July 24, 2025
DBRS, Inc. (Morningstar DBRS) confirmed its MOR CS3 commercial mortgage special servicer ranking for CoreVest American Finance Lender, LLC (CoreVest or the Company), a wholly owned subsidiary and division of Redwood Trust, Inc. (Redwood). The trend for the ranking is Stable.
CoreVest is a lender and asset manager specializing in permanent and transitional (bridge) small to midsize income-producing residential loans and real estate involving single-family rental (SFR) and multifamily housing. The Company to date serves solely in an oversight and approver role as a directing certificateholder (DCH) for its rated term-loan securitizations in which it manages assets and coordinates reporting through third-party named special servicers. For CoreVest’s securitized residential transition loan (RTL) transactions, of which one is publicly rated, the Company serves as the collateral administrator in which it can engage directly with borrowers in a special servicer role. It also serves as the special servicer for other nonsecuritized assets, including those held by other third-party investors. Accordingly, the confirmed ranking considers CoreVest’s respective roles in its securitized transactions.
The confirmed ranking further reflects the following:
— A solidly experienced management team. CoreVest’s professional depth includes several senior asset managers. Their collective experience includes handling loan surveillance, reporting to investors, and special servicing for commercial mortgage-backed securities transactions as well as managing bank portfolios of distressed commercial real estate and SFR assets.
— A suitably designed organizational structure, which has designated teams for loss mitigation and specially serviced assets. Including resources provided by Redwood, the operation has the requisite components for diligent special servicing.
— Improved operational stability. Through external hiring and internal redeployments, the Company refortified its ranks after reducing some of its staff in early 2024. Turnover has subsequently eased in the past year.
— CoreVest’s success in resolving troubled loans, with most outcomes resulting in full payoffs as well as some modifications. The Company also has effectively liquidated many real estate owned (REO) assets.
— A solid technology platform, which centers on a purchased cloud-hosted application that CoreVest has customized to fit its business needs. Should the Company plan to serve as a special servicer for a rated term-loan securitization, it recognizes that additional technology enhancements could facilitate the requisite reporting. Managed by a Redwood team, the technology platform demonstrates acceptable routines for data backup and recovery testing.
— CoreVest’s proactive asset management and surveillance practices. Policy and procedural documentation is adequate but could be expanded in the scope of areas covered and with more detail. Based on employees’ experience, the Company’s technology, and its history to date for its RTL transactions, CoreVest demonstrates acceptable investor reporting capabilities.
— An acceptable audit function consisting of annual examinations of financial controls (in accordance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002) and other operational reviews performed by Redwood’s internal audit department. The most recently issued reports covering asset management operations were satisfactory and did not cite any exceptions. Should CoreVest become a special servicer on a publicly rated term-loan transaction, it will undergo Regulation AB attestations as well.
Morningstar DBRS will monitor CoreVest’s ability to maintain lower employee turnover and reasonable workload levels. Morningstar DBRS will also monitor the Company’s ability to ensure consistency and accuracy in its data submissions for the operational risk assessments.
As of December 31, 2024, CoreVest was the DCH on 18 rated term-loan and five unrated RTL securitizations, with a combined 1,297 loans and an aggregate unpaid principal balance (UPB) of $3.45 billion. The rated term-loan transactions, which have third-party special servicers, contained 864 loans and the unrated RTL transactions contained 433 loans. Additionally, CoreVest was a special servicer for two institutional clients’ portfolios with a combined 241 loans and $805.6 million UPB. In May 2025, CoreVest became the DCH and collateral administrator on its first rated RTL transaction.
As of YE2024, the active special servicing portfolio volume contained 395 loans and 18 REO assets, with a combined UPB of $981.3 million. Approximately 56% of the active assets were in the rated term-loan securitized transactions. Approximately 27% of the active assets involved SFR and 73% involved multifamily properties.
All rankings are subject to surveillance, which could result in rankings being raised, lowered, placed under review, confirmed, or discontinued by Morningstar DBRS.
Notes:
All figures are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted.
About CoreVest
CoreVest, a division of Redwood Trust, Inc. (“Redwood Trust”), is the leading lender to residential real estate investors nationwide. It offers long-term loans for rental properties as well as short-term bridge loans, fix-and-flip credit lines and build for rent programs. With more than $20 billion in loans closed and nearly 150,000 units financed, CoreVest offers attractive rates, rapid timelines and closing certainty. The company works directly with borrowers and brokers. For more information, visit corevestfinance.com.
About Redwood Trust
Redwood Trust, Inc. (NYSE: RWT) is a specialty finance company focused on several distinct areas of housing credit where we provide liquidity to growing segments of the U.S. housing market not well served by government programs. We deliver customized housing credit investments to a diverse mix of investors, through our best-in-class securitization platforms, whole-loan distribution activities, and our publicly traded shares. We operate our business in three segments: Residential Consumer Mortgage Banking, Residential Investor Mortgage Banking and Investment Portfolio. Through RWT Horizons®, our venture investing initiative, we invest in early-stage companies that have a direct nexus to our operating platforms. Additionally, through Aspire, our home equity investment (“HEI”) platform, we directly originate HEI to homeowners. Our goal is to provide attractive returns to shareholders through a stable and growing stream of earnings and dividends, capital appreciation, and a commitment to technological innovation that facilitates risk-minded scale. Redwood Trust is internally managed and structured as a real estate investment trust (“REIT”) for tax purposes. For more information about Redwood, please visit our website at www.redwoodtrust.com or connect with us on LinkedIn.
About MorningStar
Morningstar DBRS North American commercial mortgage servicer rankings are not credit ratings. Instead, they are designed to evaluate the quality of the parties that service commercial mortgage loans. Although the servicer’s financial condition contributes to the applicable ranking, its relative importance is such that a servicer’s ranking should never be considered as a proxy of its creditworthiness.