A condo loan is really two loans. One is underwritten against your buyer. The other is underwritten against the building. Most people only see the first one coming.
The borrower review starts on day one. Credit, income, assets. Everyone expects it, and everyone prepares for it. The building review starts later, usually when the lender orders the condo questionnaire from the association and reads the appraisal. That is often week two or three of the contract. By then the buyer has paid for an inspection and an appraisal, the sellers have started packing, and the agent has told other buyers the unit is gone.
When the building fails its review, all of that unwinds at once. The buyer loses fees and weeks. The seller goes back to market with a stale listing. The agents lose the commission and, worse, the time. Nobody did anything wrong on the borrower side. The building was the problem, and the building was the one thing nobody checked.
What the building review looks for
Lenders who sell loans to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac must confirm the project itself meets their standards. The common failure points are straightforward:
- Reserves and deferred maintenance. Is the association putting enough money aside for the roof, the structure, the big systems? Florida now requires a structural integrity reserve study for most buildings three stories and up.
- Required inspections. Older Florida buildings must complete milestone structural inspections. A missing or overdue one is a hard stop for many lenders.
- Special assessments. A large assessment recorded against the association raises immediate questions about the building's condition and finances.
- Litigation. Structural or construction-defect lawsuits put the project review on hold at most desks.
- Insurance. Gaps in the association's coverage can sink the file on their own.
The list nobody can check
There is also a harder version of this problem. Fannie Mae keeps an internal list of condo projects it will not finance. As of March 2025 it named 5,175 buildings and HOAs, and it has more than quadrupled since May 2023. The list is not public. Fannie Mae's own lookup tool is restricted to HOA boards and managers, so agents, loan officers, and buyers cannot check it. Deals die against a list the people in the deal are not allowed to read.
Nobody outside Fannie Mae has that list, and anyone who says otherwise is guessing. What you can read is the public record the list tends to follow: state filing status, reserve study filings, inspection filings, recorded assessments, and court dockets. Florida publishes all of it.
How to see it coming
The fix is boring, which is the good news. Check the building's public records on day one, before the offer if you can. If the building shows a delinquent state filing, no reserve study on file, or a fresh assessment, you have not lost the deal. You have gained three weeks. The buyer can price the risk, switch financing early, ask the association pointed questions, or pick a different building while it costs nothing.
Agents can run the same check before taking a listing, so the seller hears about a problem from them, early, instead of from a denial letter in week three. Loan officers can screen the building the day the application lands and route the file to the right product the first time.
That is the whole idea behind CondoRegister. We read Florida's structural and financial filings for every condo building on the state register and grade what they show, with every factor linked to its source. Checking a building is free and takes about ten seconds. It is the cheapest three weeks you will ever buy back.