in the next few years.
Lenders and investors check the rent roll against the trailing twelve months of operating statements, so that vacancy, unpaid rent and concessions show up in the numbers. A rent roll that does not tie to the T12 signals that income is overstated somewhere.
Rent rolls look different by property type. A multifamily rent roll can list hundreds of units on short leases. An office or retail rent roll lists fewer tenants but carries more detail per lease, such as rent steps, expense reimbursements and renewal options.
Rent Roll vs. T12
A rent roll is a snapshot of leases on a single date. A T12 is a record of the income and expenses the property actually produced over the past twelve months. The rent roll shows what tenants are contracted to pay, and the T12 shows what was collected. Underwriters use both, and the gap between them is where concessions and unpaid rent show up.
Where it matters by property type
Rent roll review drives multifamily and affordable housing underwriting, where income comes from many short leases, and mixed-use underwriting, where residential and commercial rent rolls sit in one property.
How Smart Capital Center handles rent rolls
Smart Capital Center's AI agents read rent rolls from any property management system, in the format they arrive, and reconcile them against the T12 unit by unit. Each figure in the model traces back to a line in the rent roll. Centers Dynamic Partners underwrites deals 4x faster with Smart Capital Center.
Frequently asked questions
What information does a rent roll include?
A rent roll typically lists each unit or suite, the tenant name, the square footage or unit type, the rent, the lease start and end dates, and the security deposit. Commercial rent rolls often add rent escalations, expense reimbursements and renewal options. Multifamily rent rolls usually show occupancy status and any concessions by unit.
Who prepares a rent roll?
The property owner or property manager prepares the rent roll, usually as an export from the property management system. Sellers provide it during a sale, and borrowers provide it when they apply for a loan or report to their lender. Lenders often ask the borrower to certify that the rent roll is accurate as of a stated date.
How do underwriters check a rent roll?
Underwriters compare the rent roll against the trailing twelve months of income, bank statements and a sample of the signed leases. They look for units marked occupied that produced no income, rents that differ from the lease, and large leases expiring soon. In commercial properties, tenant estoppel certificates confirm the key lease terms directly with each tenant.