Cassia R. Schaeffer, a partner at Cassin & Cassin LLP, concentrates her practice in the financing of multi-family properties through GSE programs — Freddie Mac Seller-Servicer program and Fannie Mae Delegated Underwriting & Servicing (DUS). Ms. Schaeffer has experience representing and counseling lenders navigating the complexities of financing multi-family properties subject to tenant and occupancy restrictions including 4% and 9% low-income housing tax credits (LIHTC), tax-exempt bonds, tax exemptions and abatements, payment-in-lieu-of-tax (PILOT) agreements, ground lease and lease-leaseback structures, bond credit enhancement, forward loan commitments, Section 8 and Housing Assistance Payments Contracts. Furthermore, she has closed many finance transactions including portfolio, securitized loans, and bridge loans that have involved a variety of deal structures, ranging from tenancies-in-common, ground leases, preferred equity, partial and fractured condominiums, reverse 1031 exchanges, subordinate financing, and manufactured housing. In addition, Ms. Schaeffer has extensive experience preparing and negotiating loan documents, examining due diligence including organizational structures, title and survey, and closing loan transactions as well as providing guidance to national loan servicers on matters including loan assumptions, transfers of interests, easements, partial releases, green financing, moderate rehab and assignments of mortgages.
Ms. Schaeffer received her Juris Doctor, cum laude, from the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University, where she was the Executive Acquisitions Editor of the Pace Law Review, and her Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, from Hobart and William Smith Colleges, where she became a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Additionally, Ms. Schaeffer is on the Alumni Board for Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University, a founding member of the Board of New York Women’s Affordable Housing Network and a co-head of Cassin’s Women Attorney Group. She is admitted to practice in the State of New York.
