My drywall guy explained the capital stack to me in a parking lot

I subbed drywall on a gut of a small mixed use building last spring, four retail bays and eight units above. The GC's drywall lead had been in the trade thirty years and knew everybody. We're standing in the parking lot at seven in the morning and he points at the building and says, you know there are three sets of money in this thing, right?

I said no. He counts them off on his fingers. Bank. Then a group that came in because the bank stopped at a number the owner didn't like. Then the owner and his brother in law. He said the middle group's guy comes by every six weeks, walks it in about eleven minutes, and asks the super two questions.

I asked how he knew all that and he said the super tells him everything because they're both in early. Which is the real lesson of every story I have. The guy who opens the building at six knows more than anyone in the meeting.

Anyway I've since learned that middle group is the mezzanine piece and it's usually secured by the ownership in the entity rather than the building itself. At the time I just thought of him as the eleven minute guy.