Real Estate Lending Seminar, Session 1Federal Reserve System Courses

Type of Participant Targeted

Real Estate Lending (REL) is a seminar designed for participants whose typical job assignments involve the credit-quality evaluation of loan portfolios. The typical participant will have some exposure to real estate credits, along with three to five years of regulatory experience.

Prerequisites

Participants must have completed the Credit Risk Analysis School and preferably be commissioned safety and soundness examiners or have equivalent experience with other regulatory agencies or banking departments. There is a pre-course reading assignment that requires approximately three hours to complete.

Course Overview

REL is designed to provide a systematic approach to analyzing real estate acquisition, development, and construction lending facilities. This course reviews various types of real estate projects and the unique risks associated with each. Topics likely to be addressed include real estate underwriting standards, developer cash flow analysis, appraisals and appraisal policy guidelines relating to different types of real estate financing, real estate-related accounting issues, problem real estate loan management, classification standards and issues, and local economic conditions affecting real estate lending. REL is an interactive seminar, where participants are encouraged to share relevant experiences and contribute to classroom discussions and case studies.

Course Objectives

Upon completion of this 4 1/2-day seminar, the participant will, at a minimum, be able to

• Evaluate the most important risks inherent in common types of real estate projects
• Determine critical due diligence requirements for various real estate loans, including environmental audits, project feasibility studies, plan and budget reviews, and other relevant documentation
• Differentiate the valuation methods and analyze the key elements of a real estate valuation, as well as determine whether the appraisal reports meet applicable requirements
• Analyze the likely adequacy of real estate loan repayment sources, including those related to the borrower, project, and guarantor
• Assess real estate loan policies to determine if they comply with relevant policy statements and guidelines

Curriculum Overview

Subject	Approximate Class Days	Approximate Homework Hours
Types of commercial real estate	.50
Risks inherent in real estate lending (with case)	2.00
Real estate underwriting standards (with case)	1.00
Due diligence considerations	.50	.50
Analyzing real estate developer cash flows (with case)	6.00
Appraisals: the valuation process	1.00	.50
Elements of an appraisal and valuation methods	1.00
Introduction to appraisal review	3.00	1.00
Appraisal review (with case)	2.00
Appraisal regulations, guidelines, policies, and procedures	2.00
Financing and appraising various real estate projects	3.50
Real estate accounting issues (with case)	1.50
Problem real estate loan management (with case)	3.00
Economic indexes and real estate development	1.50
System supervisory and policy issues related to real estate lending	1.50
TOTALS	30.00	2.00

Class Size

Optimum class size for each session of REL is 25 participants, with a range from a minimum of 20 to a maximum of 30 participants. This number allows the facilitation of four working groups of approximately six participants for each case. The groups are established by mixing examiner experience, level, and geographic emphasis.

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