Commercial Loan Experts

For years, multifamily investors could count on a simple rule: borrow cheap, buy at a reasonable cap rate, and let leverage boost returns. That rule has broken down. Across much of the country today, interest rates sit above property cap rates, creating a condition known as negative leverage, and it's forcing investors to rethink deals they once considered routine. What Negative Leverage Actually Means In simple terms, negative leverage happens when the cost of your debt exceeds the return the property generates on its own. If a property's cap rate is 5.5% but your loan carries a 7% interest rate, every dollar you borrow is technically working against you rather than for you. Historically, leverage amplified returns. Now, for many deals, it quietly erodes them. This isn't a hypothetical problem. Multifamily cap rates in many markets currently sit in the 5.4% to 5.7% range, while new debt often originates well above that. The gap between what a property earns and what deb...

 A commercial property owner opens an assessment notice expecting a modest increase and finds the number jumped 18 percent instead. The instinct is to call and complain that it's simply too high. In Virginia, that instinct alone won't get an assessment reduced, the law requires something far more specific. Virginia's Assessment System Is More Decentralized Than Most Owners Realize Unlike states with a single, uniform statewide appeal process, Virginia leaves assessment procedures largely to its 95 counties and 38 independent cities individually. Each locality sets its own filing deadlines, appeal forms, and hearing schedules, which means a process that worked for a property in Fairfax County won't necessarily transfer to a property in Virginia Beach or Loudoun County. According to Fairfax County's Department of Tax Administration , Board of Equalization appeals in that jurisdiction must be filed by June 1 each year, while Loudoun County runs its administrative re...