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Definition

A cash-out refinance replaces an existing loan with a larger one and hands the owner the difference. It is the main alternative to selling: the owner takes money out of the property while keeping it. The new loan is sized by today's income and today's rates, not by what the property is worth on paper.

How to read it
How to read it
  • Borrowed money is not income, which is what makes this attractive. Confirm the treatment with a CPA before planning around it.
  • It is sized by the coverage and debt-yield tests, so a building with flat income supports a flat loan no matter what values did.
  • It resets the clock: a new maturity, new costs, and usually a new prepayment structure.
  • Compare it honestly against selling, including the tax the sale would trigger and the deal the owner would have to find next.
An example
An example

The same building five years in: unchanged income, the same coverage test, and $947,300 still owed.

Value at a 6.0% cap$1,599,500
Loan supported at 1.25 coverage$1,012,000
Payoff of the existing loan−$947,300
Costs, 2% of the new loan−$20,240
Cash to the owner$44,460

Five years of payments turned into $44,460, because the loan is sized by income and the income did not move. Cash out comes from NOI growth, not from time passing.

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