Capital Stack Builder
Unless you're paying all cash, a real estate deal is funded by a stack of capital sources, each with its own claim on the property and its own level of risk. This builder lays that stack out: enter the total project cost and the amount coming from each source — senior debt, mezzanine or other junior debt, a seller carry, preferred equity, and common equity — and it shows the stack visually, the share each layer represents, your loan-to-value and loan-to-cost, the blended cost of capital, the equity you'll need to bring, and whether your sources cover the deal. Set any source to zero to leave it out.
Purchase price plus rehab, closing, and reserves.
Defaults to project cost if left blank.
Enter each source's amount and its annual cost — interest rate for debt, target return for equity. Costs are pre-filled; adjust as needed.
Set any source to 0 to leave it out of the stack.
About This Capital Stack Builder
The capital stack is the layered set of financing sources that fund a real estate purchase or project, ordered by who gets paid first and who bears the most risk. At the bottom sits senior debt — the first-position mortgage, lowest cost and lowest risk because it's repaid before anything else and is secured by the property. Above it come junior layers: mezzanine or other subordinate debt, then a seller carry (a note the seller holds, usually in second position behind the senior loan), then preferred equity, each accepting more risk for a higher return because it's paid only after the layers below. At the very top is common equity — the sponsor's and investors' money, paid last, but entitled to all the upside once everyone below is satisfied. The order is the whole point: in good times the upper layers earn the most, and in bad times they're the first to be wiped out.
This builder turns those amounts into the numbers lenders and partners actually look at. It totals your debt and your equity, shows each tranche as a share of the whole stack, and computes two different leverage measures that are easy to confuse. Loan-to-value (LTV) compares the senior loan to the property's value — it's what a first-position lender cares about. Loan-to-cost (LTC) compares all of your debt to the total project cost — it's how much of the deal is funded by borrowed money rather than equity. A deal can look conservative on LTV while carrying a lot of total leverage once a seller carry and mezzanine are stacked on top, which is exactly the kind of thing this view surfaces. It also blends the cost of every source — each loan's rate and each equity layer's target return — into one weighted cost of capital, so you can judge what the whole stack costs, not just any single piece.
The builder also checks the most basic question a stack has to answer: do your sources add up to your uses? The total of every capital source must equal the total project cost — purchase price plus rehab, closing, and reserves. If they don't, you either have a gap to fill or more capital than the deal needs. The builder flags that balance and tells you the equity you'll have to bring to close. This free version maps the structure, your leverage, and your blended cost of capital; when you're ready to model the returns each layer earns — preferred returns, sponsor promote, and the equity waterfall that splits the profit — that's where Flexi's paid tools pick up. And because a seller carry is a note like any other, you can size its payment and amortization with Flexi's free mortgage calculator on the way.