How to Check a Condo Is Warrantable for a Conventional Loan

The Quick Read: You can’t look this up yourself, so ask a lender to run the building before you make an offer. “Warrantable” means the whole condo project, not just your unit, meets Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac standards. No public list of approved buildings exists. The lender checks the project, and you collect the HOA documents that feed that check.

What “Warrantable” Actually Means

A condo is warrantable when the building passes the investor’s project review. That lets the lender sell your loan to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. The word is lender slang. The agency guides talk about “project eligibility” instead.

Here’s the part that surprises buyers. Your credit can be spotless and the loan can still fail. Fannie Mae says the project review is separate from your borrower underwriting, the loan terms and the unit appraisal. The building has to pass on its own.

Warrantable is not the same as FHA approval, either. Those are separate programs. Some reviews accept FHA approval under conditions, but one doesn’t settle the other.

The Five-Step Check, in Order

Across the wholesale programs Lendmire places files with, this sequence keeps surprises off the table. Lendmire is a mortgage broker licensed for consumer lending in 16 states, so these are the steps from the broker’s side of the desk.

Step 1: Name the building to a lender before you offer. Give your loan officer the full project name and address. Ask which review path applies: a waiver, a Full Review, FHA-approved status or a Fannie Mae review. If you are shopping among conventional loan programs, ask each one the same question.

Step 2: The lender checks the project status. Fannie Mae’s lender tool, Condo Project Manager, shows whether the project is certified, approved or flagged. Lenders must confirm the project does not carry an “Unavailable” status, whatever review type applies. That status means Fannie Mae found the project ineligible. “Guide Ineligible” means the lender’s own entries failed the guide tests.

Step 3: The lender collects project documents. That means the HOA budget, any reserve study, the master insurance certificate, delinquency data, litigation details and a project questionnaire. Fannie’s form is the Condo Project Questionnaire (Form 1076). Slow HOA management is a common source of delay, so ask for these early.

Step 4: The lender runs the tests. The next section covers them.

Step 5: Appraisal and certification. The unit is appraised on its own. The project certification must be unexpired as of the note date. A building that passed earlier can fail later if its numbers worsen.

What the Lender Is Actually Testing

The decision comes from the project’s finances, insurance, physical condition, litigation and ownership mix. Not from your file. Under Fannie Mae’s Full Review, these are the main tests.

Here are the numbers behind that. The reserve test compares the annual budgeted reserve allocation to annual budgeted assessment income. Fannie Mae’s current standard is at least 10%, or a reserve study that supports the allocations. No more than 15% of units can be 60 or more days past due on HOA fees. Special assessment payments get the same 15% test, and each assessment is calculated on its own. Ten percent delinquent on one and 8% on another is not 18%.

Fannie Mae’s ineligible project rules draw hard lines too:

• Commercial or mixed-use space above 35% of the project or building.
• More than 10% of budgeted HOA income from non-incidental business arrangements.
• Mandatory memberships that force dues to a third party, such as a golf course.
• Timeshare, fractional or segmented ownership.

Freddie Mac’s ineligible list is similar. It includes condo hotels, transient housing, projects needing critical repairs, evacuation orders, and projects terminating or in insolvency. Freddie also flags excessive commercial space, pending litigation and heavy single-investor concentration. Its exact numeric thresholds are not stated here. Your lender can give you the current ones.

Rules Are Moving: What Changed

Fannie Mae’s Lender Letter LL-2026-03 reshaped the review paths. Established projects that once qualified for Limited Review now go through Full Review or, where it applies, a waiver. Limited Review ended for applications dated on or after August 3, 2026.

The waiver now covers new and established projects with ten or fewer units. A five- to ten-unit project can’t sit inside a master association or larger development. Both agencies also dropped the 50% investor concentration limit for established projects and eased some insurance requirements.

A bigger change is coming on reserves. Reports say the 10% reserve minimum rises to 15% of budgeted assessment income for applications dated on or after January 4, 2027. Treat that as a date to confirm, not a fact to bank on. Check the lender letter itself, and ask your loan officer which rule applies to your application date. Higher reserve rules push HOAs toward larger dues or special assessments, so ask to see the budget before you commit.

Documents to Request, and What to Look For

You can request many of these yourself through the listing agent or the management company.

• Annual budget. Look for a real reserve line item, not a token one.
• Reserve study. Look for funding that matches the repair list.
• Meeting minutes. Look for repeated talk of assessments, repairs or lawsuits.
• Master insurance certificate. Look for coverage that is current and complete.
• Delinquency report. Look for owners behind on dues.
• Inspection or engineering reports. For critical repairs, the lender must obtain and review any inspection completed in the past three years. If the lender can’t get required reports, loans in that project are not eligible for sale to Fannie Mae.
• Completed questionnaire. The lender usually sends it to the HOA.

Questions to Ask, and Who Answers Them

Your loan officer: “Will this project need a Full Review, or does a waiver apply? What does the project status show? Which rule applies at my application date?”.

The HOA or manager: “Is there a special assessment planned? Any pending litigation? Are repairs underway or deferred? Is there a reserve study?”.

The listing agent: “Has anyone financed a unit here recently? Does the building run any hotel-style or rental-pool operation?”.

One short email to the manager covers most of it. Ask for the budget, reserve study, minutes and delinquency numbers by name.

