Two investors can buy the same building at the same price and end up with completely different investments, because one borrowed 60% and the other paid cash.
The deal below is frozen. Only the leverage and the weather change. That is the whole lesson.
The deal is fixed: $10.0M purchase, $650K year-one NOI (a 6.5% cap), 3% annual growth, 5-year hold, exit at 6.50%, debt at 6.5% over 30-year amortization. Only the leverage changes.
Equity Required
$4.00M
Levered IRR
13.3%
Equity Multiple
1.79x
Year-1 Cash-on-Cash
4.9%
First-year cash flow over equity invested
Unlevered vs. levered IRR
What this means
Debt does not change the building. It changes who gets paid first and how much is left over. When the deal earns more than the debt costs, leverage stretches the return. Flip to the stress case and slide the LTV up: the same borrowed money that stretched the upside now eats the equity from the bottom. The loan payment never heard the bad news.
Want to see how we apply this?
This is the math behind every deal we underwrite.