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CREbuilder

Task guide

Build a commercial rent roll

Build a tenant-by-tenant rent roll for retail, office, or industrial, and CREBuilder annualizes rent and recoveries from whatever basis your lease uses.

15 to 45 minutesFor brokers building Retail, Office/Medical, and Industrial documentsIntermediateLast verified October 5, 2026

Video walkthrough

Read the written steps
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Enter the prepared retail rent roll and check its saved totals.
Read the transcript
00:00 | Add and verify an occupied tenant Open Rent Roll. This practice checkpoint already has three tenants, and we will enter the fourth. Add a tenant and enter the suite, name, area, rent, and the rent unit. For Juniper Grocer, use suite one hundred, twenty-two thousand square feet, and rent of eighteen dollars and fifty cents. Choose Per SF / Year. Annual base rent is therefore four hundred seven thousand dollars. Check the unit before trusting the total. Choose the lease type and enter the lease dates from the source lease. Enter the annual reimbursement per square foot and its unit, then review the growth assumptions. Select Add Tenant to save. Once all rows are present, compare their totals with your source rent roll. The four occupied suites total forty-five thousand eight hundred square feet. Add the vacancy separately in the next step so empty space remains visible. 00:52 | Add a vacancy and verify the full property area A vacant suite is not an occupied tenant. On Rent Roll, select Add Vacancy. Enter suite one eighty and two thousand eight hundred square feet. Use the supported market-rent assumption from your source. In this fictional example, projected rent is thirty-two dollars per square foot per year. Check the unit and the projected annual amount. Enter the reimbursement assumption if it applies to the vacancy. Select Add Vacancy to save the row. Confirm that the vacant space appears separately. Together, occupied tenants and vacancy should match the full building area: forty-eight thousand six hundred square feet. The occupied area is forty-five thousand eight hundred square feet, so occupancy is about ninety-four point two percent. If area or occupancy disagrees with your source, correct the rows before using the document.
Before you watch
  • Use the occupied-tenants and vacancy reference sheets with the Unit-by-Unit model.
  • The tenant demonstration already contains the other three tenants; it adds Juniper Grocer. The separate vacancy demonstration starts with all four occupied tenants and no vacancy.
  • When building from an empty OM, enter every source row. Reconcile 45,800 SF occupied plus 2,800 SF vacant to 48,600 SF total.
  • After saving the vacancy row, set Incr % to 3%. In Edit Vacancy, set Expense Reimbursement, Increase per year to 2.5%/yr.
Juniper retail OM practice materials (ZIP)Juniper sample Offering Memorandum (PDF)

Outcome

Your rent roll shows every tenant and vacancy with annual totals that match your source.

Navigation path

Document wizard > Rent Roll

Access

A financial scope that includes Rent Roll

On this page

Before you start

Data, sources, and access to prepare

  • A commercial property type
  • A scope that includes Rent Roll
  • Tenant schedule and vacancy data

Understand a rent-roll row

On phones, keep the table at its readable size and scroll horizontally to compare columns. Select Edit on a row to open its full-width detail sheet. Scroll within the sheet to reach every field, then select Save Changes. The visible Move up and Move down buttons provide ordering without dragging. Units, calculated totals and the selected financial model remain the same at every screen size.

Core commercial fields

Tenant or Space Required

The tenant name or vacancy label shown in the table.

Format
Plain text
Units
Not applicable
Save behavior
Saved when Add Tenant, Add Vacancy or Save Changes succeeds in the detail sheet.
Downstream effect
Identifies the row in the rent-roll table and final Rent Roll page.

Square Feet Recommended

Rentable area used by area-based rent and reimbursement calculations.

Format
Nonnegative whole or decimal number
Units
Square feet
Save behavior
Saved when Add Tenant, Add Vacancy or Save Changes succeeds in the detail sheet.
Downstream effect
Supplies the denominator for occupancy and multiplies SF-based rent and reimbursement amounts.

Rent and Rent Basis Recommended

The amount plus SF/Yr, SF/Mo, Annual, or Monthly.

Format
Currency amount plus one supported basis
Units
Currency per SF per year, per SF per month, per year, or per month
Save behavior
Saved when Add Tenant, Add Vacancy or Save Changes succeeds in the detail sheet.
Downstream effect
Calculates the row monthly and annual base rent and feeds rent-roll totals.

Growth Optional

Annual rate or custom schedule used in Multi-Year Cash Flow.

Format
Annual percentage or year-specific schedule
Units
Percent per year or replacement currency per year
Save behavior
Saved with the tenant drawer after the annual rate or complete custom schedule is committed.
Downstream effect
Changes projected annual base rent in Multi-Year Cash Flow without changing In-Place rent.

Lease Type and Dates Optional

Property-specific lease structure and start/end dates.

Format
Supported lease-type choice plus calendar dates
Units
Not applicable for type; dates for term
Save behavior
Saved when the tenant drawer Save action succeeds.
Downstream effect
Labels the lease structure and term on rent-roll output; it does not create monthly proration.

Reimbursement Optional

Expense recovery plus its amount basis and growth.

