Plan the exit before you sign the purchase agreement.

An asset that no longer fits your goals is a decision waiting to be made. Most of the time nobody makes it. The building keeps running, the statements keep arriving, and the decision gets deferred by another quarter because nothing is actually on fire.

That is a choice too. It is just an unpriced one.

There are five options, always

1. 01HoldDefensible when the asset still does what you bought it to do and the capital has nowhere better to be. Say that out loud and it stops being a default.
2. 02ImproveCapital in, income out. Only if the return on that specific spend beats the return on selling and redeploying.
3. 03RefinanceTakes chips off the table without triggering tax or losing the asset. Constrained by rates and by what the asset now appraises at.
4. 04SellClean, taxable, final. The only option that actually tests whether the value you have been reporting yourself is real.
5. 05ReinvestSell and roll, with the structure decided before the clock starts, not after.

The question is never “is this a good asset”. It is “is this the best available home for this capital, today”. Those have different answers.

Why the exit belongs in the acquisition model

A decision made at acquisition shows up years later in the operating budget, and the exit is the clearest case. Financing structure decides whether refinancing is even available. Entity structure decides what selling costs you. The debt maturity decides when you are forced to act, and being forced is how people sell into a bad quarter.

Underwrite the exit at the same time as the entry, and the hold period stops being whatever happened.

What we would actually check

• Debt maturity against your intended hold. If the loan matures first, the loan is choosing your exit.
• What the asset would trade at today, honestly, not at the number in your own model.
• The tax consequence of each of the five options, before one of them becomes urgent.
• Whether the capital has a better home. If you cannot name it, holding is a real answer.
• Who is responsible for revisiting this, and on what date.

We ask every owner the same thing once a year: if you did not already own this, would you buy it today at this price? A no is not an instruction to sell. It is an instruction to look properly.