A lender authorized to make apartment loans that Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac then buys or backs, under those companies' rules instead of the lender's own.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac do not lend to apartment owners directly. Each works through a set of lenders it has authorized: Fannie Mae calls its program Delegated Underwriting and Servicing, and Freddie Mac calls its lenders the Optigo network. The lender takes your request, underwrites it to the agency’s guide, closes the loan and usually keeps servicing it. The agency buys the loan or backs the security it goes into. FHFA, their regulator, describes the purpose as a steady supply of mortgage money for buyers of apartment buildings as well as homes.
For a borrower the difference from a bank loan is who sets the rules. A bank that keeps a loan can bend its own policy. An agency lender works inside a published guide, so terms are more uniform: longer fixed-rate periods, set prepayment terms, and commonly no personal recourse beyond standard carve-outs.
An agency lender is often a mortgage company, not a bank, so it will not appear in bank call report data. Some banks hold an agency license too.
How it shows up in the data here
No field on this site says a loan was sold to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, and HMDA does not label a lender as an agency lender. What HMDA does show is every multifamily loan each lender made in 2025 and 2024, including lenders that are not banks. See multifamily lenders and the ranking by dollars made, then confirm agency status on the Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac lender lists.
Go further
- Multifamily lenders by dollars made: Lenders ranked by multifamily dollars made, from HMDA.
- Multifamily loan comps: Size, rate and term on recent multifamily loans.
- DSCR calculator: Cash flow over debt service. Type the cash flow and the loan terms, see the ratio and the cushion before it falls to 1.00x.
- Maximum loan calculator: The loan each test allows: DSCR, LTV and debt yield side by side, and which one binds.
- Multifamily loan checklist for 5+ unit properties: A larger apartment loan can go to five kinds of lender. They want much the same package. They differ on recourse, term, prepayment, speed and what they ask of the sponsor.
- Small balance multifamily loan checklist: Most apartment loans are small. Local banks, credit unions and the agencies' small loan programs all compete for them, and each wants the same core package with a different emphasis.
Related terms
- DUS (Delegated Underwriting and Servicing): Fannie Mae's multifamily program, in which authorized lenders underwrite, close and service apartment loans under Fannie Mae's guide and keep a share of any loss.
- Optigo: Freddie Mac's name for its multifamily loan products and for the network of lenders it buys those apartment loans from.
- Freddie Mac Small Balance Loan (SBL): Freddie Mac's fixed-rate program for apartment loans of $10 million or less, delivered through its Optigo lenders. Freddie Mac now titles it Conventional Small.
- Multifamily (5+ units): Residential rental property with five or more units. Banks, credit unions and HMDA all draw the line between four units and five.
- Small-balance multifamily: A loan on an apartment building of five or more units that falls under a size cap. Each program sets its own cap, so the phrase has no single legal meaning.
- Non-recourse loan: A loan the lender can collect only from the property pledged for it, not from the guarantor personally, except for listed bad acts.
- Portfolio lender: A portfolio lender is a lender that keeps the loans it makes on its own books instead of selling them to an investor.
Sources
Plain definitions for orientation, not legal, tax or credit advice. A lender's own policy decides what it will do.