@Jaren Taylor, not sure if this is why you talk about raising all cash, but given most deals are trading in the 5% cap rate range, and agency debt is 6.5% while balance sheet debt is closer to 7%, I whole heartedly agree that all cash is the ideal capital structure for many properties today, if your goal is to maximize overall returns for your investors. (Granted, I am not factoring in various fees that may be saved by financing at acquisition). And while I agree that debt is often the cheapest form of capital, if you are looking at a project that involves some form of value-add business plan, you can always refi either when rates come down or you have increased the yield on the asset to exceed your interest rate.
But like Stuart noted, for many groups, even the most seasoned syndicators, raising call cash for their deals is effectively impossible.
So, what is my most preferred to least preferred, it all comes down to cost of capital. I am looking at this from the LP perspective, because to the GP, equity is the MOST expensive form of capital. That being said, your typical cost of capital is as follows:
Equity
Agency debt
Balance Sheet local lender
Debt Fund
Private Debt
Pref Equity
Hard Money Debt
Bookie/Loan Shark
Other things that will impact capital sources: are you wanting to finance the improvements, or will you pay for those from equity/cash flow? Recourse or non-recourse? Floating rate or fixed? If floating, buy the rate cap or now? 3+1+1, 5 yr, 7 yr, 10 yr, etc term? IO or amortizing?
Again, I would say there is no one size fits all, as each have their own risks, i.e. floating rate has interest rate exposure (a rate cap is just a prepayment of that exposure and is temporary), but fixed rate has prepayment penalties. Non-recourse has less personal exposure, but you need a very strong balance sheet to secure this without bringing in a KP.