LIHTC Comp
Does anyone know the comp structure of a LIHTC originator? Or a ballpark of how much % per deal an originator earns?
There seem to be very few people making a lot of money in LIHTC, but those who do seem to do VERY well.
Can’t speak to origination fee split structure. But am an associate, 4 YOE. Total comp $175k
In acquisitions? Big shop?
Yes Acquisitions, typically a top 5ish syndicator by volume
How many LIHTC finance people are really making over 600k realistically? Seems like only a few get paid on the finance side compared to the development side.
Yeah not many, but it’s also a very small industry.
Yep, the incentive structure in affordable housing is a lot more sane than most parts of real estate/finance. If you have risk (developer, GC, etc), you get paid a ton. If you move other people's money around, not so much.
Brokers and middlemen shouldn't be making a ton of money
You get paid for expertise. LIHTC transactions can be incredibly complex and someone investing $50M isn’t going to trust that with just anyone.
In my experience it is extremely rare for most people in the industry to have meaningfully more knowledge than the developers.
And trust me when I say you don't get paid for expertise. This is just a fact. There are plenty of firms that walk unexperienced developers through the LIHTC process: none of them get paid as much as the people who do it themselves. You get paid to do a lot of things, but the real money goes to the people taking risk.
Here to add more on comp (at top 20 bank):
~2.5 YOE HCOL $110k base with target 20% bonus
Yup yuuuupp
Wait hol up. You make that as a banking analyst?
I’m a LIHTC underwriter and make $110k with $15k bonus w/ 2.5 YOE in MCOL city
I am an Associate with 6 YOE combined at 2 syndicators. My 2024 all-in comp was $185k. I'm on the acquisitions team mainly supporting originators but slowly starting to find my own deals here and there. I started to ask internally about originations comp and was told someone bringing in ~$100MM in equity is around $500k-$600k all-in depending on how the overall firm does. If you get closer to $150MM-$200MM in a year, you're starting to get close to $1MM all-in comp.
This is a good data point , thank you. Very hard to find specific info on origination comp. Do you know if it’s typically a % of acq fee they receive? Or more generally just a bonus based on performance?
There isn't an acquisition fee in LIHTC. Syndicators/Investors usually add in a Due Diligence Fee at around $40k-$50k, which helps pay for legal fees, accounting fees, and 3rd party reports. That definitely doesn't go to the originator. Most shops pay their originators bonus based on performance.
Example - Originator may make $250k base salary and they may have a target bonus of $300k if they hit $100MM in equity originated. If they hit 50% of that goal, they get $150k bonus, if they hit 150% of that goal they get $450k. There's more that goes into like overall firm performance but that is generally the way it works based on my conversations.
The "easy" part of that is once you are in the industry for awhile and have the developer connections, annual production happens like clockwork and its a pretty stress free $500k-$600k+
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