Format
Currency amount, supported basis, and optional percentage growth
Units
Currency per selected basis and percent per year
Save behavior
Saved when the tenant drawer Save action succeeds.
Downstream effect
Adds annual tenant reimbursement revenue and its projected growth where reimbursements are enabled.

Required means the field is needed to complete or support this workflow. Some screens allow a draft to save before every required item is complete. The steps and troubleshooting call out controls the product actively blocks.

Enter the rent basis correctly

How CREBuilder annualizes entered rent.
BasisAnnual rent calculation
SF/YrEntered rent x square feet
SF/MoEntered rent x square feet x 12
AnnualEntered rent
MonthlyEntered rent x 12

Vacancy rows are not physical deletion

Use a vacancy row when an empty space must remain in gross potential rent and vacancy-loss analysis. Delete only rows that should not exist in the model.

Add and maintain rows

Commercial rent-roll steps

  1. 1

    Add the first record

    Rent Roll toolbar

    Select Add Tenant or Add Vacancy.

    Expected result: A detail drawer opens for the new row.

    If this step does not work

    If the controls are absent, select a rent-roll type first.

  2. 2

    Complete row economics

    Tenant or vacancy detail drawer

    Complete the row with name, size, rent amount, basis, growth, reimbursement, lease type, and dates as applicable.

    Expected result: Calculated rent values update in the drawer.

    If this step does not work

    If a total is implausible, verify both the numeric amount and the selected basis.

    Open a tenant row to edit its details on a phone.
    Open a tenant row to edit its details on a phone.
  3. 3

    Save the row

    Tenant or vacancy detail drawer footer

    Select Add Tenant or Add Vacancy for a new record, or Save Changes when editing an existing record.

    Expected result: The row appears in the table with saved values.

    If this step does not work

    Keep the drawer open if the save is still processing.

  4. 4

    Inspect the saved totals

    Rent Roll table

    Compare the row’s monthly and annual totals with the source schedule.

    Expected result: The saved totals reconcile with the source.

    If this step does not work

    Reopen Edit and correct the basis or size if the totals do not reconcile.

    Commercial Rent Roll workspace with tenant rows ready for lease data entry.
    Enter and verify each commercial tenant row so suite, area, rent, dates, and recovery terms feed the analysis correctly.
  5. 5

    Open a quick edit

    Rent Roll table

    Select one editable cell.

    Expected result: The inline editor appears for that value.

    If this step does not work

    Reopen the detail drawer for fields not exposed in the table.

  6. 6

    Enter the quick correction

    Rent Roll table > inline editor

    Enter the corrected value.

    Expected result: The new value remains in the active editor.

    If this step does not work

    Press Escape to abandon an incorrect inline change.

  7. 7

    Commit the quick correction

    Rent Roll table > inline editor

    Press Enter or leave the cell.

    Expected result: The cell reports or reflects its saved value.

    If this step does not work

    Reopen the cell if the prior value returns.

  8. 8

    Reorder a row

    Rent Roll table

    Select the row’s Move up or Move down control.

    Expected result: The display order updates and saves.

    If this step does not work

    Drag and keyboard ordering remain available; use the visible buttons when dragging is difficult.

  9. 9

    Add rent-roll notes

    Rent Roll notes

    Enter reader-facing context within the 500-character limit.

    Expected result: The note enters the autosave queue.

    If this step does not work

    Shorten the note if it exceeds the limit.

  10. 10

    Wait for the note save

    Rent Roll notes

    Wait until autosave finishes.

    Expected result: The note remains after leaving and returning.

    If this step does not work

    Keep the page open when a save is still pending.

  11. 11

    Continue

    Bottom of Rent Roll

    Select Continue after the type and at least one saved row are visible.

    Expected result: The wizard advances.

    If this step does not work

    If it does not advance, save at least one tenant or vacancy and retry.

Correct common rent-roll errors

Annual rent is 12 times too high or low

Likely cause: The amount was paired with the wrong Monthly, Annual, SF/Mo, or SF/Yr basis.

  1. Open the row.
  2. Select the basis used by the source schedule.
  3. Compare the recalculated annual amount before saving.
A field is missing from the drawer

Likely cause: The selected model or property type does not use that field.

  1. Check the Rent Roll Type.
  2. Confirm the document property type.
  3. Use the appropriate model rather than forcing data into notes.
Continue does not advance

Likely cause: No model is selected or no tenant or vacancy has been saved.

  1. Select the rent-roll model.
  2. Save at least one row.
  3. Retry Continue.

Ready for Income & Expenses

  • Every modeled space is represented
  • Rent bases match source conventions
  • Vacancies are explicit
  • Annual totals reconcile
  • Lease and reimbursement details are complete where material

Related guides

Choose a rent-roll model and layout

Choose Multi-Year Cash Flow or Pro Forma, and Unit-by-Unit or Unit Mix, so the rent roll matches the data you have and the story you want to tell.

Open guide

Model rent escalations and reimbursements

Model fixed bumps, step-ups, and expense recoveries per tenant so every projected year matches the lease.

Open guide

Enter income and operating expenses

Enter other income and operating expenses from your T-12 or budget, and CREBuilder calculates effective gross income and NOI for every page that shows them.

Open guide

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