For multi-family buyers

The rent roll is the seller’s story about the building.

In-place rents tell you what the last owner managed to charge. They do not tell you what the units are worth. The distance between those two numbers is the entire deal, and it is not in the package.

Trap one

Long tenancies hide upside.

A unit held six years at a soft rent reads as weak income in the summary and is often the best thing in the building.

Trap two

Recent leases hide risk.

A unit leased last month at the top of the market looks strong, right up until the first renewal tests it.

Trap three

Averages hide both.

A building average tells you nothing about which units to touch first, which is the only question that matters after closing.

Price every unit. Not the building.

Run each unit as its own analysis. Matched on beds, baths and size to leases actually signed nearby, then adjusted for what makes that unit different from the one below it. You get a market rent per unit and the dollar distance from what it rents for today, so the upside stops being an assumption in a model and becomes a list with addresses on it.

Every comparable is printed, which matters when you are the one defending the model to a partner or a lender rather than building it.

The comparables page. Addresses, sizes, rents and recency, with the subject unit on the bottom row.

What you get

A unit-level view of where the income is.

Which units sit under market, which are stretched, and by how much a month, with the comparables behind each one printed in the report.

How it feels

You bid knowing which story you are buying.

The worst outcome in a deal is not overpaying slightly. It is finding out after closing that the income you underwrote was already at its ceiling.