The big interview: How brokers are finding South Florida condo deals others are missing
Foundation Mortgage has built a condo team for that very reason, bringing on a specialist who previously ran condo operations at Sprout and has involvement in Fannie Mae advisory processes.
Marc Halpern (pictured top), CEO of Foundation Mortgage in South Florida, said understanding those engineering reports gives educated brokers and lenders an advantage.
“We’re going to go ahead and get an engineering report,” Halpern told Mortgage Professional America. “So they’re going to basically tell you that the building’s falling down because there’s one little piece of exposed rebar. So what we’re able to do is really drill into exactly what’s going on in the building and make the right lending decision.”
Finding the right opportunities
The approach requires underwriters willing to look past the headline findings of an engineering report and understand what they actually apply to, Halpern said.
“For instance, if a building has balcony issues, and our unit is not specified in that report, we’re going to lend on that unit,” he said. “We know condos, and we’re going to roll up our sleeves. We have the relationships with the takeouts to be able to have that conversation with them. If we feel, ‘It’s a 50/50. What do you guys feel about this?’ We’re able to reach out to them because we don’t want to get stuck with a loan that’s not sellable.”
