Sabal Capital Becomes Freddie Mac Optigo Conventional Mortgage Lender
Sabal is expanding its middle market multifamily business, focusing on loans $10 million to $25 million.
Freddie Mac has approved Sabal Capital as an Optigo conventional mortgage lender. The new designation will allow Sabal to expand into the middle multifamily market with an agency product for loans from $10 million to $25 million, where they see plenty of demand.
“A lot of people shy away from the $10 and $20 million deals because they are process intensive. We have a very strong relationship with Freddie already in the SBL program, which goes up to $7.5 million,” Pat Jackson, founder and CEO of Sabal Capital Partners, tells GlobeSt.com. “The idea here is to fill the need for an agency product that fits larger than $7.5 million, and I see billions of dollars in opportunities. This is demand that we are already seeing from our clients. As a result, this is a natural fit for what our clients already need.”
Sabal Capital obtained the designation in July, and the firm has since developed the infrastructure to build the platform. “We didn’t announce it until now because we wanted to make sure that we had everything in place to be fully operational. It is one thing to have the approval and another to be really set up for it,” says Jackson. “We put in all of the infrastructure and processes that will uniquely require us to be super successful for our customers around this program. That means that we have dedicated, fully trained underwriters in place. We have the full capabilities to respond to customer needs. “
Freddie Mac does not routinely issue these licenses, and this is the first in 14 years. Sabal already has a strong relationship with Freddie Mac as an approved small balance loan lender. “This is the first license that has been issued in 14 years, so it is not something that is a regular occurrence,” says Jackson. “We think that we earned this because of the success that we have had with Fannie and Freddie already through our SBL program. We are continuing to expand into the middle-tier markets, and we think that is a really underserved space.”
While Sabal isn’t announcing its specific goals for this new program, it is looking to meet the market demand. “We want to hit a sweet spot of the sub-$25 million, which we’ll call middle market,” says Jackson. “That is where we want to be really meaningful.”