The short answer
Start from the records a purchase or a refinance leaves: the deed and the mortgage recorded at the local land-records office, and, for apartment buildings with HUD-insured loans, HUD’s monthly list of those loans. A deed names the buyer and a mortgage the borrower; HUD’s list identifies the property and its lenders but not its owner, so look up the owner separately. Find the company behind the owner (often an LLC set up for the building) and reach the person who handles its insurance. Don’t assume the deal date sets the renewal date. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac want insurance in force when their loans close, but a newly financed property may be added midway through an owner’s existing 12-month policy, and on a refinance the evidence the lender needs can be the policy already in place, if it meets the new loan’s requirements; Freddie Mac, for one, requires that “the mortgagee or mortgage holders clause and additional insured clause must be changed to reflect the requirements of the Guide” (Freddie Mac Multifamily Guide, chapter 55). The record is a reason to start the conversation; the renewal date is the first thing to ask.
Where purchases and refinances show up
- Land records. A sale is recorded as a deed and a loan as a mortgage or deed of trust, at the local land-records office: usually the county recorder or clerk, in some states a town clerk. New York City’s ACRIS covers Manhattan, Queens, the Bronx and Brooklyn. The deed names the buyer; the mortgage names the borrower and the lender. Filter by document type, since not every deed is a sale and not every mortgage filing is a new loan (assignments, for example), and check the deal date in the document itself. A new mortgage is a refinance only if it replaced an earlier loan: read it with the related filings, such as the release of the old mortgage or a consolidation, and until then call it a new financing.
- HUD’s list of insured apartment loans. HUD publishes every active FHA-insured multifamily loan, with the property, its units, the original mortgage amount, the endorsement date and the lender holding the loan. The files “are updated once per month after month-end closing activities” (HUD). Section 223(f) is one useful filter: the program “insures mortgage loans to facilitate the purchase or refinancing of existing multifamily rental housing” (HUD).
- Building permits. A permit for new construction or a major renovation is a reason to ask how the project is insured while the work runs, whether by a builder’s risk policy or the owner’s existing property policy. What a permit does and doesn’t tell you is in permits vs acquisitions.
What the record tells you about insurance, and what it doesn’t
- On agency loans, cover is in force at closing. Fannie Mae requires “temporary or permanent evidence of insurance when the Mortgage Loan closes” (Fannie Mae Multifamily Guide, 501.01). Freddie Mac requires evidence of the borrower’s insurance “for the closing of new loans and for each renewal” (Freddie Mac Multifamily Guide, chapter 31). For those loans, by the time the deal is on record, the cover for closing is arranged.
- The renewal date belongs to the owner’s policy, not the deal. Both agencies ask for policies of at least 12 months, and both allow a new loan’s property to be “added mid-term to an existing 12-month policy” (Fannie Mae, 501.01F; Freddie Mac, 31.2). An owner buying its tenth building may simply add it to the program it already has.
- Construction runs on a different clock. A builder’s risk policy “insures against loss to buildings, material, equipment and fixtures during construction, rehabilitation, addition, significant alteration or repair” (Freddie Mac, 31.11). It is typically written for the project and “may end at completion, occupancy or the end of the policy term, depending on policy provisions” (The Hartford). On HUD-insured projects under its MAP Guide, the lender must make sure there is “no gap period in insurance protection” when a building moves from cover during construction to permanent cover (HUD MAP Guide, 3.9.2). A project nearing completion raises that question; the policy’s terms decide when.
So the record gives you a property with recent activity, and a mortgage or HUD record also names a lender; a deed alone may be a cash purchase. None of it reliably tells you the renewal date or the incumbent broker. You get those by asking.
An example from Texas
HUD’s list of active FHA-insured apartment loans, current as of 30 September 2026 and downloaded on 30 October, shows 37 Texas apartment loans under Section 223(f) with an initial endorsement date between 1 October 2025 and 30 September 2026, one per property: 7,559 units and $961 million in original mortgage amounts, held by 12 lenders (our count from HUD’s list).
One is Chance’s Court Apartments in Port Arthur: 204 units, a $41.3 million loan endorsed on 23 September 2026 and held by NewPoint Real Estate Capital. The list doesn’t say whether the loan paid for a purchase or a refinance, who owns the property, or when its insurance renews. It gives you a property, its size, its lender and a date. To find the owner, locate the parcel in the county appraisal record, then confirm the owner in the latest recorded deed: the Jefferson Central Appraisal District, which covers Port Arthur, says it uses “deed records recorded with the Jefferson County Clerk’s office to correct ownership information” (JCAD). How to find the developer behind a property LLC shows how to get from the LLC to the company. The renewal date comes from the conversation.
Before you reach out
- The owner. Confirm it in the latest deed, and look for other buildings it holds: a portfolio may be a larger account, if its insurance is bought together.
- The fit. Units, loan size and property type help you screen the account. The loan amount is not the insurable value, so get the property’s details before judging whether it suits your markets.
- Who controls the insurance. It may be the owner’s finance or risk team, a portfolio-level program, or the property manager: Fannie Mae’s guide allows for a policy “provided by, or in the name of, a Property manager” (Fannie Mae, 501.01). Ask rather than assume.
- The incumbent. These records don’t reliably name the owner’s current broker.
What to write
Name the building and the deal you saw, mention one comparable account you insure, and ask one question: when does the property program renew, and who reviews it? A broker who has the renewal date can come back in time for it.
How Buildwise does this
Buildwise is a service, not a database. We use technology we’ve built to track transactions and capital activity, such as acquisitions and refinancings, along with building permits, and select the ones that match your markets. For each one we identify the company behind it, check it against your criteria and find the people who decide. Our team runs the outreach from your accounts, after you approve the messages and a sample of the companies and contacts. Brokerage, insurance & legal shows an example for a commercial insurance broker. See our services.
