Blog
Loan-to-Cost (LTC) vs. Loan-to-Value (LTV): When Each Ratio Matters in Private Lending
Every real estate loan has a number that answers one essential question: how exposed is the lender if this project fails? For standing properties with an established market value, that’s the loan-to-value ratio. For construction and development projects, where the property being built doesn’t have a reliable current value yet, a second metric enters the […]
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What Is a Deed of Trust? The Legal Foundation of Every California Private Loan
Every private real estate loan in California is secured by a recorded document that gives the lender the right to foreclose if the borrower stops paying. That document isn’t a mortgage — it’s a deed of trust. The distinction is more than semantics: the deed of trust structure determines how quickly and how cheaply a […]
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Property Type Risk in Private Lending
A private real estate loan is only as good as its collateral, and “collateral” is doing a lot of work in that sentence. A first-lien loan at 65% LTV sounds conservative on its face — but 65% LTV on a stabilized multifamily building in Los Angeles is a fundamentally different risk than 65% LTV on […]
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Recession vs. Rate Spike: How Private Real Estate Debt Performs in Each Scenario
Not all market stress hits a lending portfolio the same way. A recession — falling employment, falling demand, falling property values — creates different problems for a private lender than a sudden spike in interest rates, which can compress property values through cap rate expansion even while the underlying income holds steady. Both matter to […]
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What Is a CMBS Loan – and How Does It Compare to Private Bridge Financing?
Commercial real estate owners generally have two paths to permanent financing: agency loans (Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, HUD) for qualifying multifamily properties, and CMBS loans for most other commercial property types. Both work well for stabilized, income-producing assets. Neither works for a property that isn’t there yet — mid-renovation, mid-lease-up, or otherwise not ready to […]
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