Freddie Mac's name for its multifamily loan products and for the network of lenders it buys those apartment loans from.
Optigo is a Freddie Mac brand. It covers the company’s multifamily loan products and the lenders that deliver them. Freddie Mac does not take loan requests from apartment owners. Its borrower page says it purchases conventional loans from locally based lenders that are cleared for specific geographic areas, and it keeps separate lender lists for conventional, targeted affordable and seniors housing loans.
In practice you bring your deal to an Optigo lender. That lender sizes the loan against Freddie Mac’s term sheets, sends the request to Freddie Mac for a quote, closes the loan and sells it. Freddie Mac’s small loan term sheet states the point plainly: Freddie Mac sets credit parameters for each transaction at its sole discretion and may decline to quote.
So two parties review your file. The lender you talk to cannot commit Freddie Mac’s money by itself, which differs from Fannie Mae’s delegated model. Because lenders are assigned by area and by product, a lender that handles large conventional loans in one state may not handle a small loan in yours. Ask that first.
How it shows up in the data here
Optigo status is not a field here, and HMDA does not show which loans were sold to Freddie Mac. HMDA does list the multifamily loans each lender made in 2025 and 2024, including mortgage companies that are not banks. Start with multifamily lenders or non-bank lenders in search, then confirm a lender on Freddie Mac's own list.
Go further
- Multifamily lenders: Lenders with multifamily loans on the public record.
- 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.
- 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
- Agency lender: 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Sources
Plain definitions for orientation, not legal, tax or credit advice. A lender's own policy decides what it will do.