Red Flags You Can Spot Before You Offer

Some problems show up before the lender ever looks. Watch for:

• Minutes that mention lawsuits or repeated assessments.
• Active structural repairs, or repairs the HOA can’t fund.
• A building with commercial space on much of its footprint.
• Hotel-style operations, front desks that rent units nightly, or required amenity memberships.
• A new or recently converted project with a developer still in control.

You can’t confirm warrantability from the listing. These clues only tell you where to dig.

Edge Cases Where the General Rule Bends

• Waiver of Project Review. Fannie Mae waives project review for detached condo units and units in PUDs. Basic requirements still apply, including insurance and no unaddressed critical repairs or evacuation orders. Small projects of ten or fewer units can qualify under the newer rule, unless the project is Unavailable.
• Fannie-owned refinances. A Fannie Mae-owned loan refinanced as a limited cash-out refinance, with maximum LTV of 80%, can qualify for a waiver. This is narrow.
• Freddie’s reciprocal review. Freddie will buy loans in projects with Approved by Fannie Mae status, or ones the seller certified through a Full Review. FHA-approved projects are accepted under conditions.
• New projects. Fannie dropped the owner-occupancy requirement only for investor purchases in established projects. A primary-residence buyer in a new project still faces presale owner-occupancy tests.
• Co-ops. They use a different review process, not the condo path.
• Manufactured homes in condo projects. These need Fannie approval or a specific Freddie path.
• Fannie vs. Freddie. A project can be eligible with one and not the other.

Reading the Result

Your lender will tell you one of a few things. The project is certified or approved. It is waived. It is Unavailable. Or it isn’t in the system yet.

Know the limits of each answer. Fannie Mae’s Condo Status Finder is for HOAs and their managers, not buyers. A “no findings” result there does not mean Fannie Mae has approved the project. A project under Conditional Approval can’t be sold to Fannie Mae until it reaches Approved status.

Timing windows matter on long deals. Freddie Mac requires established-project reviews to be current as of the note date, and new-project reviews carry their own, shorter window. The seller must also deliver within a set period after the note date or update the review. Exact timing varies by file and lender.

Protecting Your Deal

Run the check before you offer if the seller allows it. If not, make the offer subject to a financing or project-approval contingency. That’s general guidance, not legal advice. Ask your agent or attorney how the wording should read in your contract.

Also ask when the HOA documents are due. A building that stalls on paperwork can stall your whole file.

If the Condo Fails

A failed project means the loan can’t be sold to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. Your options narrow to this:

1. Wait or negotiate. Some problems are fixable, such as delinquencies or missing reserve funding. Others are structural, like a condo-hotel setup or heavy commercial space.

2. Look at a different loan type. That means a non-conventional product, which has its own terms and is a different loan than this article covers. Lendmire’s piece Can You Get a Conventional Loan on a Non-Warrantable Condo? walks through that path.

3. Pick a different building. Often the cleanest answer.

Three Quick Scenarios

Passes. A mid-size owner-occupied building has a funded reserve line and few late dues. The lender confirms status, collects documents and the project clears. The borrower’s own file then drives the loan. For a principal residence, that means up to 95% leverage, or 97% for a first-time buyer on a fixed rate, with mortgage insurance above 80% LTV. All of it is subject to lender guidelines and full file review.

Fails on a fixable item. The HOA has too many owners behind on dues after a special assessment. The buyer asks the board for a plan and waits for the delinquency picture to settle. It may clear on a later review, or it may not.

Fails on a structural item. The building runs hotel-style rentals. No review can fix that, so the buyer moves to a different property.

Key Terms Defined

Warrantable: Lender slang for a condo project that meets Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac standards.

Full Review: The lender’s complete check of a project’s finances, insurance, repairs, litigation and ownership mix.

Condo Project Manager (CPM): Fannie Mae’s lender-only tool for project status.

Reserve study: A professional report estimating what the HOA needs to save for future major repairs.

Special assessment: A one-time charge to owners for a major expense, on top of regular dues.

Waiver of Project Review: A path where certain projects, like detached units, skip the full project review.

Next Step

If you are buying a home and want to see whether a conventional loan fits your file, Lendmire can help you compare the options and what each one asks of the file. Program figures here are subject to lender guidelines and full file review, and nothing here is a commitment to lend.

For your own numbers, request a scenario review with Lendmire.

About Lendmire

Lendmire (NMLS# 2371349) is a mortgage brokerage serving homeowners and home buyers in 16 states. FHA, VA, conventional and jumbo purchase and refinance loans are arranged through wholesale lending channels; Lendmire brokers the financing and the lender underwrites each application. Scotsman Guide named Lendmire a Top Mortgage Workplace in both 2025 and 2026.

References

1. Fannie Mae Selling Guide B4-2.1-01, General Project Standards

2. Fannie Mae Selling Guide FAQs

3. Fannie Mae Selling Guide B4-2.1-03, Ineligible Projects

4. Freddie Mac Guide 5701.3 Ineligible Projects

5. Fannie Mae Lender Letter LL-2026-03

6. Fannie Mae Selling Guide B4-2.1-02, Waiver of Project Review

7. Fannie Mae Condo Status Finder

8. Freddie Mac Guide 5701.2