Rent roll abstraction software turns tenant rows, rent amounts and lease dates into structured data for review. For acquisitions, useful output also needs the source location, units, document date and unresolved issues. Moraine connects those inputs to office, retail and industrial underwriting; analysts still reconcile leases and operating history and approve the assumptions used in the model.
Rent roll extraction, lease abstraction and underwriting are different jobs
A rent roll summarizes tenancy at a date. A lease and its amendments establish contractual terms. An operating statement records activity over a period. Financial modeling projects future cash flows using source facts and approved assumptions. A product that reads one of these well has not necessarily demonstrated the others.
| Need | What the software should demonstrate | Important boundary |
|---|---|---|
| Extract a rent roll | Structured tenant/suite rows and totals | A populated table does not establish that its values are correct |
| Abstract leases | Relevant provisions and amendments with source references | A rent-roll summary cannot substitute for missing lease language |
| Manage leases after closing | Ongoing obligations, dates and operational workflows | Lease administration is a different job from acquisition modeling |
| Build acquisition cash flows | Approved tenant inputs, recoveries, rollover, expenses and return assumptions | Extraction alone is not a DCF |
For multifamily, choose a tool that demonstrates unit-level and concession treatment for that asset class. Moraine does not support multifamily today; it supports office, retail and industrial.
Fields worth retaining in the extracted record
| Field | Preserve | Review |
|---|---|---|
| Tenant and suite | Source spelling, suite identifier and row/page | Duplicates, continuations and consistent identifiers |
| Area | Quantity and unit | Square feet versus another measure and totals by suite |
| Rent | Amount, unit, frequency and source period | Monthly versus annual; dollars versus dollars per square foot |
| Lease dates | Commencement, expiration and stated options | Conflicts with amendments and rent-roll as-of date |
| Contract terms | Steps, free rent and reimbursement terms when documented | Missing or conditional language stays visible |
| Review evidence | Source document/location and the outstanding question | The reference actually supports the value shown |
Keep source values distinguishable from corrected inputs and future assumptions. A blank should not silently become zero, and an expired date does not by itself establish whether a tenant has renewed or holds over.
Reconcile the rent roll to the T-12 without forcing equality
Annualizing today’s rent roll creates a current run rate. It does not recreate the last twelve months of earned or collected income. Move-ins, move-outs, rent steps, free rent, vacancy and accounting treatment can explain legitimate differences.
For an illustrative property, a $600,000 annualized rent roll and $540,000 T-12 rental-income line leave a $60,000 difference to explain. Investigate periods and treatment first. Do not automatically call it an extraction error or change a value solely to make the two totals match.
When extracting the T-12, confirm the reporting period, all expected months, account signs and units. Check whether concessions or credit losses are already netted from income before subtracting them again. Distinguish a historical operating item from a buyer’s future allowance.
Commercial leases need more than a rent field
For office, verify expense stops or base years and the assumptions behind gross-up and rollover. For retail, inspect CAM pools, exclusions, caps, percentage-rent provisions and relevant anchor conditions. For industrial, distinguish tenant NNN obligations from owner costs and contractual rent steps.
A label such as “NNN” is not a complete recovery calculation. Test the specific lease provisions and how they affect cash flows. Missing documents and conflicting amendments should create review work rather than an invented standard clause.
A practical extraction pilot
Use a small set of already reviewed files that includes a difficult scan, a multi-page roll and a lease amendment. Check a sample of populated fields as well as flagged exceptions; an unflagged error can matter more than a visible missing field.
Record tenant counts, area/rent reconciliation, material corrections, source-reference quality and total analyst review time. Then change an approved input and inspect its effect on the model and exported workbook. Keep source document versions with the test so results can be reproduced.
How Moraine fits
Moraine builds an editable property DCF from broker documents and connects underwriting with diligence evidence. Individual is $300/month; Team starts at $1,500/month for five users. Full diligence is separately $3,000/property. Native Yardi/MRI connectors, live multi-user editing and finished PDF exports are not currently offered.
Use Moraine at a glance for current scope and pricing for complete terms. See the OM-to-DCF guide, broker pro-forma review and retail recovery workflow.