Rent roll, T-12 and pro forma: what each one tells you
| Document | What it is | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Rent roll | Every unit today: tenant, lease dates, rent, deposit, balance owed | Vacant and month-to-month units, concessions, delinquency, rents far above or below the rest |
| T-12 | Actual income and expenses for the last 12 months | Collected rent vs the rent roll, missing lines (management, reserves), one-time items |
| Pro forma | The seller's projection after rent bumps or a renovation | Which rents it assumes, what work it needs, what it costs and how long it takes |
Of the 145 Georgia listings that had enough data to screen in this snapshot, 111 carried a unit-level rent roll in the MLS, 31 carried only MLS gross income, and 3 gave a building total. Even with a rent roll in the listing, ask for the current one and the T-12 before you set a price.
Worked example: seller pro forma vs rebuilt
A 12-unit building. The seller pro forma uses market rent, 3% vacancy and the median seller expense ratio for Georgia 5+ unit listings. The rebuilt case uses in-place rent from the rent roll, vacancy from T-12 collections and a line-by-line expense rebuild. Both are valued at the 5.27% median asking cap rate for Georgia 5+ unit listings n=16.
| Seller pro forma | Rebuilt | |
|---|---|---|
| Rent per unit, monthly | $1,250 | $1,100 |
| Gross potential rent | $180,000 | $158,400 |
| Vacancy and bad debt | 3% | 7% |
| Effective gross income | $174,600 | $147,312 |
| Expense ratio | 31.3% | 45.0% |
| Operating expenses | $54,650 | $66,290 |
| NOI | $119,950 | $81,022 |
| Value at 5.27% cap | $2,276,095 | $1,537,412 |
| Per door | $189,675 | $128,118 |
Same building, same cap rate: the pro forma is worth about $738,683 more on paper. That gap is the rent growth and expense discipline the seller wants you to pay for up front. Run both cases in the multifamily deal analyzer and check the in-place case against the DSCR a lender will want.
How to read a rent roll
- Lease dates. Many leases starting in the last 60 days can mean rents were pushed right before the sale. Ask how many renewed.
- Month-to-month units. Easy to raise, easy to lose. Count them as rollover risk.
- Concessions and balances. Free rent, reduced rent for a manager or relative, and past-due balances all cut collections.
- Outliers. One unit far above the rest is either renovated or a typo. Ask which.
- Voucher units. Housing Choice Voucher rents follow the HUD payment standard for the ZIP. Check them on the SAFMR lookup and the Voucher Spread.
How to read a T-12
- Collected vs scheduled rent. The difference is real vacancy and bad debt. Use it, not the seller's 3% to 5%.
- Property tax. Georgia often reassesses after a sale. Budget the new bill, not the seller's. See NOI for apartment buildings.
- Management. A self-managing owner shows zero. Add a market fee anyway.
- Repairs and reserves. Low repairs on an old building usually means deferred work, not a well-run asset. Add a reserve per unit.
- Owner-paid utilities. Master-metered water and trash are common on older Georgia buildings and can be a big line.
How to rebuild a pro forma, step by step
- Start from the rent roll. Add up in-place rent unit by unit. Flag vacant units, month-to-month leases, concessions and tenants behind on rent.
- Test collections on the T-12. Compare scheduled rent to collected rent on the T-12 and to bank deposits. The gap is your real vacancy and bad debt.
- Rebuild each expense line. Taxes at the post-sale assessment, insurance from a current quote, management at a market fee even if the owner self-manages, repairs, utilities, and reserves.
- Compute in-place NOI. Effective gross income minus operating expenses. Leave debt service and capital improvements out.
- Price on in-place NOI. Divide NOI by a market cap rate. Run the pro forma as a separate upside case with the cost and time to get there.
Then price it: Georgia apartment cap rates for the market range, and the cap rate calculator for the building.
Practice on a live rent roll: pull one from apartment buildings for sale in Atlanta or apartment buildings for sale in Georgia using the request form on any listing. Converting a building instead? The same rebuild applies to churches for sale in Georgia priced as future apartments, and to leased commercial properties for sale in Georgia, where the lease abstract replaces the rent roll. A ground-up pro forma on land for sale in Georgia uses market rents from comparable space, such as commercial space for lease in Georgia.
Seller expense ratios by county
Use these as a check on the seller, not as your number. Counties shown only where at least 10 active 2+ unit listings carried usable income and expense data, October 2026.
| County | Median expense ratio | NOI per door | Listings (n) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fulton County | 35.4% | $12,370 | 48 |
| DeKalb County | 36.2% | $11,580 | 19 |
| Gwinnett County | 37.8% | $9,370 | 11 |
| Cobb County | 31.8% | $11,570 | 10 |
Below the 10-listing floor, so no median yet: Clayton (6), Henry (1), Cherokee (4), Bibb (6), Muscogee (2), Clarke (2).
Georgia assessors often move the value toward the sale price after a purchase, so a seller ratio built on the old tax bill usually runs low. Price the result on the Georgia apartment cap rates page and test the loan on the DSCR guide.
How these numbers are built
Source: active FMLS Residential Income listings in Georgia on the jeffcrowecre.com feed, snapshot dated 2026-10-26. Expense ratio is seller-reported operating expenses divided by effective gross income. 145 of 263 active listings had usable income and expense data. A median needs at least 10 listings. Spot-checked before publish: NOI equals effective gross income minus expenses on every included listing (0 mismatches). Atlanta city 2+ unit listings: 35.6% n=50. Aggregates only. Listing data is from the listing brokers via FMLS and is not verified. The worked example is illustrative.