Mid-Rise
Financing.
Ground-Floor
Expertise.
8–20 story condominiums. Non-warrantable buildings. The loans other lenders decline.
Case Study 01
Non-warrantable · 15 floors · Chicago, IL
34
days to close
Two banks said no.
We closed in 34 days.
Marcus Webb had a contract on a 15th-floor unit at The Meridian in Chicago's River North. Wells Fargo declined at underwriting. Chase declined the same week. The reason: 62% investor concentration exceeded conventional warrantability thresholds. His closing date was in 38 days.
The obstacle
Fannie Mae requires ≤50% investor ownership for conventional approval. The Meridian sat at 62%. No exception available through standard channels.
How it closed
Wells Fargo, Chase both declined — investor concentration >50%
Portfolio lender identified with appetite for this building type
Comparable sales sourced from same mixed-use corridor
12% delinquency rule satisfied via manual review
$847,500 purchase, 15-story building, 62% investor-owned
Investor portfolio.
Mixed-use building.
Structured to close.
Priya Anand, a real estate attorney in Manhattan, was acquiring her fourth investment unit — this time in The Foundry, a 12-story mixed-use tower in Long Island City. Her existing portfolio made conventional financing impossible. The building's commercial ground floor made it worse.
The financing structure, broken down
Existing Portfolio Review
3 units already held in LLC. Debt-to-income recalculated using rental income offsets.
Mixed-Use Classification
Building is 60% residential / 40% retail. Non-conforming by GSE standards — routed to DSCR lender.
DSCR Qualification
Projected rent: $4,800/mo. DSCR = 1.28. Lender threshold: 1.20. Clean approval.
Title & LLC Structure
Vesting in single-member LLC. Lender required personal guarantee — negotiated limited recourse.
Closing
$1.15M purchase. 25% down. Rate: 7.375% fixed 30yr. Closed in 28 days.
30-year fixed
DSCR loan · LLC vesting · 28 days to close
Case Study 02
4th investor unit · DSCR
Long Island City, NY
40
Pre-approvals issued
18
Days avg. turnaround
$62M
Pipeline unlocked
Case Study 03
Developer pipeline · Austin, TX
40 pre-approvals.
One pipeline.
Construction funded.
Cortland Development Group broke ground on Solis East — a 108-unit mid-rise in Austin's East 6th corridor — with one problem: their construction lender required 35% pre-sold before releasing the final $18M draw. They had 12 signed contracts and 60 days.
Embedded pre-approval desk
We stationed a loan officer inside the sales center. Buyers got same-day pre-approval letters with building-specific underwriting already completed.
Warrantability pre-cleared
We reviewed the HOA docs, budget, and investor concentration before the first buyer walked in — eliminating the #1 reason condo deals fall apart at contract.
Developer reporting dashboard
Weekly pipeline reports showing pre-approval status, loan type, and projected close dates gave the construction lender the certainty they needed.
Result
40 pre-approvals issued in 14 days. Construction draw released on day 18. Sellout completed 11 weeks ahead of schedule.
We'd worked with three mortgage brokers before Escrow. None of them understood that a condo pre-approval isn't a pre-approval until the building itself is cleared. Escrow knew that on day one. The pipeline they built for Solis East wasn't just helpful — it was the reason the project got funded.
Derek Mosher
Managing Partner, Cortland Development Group · Austin, TX
Does your
building qualify?
The question keeping buyers up at night isn't "can I afford it?" — it's "will the building pass underwriting?" Paste an address and we'll tell you what we know before you waste a week on a contract.
Warrantability
Investor concentration check
HOA Health
Reserve & delinquency review
Mixed-Use
Commercial ratio analysis
Litigation
Active lawsuit screening
Check Building Eligibility
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