Agreement for lease

What does Agreement for lease mean in American Law?

The definition of Agreement for lease in the law of the United States, as defined by the lexicographer Arthur Leff in his legal dictionary is:

A contract to enter into a lease, as contrasted to the lease itself. It is sometimes hard to tell the two apart, which is occasionally a legally important thing to be able to do, e.g., for purposes of a Statute of Frauds under which a lease is a covered “interest in real property” and an “agreement for lease” is not.