"Can this be under contract, permitted, and closed within FHFC's own clock — and does the seller know that clock yet?"
Evidence of Site Control is pass/fail, not scored
This session found two different, only partly-reconciled pictures of what Site Control documentation FHFC actually accepts, and could not confirm either one against the current RFA's own Site Control Instructions Exhibit directly. One source describes a broader five-item menu (deed, executed option to purchase, executed purchase and sale agreement, a current title report showing fee simple title, or a lease for the income-restriction term). But the RFA's own "at Application" Site Control section, as this session found it, recognizes only three categories: an eligible contract with a specific-performance clause, a deed or other proof of ownership, or a 50-year lease — narrower than the five-item list, and without a standalone title-report option. A separate, unconfirmed 90-calendar-day deadline for formal site-control documentation following a preliminary award letter may describe a later credit-underwriting-stage requirement rather than the at-Application standard — this session could not locate it in current Rule 67-48.0072 or in FHFC's public Credit Underwriting Guidebook. Pull the exact Site Control Instructions Exhibit from the live RFA being applied under before relying on any of these specifics.
The eligibility gates that live in due diligence, not the pro forma
Three real, verified gates sit outside the site itself and reach the whole development team: the Financial Arrearage Requirement disqualifies an application if the Applicant, Developer, any Principal, Affiliate, or Financial Beneficiary owes FHFC an unresolved amount, checked against FHFC's own public Past Due Report as of roughly two business days before the Review Committee meets. A 10-year de-obligation lookback disqualifies an application if any FHFC award to that same chain of parties was de-obligated within the prior ten years (one narrow historical carve-out exists). And a "Previous Funding Requirements" rule disqualifies an application if the same Development has already accepted an Invitation to Enter Credit Underwriting in a different competitive or non-competitive process — a real risk for a developer hedging the same deal across two funding tracks at once.
Environmental and hazard due diligence
The current market standard for a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment in Florida is ASTM E1527-21, which EPA approved as satisfying federal All Appropriate Inquiries effective February 13, 2023; the prior E1527-13 standard's transition period ran out a year later, on February 13, 2024, after which it stopped being AAI-acceptable at all. FEMA flood-zone status (AE/VE) is the same federal screen used nationally. A Florida-specific wrinkle worth flagging early: the Coastal Construction Control Line is not a fixed setback distance but a jurisdictional line under state law defining where the Florida Department of Environmental Protection has separate authority to regulate construction on beachfront property — a site seaward of the CCCL needs its own FDEP permit on top of whatever local approval it already has. High-Velocity Hurricane Zone wind-design and product-certification requirements (Miami-Dade and Broward Counties only) affect site feasibility as much as construction pricing; full mechanics are in Phase 6.
Where this goes wrong
- Treating an expired or verbal site-control arrangement as sufficient — FHFC's accepted instruments carry stated expiration dates and a legal description, and are checked as a pass/fail eligibility item.
- Assuming the broader five-item site-control instrument menu (including a standalone title report) applies at Application — the RFA's own at-Application Site Control section this session found recognizes only three categories (eligible contract with specific-performance clause, deed/proof of ownership, or a 50-year lease); confirm which stage's requirement actually governs before relying on either list.
- Not checking the full Applicant/Developer/Principal/Affiliate/Financial Beneficiary chain against FHFC's public Past Due Report before the Review Committee meets — the Financial Arrearage Requirement reaches unrelated deals, not just the one being applied for.
- Missing a 10-year-old de-obligation on an affiliated principal's unrelated prior FHFC deal — this alone disqualifies the current application, with only one narrow historical carve-out.
- Accepting an Invitation to Enter Credit Underwriting on the same Development in a second, simultaneous funding process — automatic ineligibility outside the PLP/EHCL exceptions.
- Treating the Coastal Construction Control Line as a simple setback distance rather than FDEP's jurisdictional permitting boundary — construction seaward of it needs a separate state permit regardless of local sign-off.
- Relying on a Phase I ESA performed under the retired ASTM E1527-13 standard — E1527-21 has been the AAI-operative standard since February 2023, and E1527-13 stopped qualifying at all after its transition period ended February 2024.
- Not independently confirming the current RFA's exact minimum term/extension language for a purchase option or contract at initial application before relying on a near-expiration instrument — not verified in detail this session.
- HUD
- LIHTC
- State QAPs
- IRS § 42
- Housing Finance Agencies