Lee Oller

Ms. Oller joined Merchants Capital in 2019, opening and running the company’s Chicago office.  Prior to joining Merchants, Ms. Oller was an executive with one of Chicago’s oldest privately held full-service real estate firms. During her 25-year career at the firm, she served as Chief Underwriter for HUD’s FHA Multifamily programs and was responsible for managing a team of analysts, underwriters, economist, originators, and administrative personnel.  She is an approved LEAN Underwriter for HUDs Healthcare programs.

Ms. Oller has cultivated relationships with real estate investors across the Midwest and beyond. She has vast experience in financing both Market Rate and Affordable transactions, specializing in the restructuring/recapitalization of HUD assisted projects.

Since joining Merchants Capital, Ms. Oller has expanded her lending services from an exclusive focus on all aspects of FHA and HUD lending to a broader range that includes all of Merchants lending platforms, including Freddie and Fannie as well as Merchants Bank of Indiana balance sheet and bridge loan products.  She has also worked alongside numerous low-income tax credit equity partners to execute on complex multi-layered affordable housing transactions. Having come from a background of union labor and new construction, Ms. Oller’s background in multifamily development, doesn’t end at loan origination, underwriting, or even closing.  Her union relationships have been instrumental in creating exciting new financing alternatives for Workforce Housing including closing the first Direct PC Swap Freddie Workforce housing transaction in the country with the AFL-CIO HIT.

Ms. Oller is a nationally recognized multifamily expert and active in numerous industry groups and multifamily committees both local and nationally.  She is an officer on the Multifamily Lenders Counsel focused on multifamily housing policy.  Ms. Oller graduated from Loyola University in Chicago.  Lee is married with adult children and spends her free time taking epic hikes.