Ran the numbers across a dozen private lender portfolios recently and found the same issue every time: nobody tracks effective yield after fees, extensions, and partial payoffs — they track the note rate.

A 12% note that gets extended twice with a 1% fee each time and has a partial paydown in month 4 isn't actually yielding 12%. Depending on how it plays out, it can be materially higher or lower than what's on the note. If you're only looking at the stated rate, you're flying blind on which deals are actually your best performers.

The fix isn't complicated — it's just tedious to do by hand for every active loan, which is why most lenders don't do it. Worth building a habit of recalculating effective yield every time terms change, not just at origination. It changes how you evaluate whether to renew, extend, or push for payoff on your next deal.

(Built NotePilot after doing this in spreadsheets for too long — happy to share the amortization template if anyone wants it.)