Vent: I was structuring balloon payments completely backwards for years

Took on a commercial property deal in Cleveland last month and the underwriter pointed out my amortization schedule was actually making the balloon hit harder instead of smoother. Had to redo the whole thing from scratch because I was front-loading interest wrong.

3 comments

3 Comments

lindaowens1mo ago

Three times I restructured a loan back in 2018 before a friend who actually reads contracts pointed out I was basically making the final payment worse. Turns out I had been treating the interest like a credit card instead of understanding how the principal actually moves. Felt like a real dummy staring at that spreadsheet after he showed me the right way.

derek9941mo ago

Man, that's rough, I've been there with numbers not making sense until someone breaks it down.

finley72929d ago

Yeah buddy, that's a tough one! What finally clicked for me was mapping out the total interest paid over the full term first, then working backwards to see how each payment actually shrank the principal.