Apartment Rent Roll Analyzer: Read It Like a Lender

Short answer

Paste or upload your apartment rent roll and this analyzer calculates physical and economic occupancy, loss-to-lease, concessions, delinquency, the next 12 months of lease expirations, the month-to-month share and the unit mix, then flags the items lenders ask about. It runs entirely in your browser; the file is never uploaded to any server.

What this analyzer answers

The rent roll is the first document a lender opens, and it decides whether your occupancy and income story holds up. Underwriters do not read it the way you do. They calculate a handful of ratios, compare them to your T-12, and write down every unit that looks unusual.

This tool runs those same calculations on your rent roll so you see the questions before the lender asks them. It is built for owners of 5+ unit buildings getting ready to refinance or sell.

Your file never leaves your browser. The analysis happens on your own computer. Nothing is uploaded, stored or sent to Janover or anyone else unless you choose to share the results.

Rent roll analyzer

Paste your rent roll (copy the cells from Excel) or choose a CSV file

Units–

Physical occupancy–

Economic occupancy–

Loss-to-lease–

Concessions–

Balances due–

Month-to-month units–

Your rent roll stays on your device. It is never uploaded, saved, or put in a share link.

How to use it

Export the rent roll from your property management software (AppFolio, Yardi, Buildium, RentManager and similar all have one) as CSV or Excel. Paste the rows in, or upload the CSV. The analyzer looks for these columns:

Unit and Type: the unit number and the floor plan, such as 1BR/1BA.
SqFt: rentable square feet per unit.
Market Rent: what you would ask for that unit today. Most software keeps this as the unit's market or asking rent.
Actual Rent: the contract rent on the current lease, before concessions.
Status: Occupied, Vacant, Notice, Model or Down.
Lease Start and Lease End: dates on the current lease. Leave Lease End blank for month-to-month tenants.
Concession: the dollar value of any free rent or discount on the current lease.
Balance Due: the tenant's past-due balance as of the rent roll date.

If your export uses different headers, rename them to match. Use a rent roll dated within the last 30 days, because that is what a lender will ask for.

Worked example

The example below uses a fictional 12-unit building with studios, one-bedrooms and two-bedrooms. One unit is vacant, one tenant has given notice, one tenant is month-to-month, two recent leases came with a concession, one tenant owes a month of rent, and several units are leased below the current market rent.

The gap between the two occupancy figures is the first thing to read. A building can look nearly full by unit count and still collect noticeably less than its market rent, once vacancy, below-market leases and concessions are added up. That gap is the number an underwriter cares about, because it is the one that shows up in the T-12.

The expiration stack tells you when income is at risk. Several leases ending in the same few months, or a cluster ending right around your loan closing, is something a lender will ask you to explain.

What each metric means and why underwriters care

Physical occupancy

Occupied units divided by total units. It is the number owners quote. Lenders use it as an eligibility screen, since most permanent programs require a minimum level held for some period before closing, but they do not size the loan on it.

Economic occupancy

Rent actually being charged, after vacancy and concessions, divided by the market rent of every unit. This is the income view, and it is almost always lower than physical occupancy. When it is much lower, the lender assumes your NOI is softer than the occupancy figure suggests.

Loss-to-lease

The difference between market rent and contract rent on occupied units. A moderate loss-to-lease is normal and can be upside for a buyer. A large one makes a lender question whether your market rents are real, and it will underwrite on contract rents, not market.

Concessions

Free rent and discounts. Underwriters subtract them from income, and if recent leases all carry concessions, they treat the concession as permanent rather than a one-time cost. A rent roll with growing concessions reads as a softening market.

Delinquency

Past-due balances. Lenders look at the total and at how many units owe money. Chronic balances suggest collected rent in the T-12 will lag billed rent, and some lenders exclude delinquent units from the occupancy they credit.

Lease expiration stack

How many leases expire in each of the next 12 months. Rollover concentration is risk: if a third of the building can leave in one quarter, the lender wants to know why and what you are doing about it.

Tenants with no lease end date. A few are normal. A large share means income could change quickly, and lenders may treat those units more conservatively than leased ones.

Notice, model and down units

A unit on notice is occupied today but may be vacant at closing. Model and down units produce no rent. The analyzer counts all three separately so the lender's occupancy and yours agree.

What this tool assumes

Your market rents are honest. Loss-to-lease is only as good as the market rent column. If market rents in your software have not been updated, the result will be off.
One snapshot. A rent roll is a single date. Lenders compare it to the T-12 and to earlier rent rolls to see the trend. This tool reads one file at a time.
Concessions as entered. It uses the concession column as the value for the current lease and does not spread it over the lease term the way some underwriters do.
No lender judgement. The flags show what lenders commonly ask about. Each lender applies its own thresholds, which vary.

What to do next

If the flags are few and economic occupancy is close to physical, your rent roll is ready to send. Pair it with your T-12 and run the T-12 underwriting calculator to see what NOI a lender will credit.

If there are flags, write a one-paragraph explanation for each before you send the file: why the concessions exist, what is happening with the delinquent tenant, how you plan to handle the expiration cluster. An explanation offered up front reads better than one pulled out in underwriting.

If occupancy is below what your target program requires, check the eligibility checker before ordering reports. You can share the results, download a PDF, or use "get quotes on these numbers" to send them to desk@janover.co.

Take it offline

Prefer a spreadsheet you can save, send or change? The same math, with formulas you can see.

PDF

Rent roll red flags (PDF)

What underwriters look for in a rent roll and what to fix before you send it.

Download PDF

CSV

Sample rent roll (CSV)

The 12-unit sample the rent roll analyzer uses, in the column layout it reads.

Download CSV

Frequently asked questions

Is my rent roll uploaded anywhere when I use this?

No. The analyzer runs in your web browser on your own computer. The file is read locally and is never sent to Janover or any other server. If you close the page, the data is gone. Nothing leaves your computer unless you choose to use the share, email or quote buttons.

What is the difference between physical and economic occupancy?

Physical occupancy counts units: occupied units divided by total units. Economic occupancy counts dollars: the rent you are actually charging, after vacancy and concessions, divided by the market rent of all units. A building can be 95 percent physically occupied and much lower economically if many leases are below market or carry free rent. Lenders size loans on income, so economic occupancy matters more.

What is loss-to-lease on an apartment rent roll?

Loss-to-lease is the gap between market rent and the contract rent tenants are actually paying on occupied units. It usually comes from older leases signed before rents rose. Buyers see it as upside they can capture at renewal. Lenders see it as rent you do not have yet, and they underwrite on contract rent, not on what the units could earn.

Why do lenders care about month-to-month tenants?

A month-to-month tenant can leave on short notice, so that income is less certain than income from a tenant with months left on a lease. A few month-to-month units are normal in most buildings. A large share tells a lender that occupancy and income could drop quickly, and some lenders treat those units more conservatively when underwriting.

How recent does my rent roll need to be for a lender?

Lenders generally want a rent roll dated close to the application, often within the last 30 days, and they may ask for an updated one before closing. Export a fresh one from your property management software rather than editing an old spreadsheet, so the dates, balances and statuses match what the lender will see in your bank deposits.