Welcome to Walker & Dunlop's Second Quarter 2012 Earnings Conference Call and Webcast. Hosting the call today from Walker & Dunlop is Willy Walker, Chief Executive Officer. He is joined by Debbie Wilson, Chief Financial Officer; and Claire Harvey, Vice President of Investor Relations. Today's call is being recorded and will be available for replay, beginning at 11 a.m. Eastern time. The dial-in number is 1 (800) 283-4799. [Operator Instructions] It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to Claire Harvey. Please go ahead.

Thanks, Zach. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining the