Walker & Dunlop has been an industry pioneer for nearlyeight decades. And with its recent market moves, the Bethesda,MD-based firm is now one of the largest such organizations in thecommercial real estate finance industry.

When Walker & Dunlop opened its doors in 1937, it was one ofthe first companies to use Federal Housing Administration insuranceto make single-family loans. By the end of World War II, the firmwas pioneering the use of Taft-Hartley funds—a trust fundestablished through collective bargaining between unions andcompanies to offer health and other benefits for employees—formortgage and real estate investment.

Decades later, in 1971, Walker & Dunlop arranged the firstoff-balance sheet financing for the US government at the USGeological headquarters in Reston, VA. And in 1988, the firm wasone of the first in the industry to join Fannie Mane’s DelegatedUnderwriting and Servicing program. By the 1990s, Walker &Dunlop was a major lender to the REIT industry, leveraging crosscollateral and substitution of assets in revolving creditstructures for major REITs like Charles E. Smith Residential,Walden Residential Properties and United Dominion Realty Trust.