Are you ready to graduate?

I’m not talking about school. I’m talking about moving up from residential to commercial real estate investing.

Now some of you didn’t invest in residential real estate in the first place. But many of us have. And most others inherently understand it. We’ve watched the HGTV shows. We know that lady from work or that college friend who flipped that house.

People fly across borders to stare at them. Tourists pay big money to fly over them in helicopters. And a few daring souls have even built tightropes to walk across them.

Waterfalls.

Honestly, I was a bit perplexed the first time I read about one in an investment context. Then I realized almost every commercial real estate and private equity deal out there has what's known as a waterfall structure.

A preferred return is a real estate investment structure that gives investors priority in receiving profits before the sponsor or general partner participates in certain profit distributions. Often expressed as an annual percentage, such as 8%, a preferred return establishes distribution priority but does not guarantee that investors will actually receive that return.

An experienced residential real estate investor called me the other day. He was a bit new to commercial real estate and he had a question:

“I thought I heard you say that a lower cap rate means a higher price. Did I hear you right? What do you mean?”

Depreciation Schedules. IRS codes. Accounting. Paperwork. The very thought of these concepts is enough to put me to sleep at my desk. Well, they used to be.