What belongs on a rent roll
A rent roll is a snapshot, not a report. It is true as of one specific date, and that date has to appear on it. Underwriters send back rent rolls with no "as of" line because there is no way to tell whether the document describes today or last spring.
Every lender wants the same columns. Send these and you will not get a follow-up request:
- Unit or suite number — using the same numbering as the leases and the appraisal
- Tenant name — the legal entity on the lease, plus any guarantor
- Square footage — rentable area for commercial space; unit type and bedroom count for apartments
- Current monthly rent — what is being charged today, not the asking rent
- Lease start date and expiration date
- Renewal or extension options — how many, how long, and at what rent
- Security deposit held
- Other recurring charges — parking, storage, pet rent, common area maintenance reimbursements
- Delinquency — amount past due and how many days late
- Vacant units — listed at $0, never deleted
Leave the vacancies in. Removing empty units is the fastest way to make an underwriter distrust the entire file, because the unit count stops reconciling to the appraisal and the deed.
What a lender actually reads it for
The total at the bottom is the least interesting number on the page. Take a 24,000 square foot strip center with ten tenants and $34,000 of monthly rent — $408,000 a year, an average of $17.00 per square foot. Here is what an underwriter extracts:
- Lease rollover. Four leases covering 11,000 square feet expire within fourteen months. That is about 46% of the building turning over inside the first two years of the loan, which drives a larger tenant improvement reserve and can shorten the term on offer.
- Tenant concentration. The anchor holds 7,200 square feet at $10,800 a month, or $129,600 a year — roughly 32% of total rent from a single tenant. If that tenant leaves, coverage collapses. Expect the lender to ask for that tenant's financials and possibly attach a cash sweep to their lease expiration.
- Rent versus market. If comparable space is asking $21.00 per square foot and this center averages $17.00, in-place rents sit about 19% below market. That is genuine upside on a purchase, but it does not help today: the loan is sized on what the signed leases actually pay.
The rent roll is then cross-checked against the trailing 12-month operating statement. If the rent roll implies $408,000 a year and the T-12 shows $371,000 collected, that gap is vacancy, concession or non-payment, and the underwriter will locate it before you explain it.
What it means for you
You will be asked for a rent roll before anything else, often in the first email. Having a clean, current one ready is the difference between a term sheet this week and a term sheet in three weeks. Export it the day you apply, confirm the unit count matches the deed, and be ready to explain any unit paying materially less than its neighbors: a manager's unit, a family member, a concession that never made it into the lease file.
A spreadsheet is fine if you do not run property management software. It has to be legible, dated, and signed by the owner as accurate. When you start a commercial real estate loan application, the rent roll is the first document we look at, and it usually tells us what loan is achievable before the appraisal does. The rest of the document list lives on our CRE loan requirements page.
What to watch for
- Certification means a real signature. Most lenders require a certified rent roll, with the owner attesting in writing that it is accurate. Overstating occupancy on a certified rent roll is a misrepresentation, not a rounding error.
- Month-to-month tenants count as expiring now. A tenant with no written lease has zero remaining term in the lender's model, however many years they have been in the space.
- Related-party leases get discounted. A unit leased to an entity you control is frequently struck from income entirely, or marked down to market rent, before the loan is sized.
- Free rent still shows as full rent. A new tenant with three months of abatement appears on the rent roll at contract rent while the bank statements show nothing arriving. Disclose the abatement rather than letting the underwriter find the mismatch.
- Percentage rent is not base rent. Retail leases with a sales-based component should show base and percentage rent separately. Blending them inflates the number a lender will actually credit.
What is included in a rent roll?
Unit or suite number, tenant name, square footage or unit type, current monthly rent, lease start and expiration dates, renewal options, security deposit, any recurring charges such as parking or common area maintenance, delinquency status, and every vacant unit listed at zero. The document also needs an "as of" date and, for most lenders, the owner's signature certifying it.
How do I create a rent roll for a lender?
If you use property management software, export the standard rent roll report and check that it includes lease expiration dates and vacancies. If you do not, a spreadsheet with the columns above is perfectly acceptable. Date it, sign it, and make sure the unit count matches the deed and the appraisal. Send it as a spreadsheet or PDF, not a photo.
What is the difference between a rent roll and a T-12?
A rent roll shows what tenants are contractually obligated to pay right now. A trailing 12-month statement shows what the property actually collected and spent over the past year. Lenders read them together: the rent roll sets forward-looking income, the T-12 proves whether that income has historically shown up in the bank account.
