Monday Market Moves | Week of January 26, 2026

Welcome to Monday Market Moves, the weekly series from Essex Capital Markets briefing you on Chicago commercial real estate capital markets. We cover key trends in CRE debt, refinancing, and capital structures to help investors and owners navigate today’s financing environment.

This Week: The Hidden Cost of Waiting

In today’s lending environment, most missed opportunities are not the result of sudden market shifts. They are the result of timing. Capital remains available, but underwriting is disciplined, execution timelines are longer, and lender flexibility is earned early in the process. For many owners and buyers, the real cost is not higher rates. It is waiting too long to engage.

At Essex Capital Markets, we typically recommend reaching out at least 120 days before a targeted close, refinance, or key capital decision. Not because transactions cannot move faster, but because waiting compresses options in ways that are often invisible until they surface later on in the process.

While timelines differ between acquisitions and refinances, the principle is the same. Early engagement preserves optionality and improves execution.

How the 120 Days Are Typically Used

• For acquisitions: aligning financing strategy early, sizing proceeds realistically, identifying lender appetite before offers are submitted, and creating certainty of close once under contract.
• For refinances: reviewing in-place performance, optimizing structure and proceeds, addressing underwriting issues early, and building flexibility around timing and execution.

What Waiting Actually Costs

The hidden cost of waiting shows up in several ways.

• Reduced lender optionality

Engaging late often limits the lender universe. Certain banks, agencies, and private lenders require longer lead times, and waiting can quietly eliminate the most competitive options.

• Less leverage in structure discussions

Interest-only periods, prepayment flexibility, and proceeds are easier to negotiate early. Once timelines tighten, structure becomes far less flexible.

• Weaker execution certainty

Late engagement increases execution risk. Credit committees move on fixed schedules, diligence takes time, and rushed processes introduce avoidable friction.

• Fewer opportunities to course-correct

Early conversations allow time to address DSCR gaps, expense volatility, or capital needs. Waiting turns solvable issues into hard constraints.

• Exposure to market drift

Even in relatively stable rate environments, spreads, lender appetite, and internal allocations change. Waiting removes the ability to choose timing.

The Takeaway

In this market, the biggest risk is not moving too early. It is moving too late. The hidden cost of waiting shows up in lost leverage, constrained options, and unnecessary execution risk. For owners and investors planning an acquisition, refinance, or capital event in 2026, early engagement remains one of the few controllable advantages.

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