What is a rent roll?
A rent roll is a snapshot of every unit you own as of one date, showing who lives there, what the lease runs to, what rent is charged and whether the unit is occupied. It answers one question: what does this portfolio earn right now? That is why lenders and buyers ask for one when you refinance or sell, and why it is dated rather than open-ended.
Rent roll or rent ledger?
They get mixed up constantly. A rent roll is wide and shallow: every unit, as of a single date. A rent ledger is deep and narrow: one unit, every payment, over time. Use a rent roll to show a lender the whole portfolio, and the free rent ledger template to settle a dispute about one tenant. The longer explanation is in what is a rent ledger.
What to put in a rent roll
Seven columns cover almost every small portfolio: unit, tenant, status, lease start, lease end, monthly rent and deposit held. Larger rolls add square footage, unit type, or a market-rent column next to the actual rent so a buyer can see the gap. Whoever asked for the roll may want their own format, so ask before you build it out.
The date matters as much as the columns. A rent roll without an "as of" date is unreadable, because nobody can tell whether a vacancy on it is current or eight months stale.
Rent roll example
A four-unit building as of 1 July, with one tenant on notice and one unit empty:
| Unit | Tenant | Status | Lease end | Monthly rent | Deposit held |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1A | D. Whitfield | Occupied | 2027-05-31 | $1,450 | $1,450 |
| 1B | M. Reyes | Occupied | 2026-09-14 | $1,600 | $1,700 |
| 2A | P. Nair | Notice given | 2026-07-31 | $1,375 | $1,375 |
| 2B | Vacant | $1,500 asking |
Four units, three occupied, so occupancy is 75%. Gross monthly rent is $1,450 plus $1,600 plus $1,375, which is $4,425, or $53,100 annualised. Deposits held come to $4,525. Unit 2B's $1,500 is what you hope to get, so it sits outside both totals.
Common mistakes
Counting asking rent as income is the big one, and it is what makes a roll look padded to anyone who checks. Close behind: leaving vacant units off the roll entirely, which inflates occupancy to 100% and gets noticed the moment someone counts the rows against the number of units in the building. Undated rolls, missing lease end dates, and deposit figures that do not match what is actually in the account round out the list.
Certified rent rolls
Some lenders ask for a certified rent roll, meaning one you sign and date to confirm it is accurate, sometimes with leases or bank statements attached as backing. Ask what your lender wants before you send anything, because the format and the backing they require vary by lender and by state. Nothing here is legal or financial advice, and what you are obliged to disclose in a sale differs by jurisdiction, so check your own.
Keeping it current
A rent roll is only worth what its underlying records are worth. If lease end dates live in one folder, rent amounts in a spreadsheet and deposits in your email, rebuilding the roll means an afternoon of archaeology every time someone asks. Which rental documents to keep covers what the file needs to hold.
The column that drifts first is monthly rent, because it changes one unit at a time. When you raise one, the free rent increase letter template works out the increase and writes the notice, and the figure it lands on is the one this roll should carry from the effective date.