A listing brochure tells you what the seller wants the building to be. The rent roll tells you what it actually is. Before you write an offer on any income-producing property, the rent roll deserves more scrutiny than any other document in the package — because every number downstream, from NOI to your loan sizing, is built on it.
Verify, Don’t Accept
Cross-check every line of the rent roll against actual leases. Confirm start dates, expiration dates, escalation clauses, and — critically — any concessions. A tenant paying $2,400 a month after two free months is not a $2,400 tenant; they’re a $2,000 tenant wearing a costume.
The most expensive number on a rent roll is the one nobody verified.
Three Red Flags
First: a cluster of leases signed in the last six months at rents well above the older leases. That often means the seller pushed rents aggressively to dress up the sale — and those tenants may not renew. Second: month-to-month tenants listed at full market rent. Convenient for the pro forma, fragile in reality. Third: related-party tenants — a unit leased to the seller’s property management company is income that leaves with the seller.
None of these kill a deal by themselves. But each one changes what the building is worth, and your offer should reflect the building you’re actually buying — not the one in the brochure. This verification work is the core of our deal underwriting review.
Talking through a deal like this?
A consultation costs nothing and gives you a straight read on your options.