What Lenders Want to See in a Truck Yard Rent Roll

Every truck parking loan request comes with a rent roll, and every rent roll we receive gets the same treatment: we set it next to twelve months of bank statements and see whether the two agree. The rent roll tells us what the operator believes the yard earns. The statements tell us what actually landed. The loan is sized on the second number. Here is what we are looking at, and how to make your file easy to say yes to.

What a Good Truck Yard Rent Roll Contains

• One line per space or per tenant, with the space number, the tenant's business name, the monthly rate, the start date, and the term: month to month, six months, twelve months.
• What is being parked. Tractor only, tractor and trailer, trailer drop, container, equipment. Rates differ and so does the tenant's stickiness.
• Payment method. Card, ACH, platform, check, or cash. This is the column most operators leave off and the one we care about most.
• Current status. Paid through what date, any balance owed, any tenant in default.
• Vacant spaces listed as vacant, not omitted. A rent roll that shows 60 spaces on a lot striped for 80 tells us occupancy honestly. One that shows 60 spaces and nothing else tells us to go count.

How We Reconcile It

We total the monthly rent on the roll and compare it to the average monthly deposits over the past twelve months. If the roll says $15,000 and the deposits average $14,200, the yard is real and the gap is normal collections drag. If the roll says $15,000 and the deposits average $8,000, one of three things is true: a lot of tenants pay cash that never gets deposited, the roll is aspirational, or the yard filled up recently. Each of those has a different answer, and none of them supports a loan sized on $15,000.

We also look at the deposit pattern. Rent from forty small tenants arrives as forty small deposits spread across the month. One lump deposit on the first tells us there is a single tenant, which is a different risk and, for the higher leverage tier, needs a written lease with at least twelve months left on it.

Cash Is the Problem

Truck parking has always been a cash heavy business. Owner operators pay at the gate, the operator puts it in a drawer, and the deposits show a fraction of the real income. We understand that. We still cannot lend on it. Income that cannot be verified prices as if it does not exist. The fix is simple and takes a year: put every tenant on card, ACH, or a booking platform, run everything through one account, and stop taking cash. Twelve months later the same yard qualifies for meaningfully more money.

Mistakes That Cost Leverage

• Sending a rent roll with no deposits. It gets you a conversation, not a number.
• Mixing the yard's income with another business in the same account, so the parking rent cannot be separated.
• Listing month to month tenants as twelve month leases. We read the leases.
• Counting prospective tenants, or spaces that will rent once the lights go in.
• Presenting a seller's rent roll on a purchase without the seller's deposits to back it. Ask for them before you sign the contract, not after.

What Happens With a Clean File

A rent roll that matches the deposits, a zoning letter, and a purchase settlement statement is a complete underwriting package for our outdoor storage program. It gets a written number within a day and closes in 7 to 14 days. See how we set the value on a truck yard for the rest of the method.