Owners of multifamily, nursing homes, assisted living
facilities, and hospitals have long preferred traditional bank lenders over
FHA-based financing. The usual reason is
the difficulty and frustration of dealing with FHA versus the relative ease of
dealing with sophisticated lenders. Due
to the changes from the real estate market crash, the wave of bank
consolidations, and the reluctance of the remaining banks to return to lending,
owners should reexamine their traditional views of FHA financing.
Traditional financial institutions no longer securitize senior
multifamily and health care loans, thereby eliminating the availability of
conduit financing for these projects. We
have not yet seen the end of the foreclosure crisis and if banks incur addition
losses, bank financing for these types of projects will be almost impossible to
obtain.
FHA, on the other hand, has improved its process
dramatically. FHA-based financing has
always offered several significant advantages over traditional bank and conduit
lending sources if one was willing to deal with the red tape. Much of that red tape has now been removed or
streamlined and programs to finance hospitals have been added. The most obvious advantage to FHA is
continued credit availability that is unaffected by the subprime fiasco. Additional advantages are lower fixed rates,
nonrecourse loans, and long-term fully-amortizing debt.
FHA loans do not contain the numerous covenants contained in
traditional lending documents and specifically do not contain a debt service
coverage requirement. As markets evolve
and Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement methodologies are revised, a manager’s
ability to maintain a stable and predictable debt service coverage is
continually challenged. FHA-based
financing will prove especially valuable.
Charles Kendall 773-259-7074
kendallrealtyadv@gmail.com
Scott Kendall 847-903-7578
kendallrealty@gmail.com
