What is a Rent Roll?
Dictionary rent roll definition:
A register of a landlord’s lands and buildings with the rents due from them. – A landlord’s total income from rent.
What is a Rent Roll report?
A rent roll is an important document used by landlords to summarise rental income, tenant details and occupancy. A rent roll serves as evidence when evaluating the investment profitability of properties.
A rent roll can be used for all types of property that generate income and is used to assess current and future cash flows. The report is often used for preliminary assessments with banks and investors during real estate transactions. Rent Rolls are frequently used in financial calculations such as GRM (Gross Rent Multiplier), Cap Rate (Capitalization Rate) and IRR (Internal Rate of Return).
Rent rolls should be kept up to date in order to stay accurate and a true reflection of the performance and probability of the property or portfolio.
A rent roll could also be referred to as a lease ledger, occupancy report, property rental summary or rental income statement. However, it is to know that some of these terms are the elements that make up a rent roll or serve a slightly different function.
What is included in a rent roll?
Rent rolls can vary on the information included. However, they will all tend to have the same core elements that are used to build a historical picture of the property’s income, tenants, lease agreements and occupancy rates.
Example rent roll information:
Property Information:
- Owner or company information
- Property address
- Property type
- Property class
Unit information:
- Unit number
- Square footage
- Number of bedrooms
- Number of bathrooms
- Additional features
- Any other details that can affect valuations
- Occupancy rate
Tenant information:
- Tenant Name
- Number of occupants
- Percentage of occupied space
- Lease start and end date
- Move-in and out dates
- Rent frequency
- Monthly Rent
- Additional Income
- Rent deposit
- Rent due date
- Dates of rent paid
- Amounts of prepaid rent
- Amount of rent arrears
- Rent concessions
Lease terms:
- Lease type
- Renewal and termination details
- Right of First Refusal and Expansion options
- Tenant obligations and allowances
Additional Infomation:
- Guarantor details
- Special provisions, restrictions etc
When is a rent roll used?
Tracking property finances
Landlords use rent rolls to track income, tenants, and leases to provide a financial overview of their properties. A Landlord will use rent rolls during rent and lease reviews. They can use the report to asses how reliable the tenant has been, if the rent needs adjusting or if any leases are set to expire. Rent rolls are used by landlords to compare their properties, both internally and against the market, to determine if their position is in line with the competition.
Evaluating property profitability
Investors will use rent rolls to assess the profitability of a property. The figures in a rent roll can be used to calculate financial calculations such as capitalisation rate (cap rate), gross rent multiplier (GRM), and weighted average lease (WALE).
Rent rolls also serve as due diligence to investors who will want to gauge the potential risk involved with a property and the associated leases and tenants. Rent rolls make it easy to identify red flags, such as high vacancy rates or tenant turnover, that may affect profitability.
Applications for loans and finance
Banks and lenders will request rent rolls to support loan or refinancing applications. A rent roll can demonstrate good financial health and reassure banks and lenders there is sufficient cash flow for their loans to be paid back.
Tax & Accounting
Accountants use rent rolls for tax audits, tax deductions, compliance and financial reporting.
How can Rent Roll software help?
Utilising rent roll software has several benefits, but the core benefits can be condensed to reduced workload and increased financial oversight.
Automated Invoices
Rent roll software can automate a lot of tasks and save users time by eliminating manual data entry. Rent roll software can automatically track income and rent payments
Our software automatically creates invoice schedules and inserts date-formatted descriptions without the need for manual adjustments. Rent Roll will also post the created invoices directly back into Sage 50. With a GoCardless integration, users can also automate rent collection, which can reduce the stress, effort and time of chasing payments.
Automate your tenant invoices
Instant Reporting
Rent roll software provides reports with the need to export data into separate programs. Users can get a quick and in-depth insight into their property’s financials and performance using up-to-date data.
Our solution has a huge range of dashboard widgets and reports to cover all aspects of your business, not just rental income. All of the reports can be used straight out of the box with no setup or learning curve. Rent Roll also has more advanced reporting functionality that can be implemented using the extended data fields.
Property ReportingAnalysing Cash Flow
With all your data centralised in one place, users can easily track and analyse their cash flow. The use of rent roll software can make it easier to identify trends, missed or late payments and opportunities that may increase rental income. Monitoring cash flow is important, and having reports and forecasts that are quick and easy to generate helps to make financial decisions with more confidence.
Our platform can forecast cash flow, which can assist with more confident decision-making, budgeting and planning. Rent Roll also connects all the relevant records together for you. If you ever need to follow a trail, Rent Roll will be able to guide you with ease.
Rent Forecasting
Tenant & Lease Management
Staying on top of lease expirations is important, and rent roll software ensures you stay on top of your agreements. Users can also effortlessly track the history of rent increases and tenant occupancy rates. The centralised location of all information also makes it very quick and easy to find tenant details.
Our software has a dedicated section for tracking agreements and their status. Rent Roll also introduces some basic property management features, such as the ability to create and track tasks and stay ahead of inspections and compliance issues. Users can also upload documents to any record, ensuring relevant and important documents are easily accessible.
Task Management