Commercial Mortgage Underwriter — Balance Sheet Lending

Company: Farmers Life Insurance Company | Location: Remote | Type: Full-Time | Level: Associate / Senior Associate (commensurate with experience)

About the Role

Farmers Life Insurance Company is seeking an experienced commercial mortgage underwriter to join our commercial real estate lending team, underwriting loans held on the company's balance sheet as part of our general account investment portfolio. The ideal candidate brings a CMBS-caliber underwriting background — rigorous cash flow analysis, disciplined third-party diligence, and institutional credit standards — applied to a portfolio lending platform where we originate, hold, and manage our loans to maturity.

This is a high-impact role on a small, senior team. You will own transactions end to end — not a single stage of a large assembly line — and serve as the central point of coordination among internal credit, external counsel, appraisers, engineers, environmental consultants, and closing teams. You'll have direct exposure to credit committee and senior investment leadership from day one.

What You'll Do

1. Underwrite commercial mortgage loans for balance sheet execution across fixed and floating rate structures, including permanent, bridge, and structured financings
2. Analyze historical operating statements, rent rolls, and borrower financials; build and defend pro forma cash flows, DSCR, debt yield, and LTV sizing across the capital stack
3. Underwrite all major asset classes: multifamily, office, retail, industrial, hospitality, self-storage, and mixed-use, including portfolio and single-asset transactions
4. Manage the full life cycle of each deal, including:
5. Legal: coordinate with internal and external counsel on loan documentation, structural issues, borrower organizational review, and clearing legal exceptions
6. Appraisal: engage and review third-party appraisals; challenge value conclusions, cap rate assumptions, and comparable selection where warranted
7. Engineering & Environmental: order and review Property Condition Assessments and Phase I ESAs; size replacement reserves and immediate repair escrows; escalate environmental findings and negotiate remediation or insurance solutions
8. Closing: drive the closing checklist, coordinate title/survey review, insurance compliance, and escrow/reserve structuring; manage handoff to servicing and asset management post-close
9. Prepare credit committee memos and asset summaries; present transactions to credit committee and defend underwriting assumptions
10. Assess sponsor strength, guaranty structures, and recourse provisions consistent with a hold-to-maturity credit posture
11. Support portfolio surveillance, including annual loan reviews, covenant monitoring, and risk rating assessments on the existing book
12. Conduct site inspections and market analysis, including comparable benchmarking and market participant interviews
13. Contribute beyond underwriting as the team requires — on a small team, everyone helps shape process, tools, and credit policy

What We're Looking For

Required

1. 3–5 years of commercial mortgage underwriting experience; CMBS (conduit and/or SASB) underwriting background strongly preferred
2. Demonstrated experience underwriting all major CRE asset classes
3. Proven ownership of the full deal life cycle — from initial sizing through diligence, documentation, and closing
4. Direct experience coordinating with legal counsel, appraisers, engineering/PCA consultants, environmental consultants, and closing teams
5. Advanced Excel-based cash flow modeling; strong working knowledge of Argus
6. Strong command of third-party report review (appraisal, PCA, Phase I/II ESA, zoning, seismic, insurance)
7. Excellent written communication — able to produce clear, credit-committee-ready memos under deal deadlines
8. Self-starter comfortable operating with autonomy on a lean team