People always need a place to live. That single fact is why apartment buildings have built more quiet, durable wealth than almost any other asset, and why lenders compete for them. If you’re stepping up from single rentals into multi-family, or refinancing a building you already own, the landscape changes in ways worth knowing early.

Small multi-unit properties finance a lot like homes. Larger buildings live in a different world: they’re judged primarily on their own income, with the rent roll and operating history carrying as much weight as your personal finances. From there comes the central fork in the road, conventional financing versus government-insured programs. Each carries real trade-offs in rate, leverage, amortization, timeline, and cost. Long-term holders often come out ahead on one path; investors repositioning a building may prefer the other’s flexibility. It’s a decision worth modelling with real numbers, not settling by rule of thumb.

Outline Financial will run both routes for your specific building and package your financials the way underwriters actually want to read them, drawing on our network of over 30 institutional and private lenders.