Free download
Rent roll template
A free rent roll template: one row per unit, occupied or vacant, with scheduled rent, market rent, deposits held, and past-due balances. Occupancy, monthly and annual rent, and gross potential rent calculate themselves. The portfolio snapshot lenders and buyers actually ask for. No email, no signup.
- Summary block: occupancy %, scheduled monthly and annual rent, gross potential rent
- Per unit: tenant, lease dates, scheduled vs market rent, deposit, status, past due
- Vacant units stay on the roll, so the vacancy cost is visible
Educational template, not legal or lending advice. A lender may ask for a certified rent roll in their own format; the data you keep here transfers straight onto it.
What is a rent roll
A rent roll is the one-page snapshot of a rental portfolio on a given date: every unit, who is in it, what the lease says they pay, what the unit would rent for today, and what is past due. Where a rent ledger is the payment history of one tenancy over time, the rent roll is the whole portfolio at a moment. Lenders ask for it when you refinance, buyers ask for it in due diligence, and it is the fastest answer to "how is the portfolio doing."
What goes on a rent roll
| Column | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Property / unit | One row per unit, including vacant ones. A roll that hides vacancies overstates the portfolio |
| Tenant + lease start and end | Shows lease-expiration risk at a glance. A buyer prices a roll where every lease ends the same month differently |
| Monthly rent vs market rent | The gap is your loss-to-lease: what long tenancies below market are costing you |
| Deposit held | Money you owe back. Lenders check it against your books |
| Status + past due | Occupancy and collections, the two numbers a lender reads first |
The numbers the summary computes
The template's summary block turns the rows into the figures underwriting actually uses: occupancy (occupied units over total units), scheduled monthly and annual rent (what the leases say, not what you hope), gross potential rent (every unit at market), and total past due. The spread between scheduled rent and gross potential rent quantifies the upside a buyer would pay for, and the spread between scheduled and collected is what your profit and loss statement reports. Keeping the three documents consistent is most of what "clean books" means at a refinance.
How to keep it accurate
Update the roll when something changes (a lease signs, a tenant leaves, rent bumps), not the week a lender asks. Date it, because a rent roll is only true as of one day. Keep vacant units on the roll at market rent with an empty tenant cell; deleting the row hides the vacancy instead of pricing it. And reconcile the rent column against what actually landed in the bank, because a roll that says $2,200 while the bank shows $2,000 arriving is the first thing due diligence catches. That match, lease says versus bank shows, is the same reconciliation habit that keeps the rest of your books defensible. On our own books the app rebuilds this view from the bank feed and the leases, so the roll, the ledger, and Schedule E line 3 all come from the same numbers.
Frequently asked questions
What is a rent roll?
A one-page snapshot of a rental portfolio on a given date: every unit, the tenant in it, the lease start and end, the scheduled rent, the deposit held, and anything past due. Lenders ask for it when you refinance, buyers ask for it in due diligence, and property managers keep it as the master list of who pays what.
What is the difference between a rent roll and a rent ledger?
Scope and time. A rent ledger is the payment history of ONE tenancy over time: every charge, every payment, the running balance. A rent roll is the WHOLE portfolio at one moment: one row per unit with its current lease terms. You maintain a ledger per tenancy and a roll per portfolio, and the roll's rent column should match what the ledgers show actually landing.
What information goes on a rent roll?
One row per unit, vacant units included: property and unit, tenant name, lease start and end dates, scheduled monthly rent, current market rent, security deposit held, occupancy status, and any past-due balance. From those rows the template computes occupancy, scheduled monthly and annual rent, gross potential rent, and total past due.
How do lenders use a rent roll?
As the income side of underwriting. They read occupancy and past-due first (is the income real and collected), then scheduled annual rent against the mortgage payment for debt-service coverage, and they cross-check deposits and rents against bank statements. A dated, internally consistent roll that ties to your bank activity reads as a well-run portfolio; a reconstructed one invites deeper digging.
What is gross potential rent and loss-to-lease?
Gross potential rent is what the portfolio would collect with every unit occupied at today's market rent. Loss-to-lease is the gap between that and your scheduled rent: the cost of below-market leases and vacant units. Buyers pay for that spread (it is upside they can capture), which is why the template keeps a market-rent column next to scheduled rent.
Does this rent roll template work in Excel and Google Sheets?
Yes. It is a standard XLSX, so it opens directly in Excel and Numbers and converts cleanly to a Google Sheet. The occupancy, totals, and gross-potential-rent formulas carry over, and the status column has an Occupied/Vacant dropdown. Print it or export a PDF when a lender wants a dated copy.