Free and Simple Templates: Rent Roll and P&L

What Is a Rent Roll?

A rent roll is a document that gathers key information about a rental property's performance. It tracks rental income, price per square foot, occupancy status, and sometimes other profitability data points. A rent roll provides a comprehensive overview of a property's financial details.

Landlords use rent rolls to make decisions related to property management. Investors and lenders also use them to analyze potential investments.

What Are the Benefits of Using a Rent Roll?

A rent roll provides a snapshot of a rental property's current and historic performance. Without it—or something similar—there would be no consistent record of rental payments or tenant changes. Having a rent roll handy is also helpful for decision-making. It conveniently combines various data points into a single document, reducing the number of sources users need to consult.

Investors, property owners, and lenders rely on rent rolls to help them do their jobs more effectively.

Rent Rolls for Property Owners

As a property owner, it's advisable to keep detailed financial records, like rent rolls, about your investment properties. You can use these records to manage your properties better.

For example, by tracking monthly payments for individual rental units, you can see, at a glance, which tenants are behind on payments and take action quickly. You can also use it to track the yearly revenue for a property. Reviewing previous years' rent rolls can give you an idea of overall performance, which helps compare properties, budgeting, and forecasting.

You'll also want to have accurate rent rolls ready should you ever decide to sell a property. You can be sure investors will want to see them!

Rent Rolls for Real Estate Investors

Someone considering purchasing a rental property would be particularly interested in reviewing multiple years of rent rolls. They can reveal several insights relevant to performance that could influence investors' decisions.

For instance, the rent roll shows if all tenants pay rent consistently. If one or more tenants have periods of non-payment or partial payment, it could indicate ongoing financial issues or upcoming vacancies, which would negatively impact future cash flow. Investors can also see rent prices on the rent roll. Discovering below-market rates could present an opportunity to improve profitability.

Rent Rolls for Lenders

Lenders look at rent rolls to determine whether an investment property has been successful. From a brief scan, they can see if rent payments are consistent, turnover is low, and rental prices are appropriate—all of which are indicators of a healthy property. This type of analysis is key in determining whether or not to lend money to a landowner for future investments or for refinancing a property owner's existing loan.

What Goes Into a Rent Roll?

Rent rolls and rent roll templates vary in the type of information they include; different kinds of properties may also have slightly different data points. But in general, a rent roll report should consist of the following:

• Property address
• Current year
• Unit number and unit-specific information such as:
  • Square footage
  • Rent per square foot
  • Lease type
  • Actual amount of rent paid each month
  • Total annual tenant payment
• Total monthly rent payments (all units)
• Total rent collected annually (all units)
• Additional space for notes

You can create your rent roll document using a spreadsheet application like Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets. Software is better than pen and paper because it simplifies tasks like inputting data and doing calculations. If you don't know how to use the program's "auto-calculate" functionality, you'll have to do some homework on how to write formulas. But after you've designed the sheet once, you can continue to use it and edit only as needed.

But there's an even easier way to create a rent roll: Use a rent roll template!

There are many free rent roll templates—like the ones above—available for download that can save you from spending extensive time in spreadsheet programs. You'll receive the formatted documents with calculations included. All you have to do is fill in the relevant information about your property and input monthly rents as they come in. Using a pre-existing rent roll template is the quickest way to start tracking and managing your property's financial information.

Rent Roll vs. Profit & Loss Statement for Property Owners

Another document that’s equally important in understanding property performance is a profit & loss statement (P&L)—also available for download above.

While a rent roll shows the revenue a property generates, a P&L shows the total profit of a rental property for a specific period after taking expenses into account. That bottom-line number is called net operating income, and it’s calculated by subtracting expenses from the property’s gross rental income (earnings before deductions).

A P&L statement typically includes:

• Property address
• Current year
• Total rental income (all units), monthly and annually
• Other income, monthly and annually
• Expenses, monthly and annually, including:
  • Repairs and maintenance
  • Property manager fees
  • Salaries and wages
  • Utilities
  • Insurance
  • Property taxes
  • Advertising and marketing
  • [Other expense categories as needed]
• Net operating income, monthly and annually

Because a profit and loss statement includes expenses—and a rent roll form does not—it gives property owners another vantage point from which they can try to improve profitability. For instance, a P&L would help you understand how cutting expenses would impact a rental’s net operating income. Net operating income is also important for investors, who use it as part of many key calculations to evaluate investment decisions.

Discover How Ownwell Can Help You Pay Less in Property Taxes

Rent rolls and P&Ls both provide valuable financial information about your rental properties and hold insights that can help you improve profitability. One strategy for maximizing profits is decreasing expenses—and Ownwell can help you do that!

We specialize in helping property owners, both homeowners and real estate investors, lower their property tax bills.

Once you sign up to work with us, your job is done! Our team manages everything from beginning to end—filing the paperwork, talking with county assessors, and attending board appeal hearings on your behalf. We succeed in getting a reduction more than 85% of the time thanks to our property tax consultants, who are skilled at crafting winning arguments based on our proprietary compelling data and years of experience. They’re also familiar with your local housing market, property valuation techniques, and the property tax system there.

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Kick off the process anytime by answering a few short questions. It’s simple, risk-free, and benefits your bottom line.