Arbor Realty Trust Inc Q1 2021 Earnings Call Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Charles Douglas Arestia - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : We've heard a lot recently about there being a lot of capital chasing after multifamily and industrial properties lately, sort of a flight to quality post COVID, broader unknowns around office and hospitality and more of the known issues with retail. Obviously, multifamily is most relevant to Arbor by a wide margin. But Ivan, would love to get your view on what you're seeing out there in terms of competition for your core assets. If you're seeing that competition pick up recently as more of your peers have gotten more comfortable deploying capital than maybe a quarter or 2 ago.

Question: Charles Douglas Arestia - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst : And look, we're sitting here in the first week of May. Obviously, agency originations came back down to earth a little bit this quarter. Curious, if you can give us a sense of where volumes might shake out for the year, given what the pipeline looks like, and you guys typically have pretty good visibility into that. I think we all realize that 2020 was certainly an unusual year, but wondering how '21 volumes might compare to your pre-COVID annual numbers.

Question: Ryan John Tomasello - Keefe, Bruyette, & Woods, Inc., Research Division - Analyst : This is Ryan Tomasello on for Jade. Just in terms of the SFR business, clearly, there's a nice opportunity there. I was curious, Ivan, if you think that there will be an additional amount of investment required to build out that platform. I know you've already spent some capital in that space, but curious, based on the outlook, if you think you'd like to spend more there. And as a follow-up to that, are there any interesting M&A opportunities to support the build-out of that SFR lending business?

Question: Ryan John Tomasello - Keefe, Bruyette, & Woods, Inc., Research Division - Analyst : And then, Ivan, in terms of -- or maybe for Paul, rather, in terms of the residential mortgage JVs, just sifting through the puts and takes there with the volume normalization, coupled with the partial sell-down of your stake, what do you think is a meaningful baseline for our models over the next few quarters with that business? Just so that we're all on the same page here in terms of the reasonableness of expectations.

Question: Ryan John Tomasello - Keefe, Bruyette, & Woods, Inc., Research Division - Analyst : And then just one last question, if I can. Just to give us an update around the 7 NPLs that were unchanged quarter-over-quarter. Can you discuss the credit outlook there, anything noticeable that has changed over the last few quarters? And maybe just a quick reminder on the major assets that comprised that pool.