Got a deal in front of me with a 6 percent pref, 80/20 split, and a 36-month projected hold, and the projected IRR still comes out to 16.

The 5.1 exit cap is the number I'd be fighting with them on, not the IRR headline. In the submarkets I track around the mid-Atlantic, things that had a 4.8 trailing cap six months ago are now clearing closer to 5.5 and 5.6 when they actually trade, not just sit. So their assumption that reads conservative might already be a quarter or two stale before the ink dries on your subscription docs. If you rerun at 5.5 exit and stretch the hold to 52 months, which is basically the real average I've seen on full-cycle deals lately, that 16 becomes something closer to 10 or 11 before you even touch the rent growth assumption. On your hold extension question, the sponsor almost always comes out ahead there because asset management fees keep running the whole time the clock slips, and if there is a refi inside that extended window they can pull capital out before the promote conversation is even on the table. The pref is real protection but 6 percent against what inflation has been doing to purchasing power over a 48-plus month hold is a thinner floor than it looks on paper.