How to read a rent roll (and spot the lies)
A broker's rent roll is a sales document. Here's what the columns actually mean, the lines that almost always overstate income, and the questions to ask before trusting any of it.
What a rent roll is
A rent roll is a snapshot of every leased unit in a property: who's in it, what they pay, when their lease started, when it ends, what they've paid in deposit, and what's currently delinquent.
It's the primary document brokers hand you to support the asking price. It's also a sales document. Treat it like a used-car listing — useful, but not gospel.
The standard columns
| Column | What it means |
|---|---|
| Unit # | Apartment, suite, or door identifier |
| Sqft / Beds-Baths | Physical configuration |
| Tenant name | Current resident |
| Move-in date | When they took occupancy |
| Lease start / end | Current lease term |
| Monthly rent | Contract rent (in-place) |
| Market rent | The owner's opinion of what the unit could rent for today |
| Deposit | Security deposit on hand |
| Balance / delinquency | Unpaid rent or charges |
| Other income | Pet rent, parking, storage, RUBS |
The two columns that hide most of the lies: market rent and other income.
Lie #1: Inflated market rent
Market rent is the owner's claim. It's not an appraisal, it's not a comp study, it's not signed leases. A broker writing the marketing OM will lean into the highest plausible market rent because that's what supports the asking cap rate.
How to verify:
- Pull 5-10 actual recent leases (ask the broker for the "leasing summary" or "trailing 12 leases" — they'll often have it).
- Check Zillow Rentals, Apartments.com, Rentometer for the same bed/bath/zip.
- Compare in-place rents on the rent roll to the "market rent" claim. If the gap is >10-15%, ask why. Sometimes it's legit (long-tenured tenant below market). Often it's wishful.
A 10% inflated market rent on a $2M deal at a 6% cap inflates the asking price by ~$100-200k. This is where money is made or lost.
Lie #2: "Other income" that vanishes
"Other income" lines often include charges that won't transfer to a new owner:
- Pet rent that wasn't documented in actual leases
- Parking that the new owner can't enforce because parking is technically common-area
- Late fees that recur because tenants are chronically late — those tenants will leave
- RUBS (utility billback) that's coded into the lease but not actually collected
Ask for trailing 12 months of bank statements or property management ledger, not just the current rent roll. Real income is what hit the account, not what was billed.
Lie #3: Occupancy theater
A 95% occupied rent roll sounds great. Then you notice:
- 3 of the 20 units moved in within the last 30 days (incentive leases — first month free)
- 2 units show $0 rent but "occupied" status (model unit, manager unit, employee unit)
- 4 units have balances >$1,500 (functionally vacant — they'll skip)
Effective occupancy is closer to (paying tenants who aren't ~60+ days behind) ÷ total units. Strip the freebies and the seriously delinquent and the picture changes.
Lie #4: Leases expiring in the next 60 days
If 8 of 20 leases expire within 60 days of closing, you're not buying a stabilized property — you're buying a re-leasing project with 8 vacancies, 8 turnover costs, and 8 chances for the rent to drop, not rise, before you've sent a single mortgage payment.
Always plot lease expirations on a calendar. A clean rent roll has expirations spread evenly across 12 months. A juiced one has a wall of expirations after you close.
What to ask the broker
Send this list before you tour:
- Trailing 12 months of actual collected income (bank statements or PM ledger, not rent roll).
- Lease abstracts for the 10 largest units — specifically the riders that show concessions, pet/parking fees, RUBS.
- Delinquency aging at 0/30/60/90+ days.
- Last 12 months of move-ins and move-outs (turnover rate is real money — every turn costs 1-2 months of rent in vacancy, turn cost, and leasing fee).
- Capital expenditures over the last 24 months — what's been done, what's deferred.
If the broker can't or won't provide these, the property is either small/casual (excuse) or hiding something (more likely on a priced deal).
Plugging the verified numbers in
Once you have actual collected income (not pro forma rent roll income), plug it into the Rental Calculator as your gross rent. Use realistic vacancy based on the delinquency + turnover data, not the broker's 5%. The cap rate that comes out of that analysis is what the deal actually trades at — and it's almost always 50-150 bps wider (i.e., cheaper) than the OM headline.
Cross-check against the Cap Rate Calculator using your underwritten NOI vs. the asking price. If your re-underwritten cap is below the prevailing market cap for that asset class, the deal is overpriced — regardless of how clean the rent roll looked.
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