We advise a full range of private and publicly owned providers of commercial real estate debt – including mortgage banks; investment advisors; life insurance companies; and community, regional, and money center banks.

Moss & Barnett advises financial institutions throughout the United States on commercial real estate lending investments. We negotiate and structure deals, prepare loan documents, examine title and survey and other real estate due diligence, and close loan transactions.

Portfolio Loans and Secondary Markets

Many of our clients retain loans in their investment portfolios. Others sell loans on the secondary mortgage market to agency investors, some of which are assigned to real estate mortgage investment conduit (REMIC) or other securitization trusts. We have the relationships, knowledge, and experience with secondary market investors and programs that are necessary to sell, securitize, and service such loans.

Multifamily Housing

We represent lenders nationwide on every type of multifamily housing project, including market rate housing, targeted affordable housing, senior housing, student housing, and manufactured housing. These projects are financed with portfolio loans, securitized loans, credit facilities, tax-exempt bonds, and other affordable housing assistance programs.

We advise on a full range of nonstandard transaction structures, including tenancies-in-common, forward and reverse 1031 exchanges, ground leases, land trusts, preferred equity, cross-collateralization, partial and fractured condominiums, phased projects, investment funds, and joint ventures.

  • Affordable housing. We close transactions with Section 8 Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) contracts, tax abatements, tax exempt bond credit enhancements, tax exempt bond securitizations (TEBS), low-income housing tax credits (LIHTC), and regulatory and land use restriction agreements.
  • Senior housing. We advise on deals including independent living properties, assisted living properties, and properties with skilled nursing and memory care facilities.

Commercial Real Estate

We represent lenders on a national basis on all types of commercial real estate. Project types include office, industrial, hospitality, retail, medical office buildings, medical facilities, golf courses, marinas, and commercial condominiums. These transactions involve multiple property portfolio loans, multiple jurisdiction loans, and leasehold financing.

Loan Servicing

Our lawyers represent portfolio loan servicers as well as sub-servicers of securitized loans. We advise on a full range of servicing events, including loan assumptions, transfers of ownership, easements, leases, condemnations, partial releases, and loan modifications. We have sophisticated knowledge of loan servicing regimes as well as deep experience identifying REMIC compliance issues, which enables us to advise on the servicing of securitized loans.

Successor Borrower

Defeasance is a process by which a borrower can be released from current loan obligations to sell or refinance a property. The mortgaged property is released as collateral for the loan in exchange for a portfolio of government or agency securities. The loan remains outstanding, but with a “successor borrower.” Our lawyers serve as counsel on successor borrower transactions, providing the legal opinions required for securitization.

Workouts and Foreclosures

When loans do not perform, we represent the lender or servicer on forbearance and other workout arrangements. In certain jurisdictions, we represent lenders on mortgage foreclosure matters.

Experience

Experience

  • $878 million multifamily project in California. Represented a Freddie Mac seller/servicer on the closing of an $878 million loan secured by a single multifamily project in California, the largest single-property loan ever purchased by Freddie Mac.
  • 7,500+ loan and servicing transactions for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Represented Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae lenders in over 7,500 loan and servicing transactions in nearly every state in the country and in every product line. We handle high-volume as well as complex individual transactions and multistate loan pool transactions.
  • Counsel to primary and master servicers of K-Deal securitizations. Selected by the master servicers of Freddie Mac K-Deal securitizations to represent sub-servicers in Freddie Mac K-Deal borrower consent transactions.
  • SBL loans – single counsel to Freddie Mac and SBL lenders. Selected by Freddie Mac to serve as single counsel to Freddie Mac and certain SBL lenders on SBL loan transactions.
  • National counsel to life insurance company lenders. Serving as national counsel to life insurance company lenders on complex, multiproperty, multistate, and portfolio loan transactions as well as single property loans.
  • Counsel to financial institutions. Represented a financial institution in a loan syndication of four credit facilities in excess of $53 million and consisting of a revolving line of credit to fund operating needs, two term-loans to fund the acquisition of equipment, and a real estate loan on the manufacturing facility.

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Learn More About Our Real Estate Finance Practice

We advise a full range of private and publicly owned providers of commercial real estate debt, including mortgage banks, investment advisors, and life insurance companies, as well as community, regional, and money center banks. Many of our clients have established relationships with institutional providers of capital, such as Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, where knowledge and experience with the lending programs of those providers is essential for legal representation. Our lawyers also serve as single counsel to a number of mortgage banks and to Freddie Mac as part of Freddie Mac’s Small Balance Loan (SBL) program.

Freddie Mac Seller/Servicers

Moss & Barnett is one of the leading law firms nationally representing Freddie Mac seller/servicers. These lenders originate multifamily housing loans that are sold to Freddie Mac and then typically assigned to a REMIC or other securitization trust. These lenders retain servicing rights as sub-servicer in the case of a securitized loan.

Our lawyers have close relationships with Freddie Mac legal, production, underwriting, servicing, and management professionals. Moss & Barnett lawyer Tim Gustin serves on the Freddie Mac Multifamily Legal Advisory Council, working with Freddie Mac’s legal division to update and improve legal documentation and loan requirements to address legal and industry developments.

We also have the deep knowledge required to advise seller/servicer clients, including an understanding of:

  • Freddie Mac loan products, guidelines, and documentation, which regularly evolve with changes in the marketplace and the law
  • Commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) rating agency criteria to effectively structure transactions for securitization
  • Structuring bankruptcy-remote single purpose entities (SPEs) and substantive non-consolidation opinions

This combined Freddie Mac and CMBS experience is key in representing seller/servicer clients on loan origination as well as on servicing matters, enabling us to meet the “servicing standard” set forth in pooling and servicing agreements.

Fannie Mae DUS Lenders

On transactions throughout the country, we serve as counsel on loans originated under Fannie Mae’s Delegated Underwriting and Servicing (DUS®) loan product. Representation begins with origination of the loan in accordance with Fannie Mae’s guidelines, program requirements, and documentation, and continues through sale and servicing of the loan. A number of our lawyers are part of Fannie Mae’s Legal Issues Forum, contributing to thought and dialogue around programmatic and legal changes affecting the industry.

Life Insurance Companies

Our lawyers serve as national counsel to investment advisors and life insurance companies in their commercial real estate lending investments. Many of our mortgage banking clients are correspondents to the life insurance company lenders that originate these loans. Loans may be secured by a single property, or may be a multiple-property portfolio loan in multiple jurisdictions.

Banks (Community, Regional, and Money Center)

We provide counsel to banks on a variety of multifamily housing and commercial real estate matters. Loan types include construction financing, mini-perm and permanent financing, and tax-exempt bond financing. Our representation also includes workouts, foreclosures, and other creditor rights.

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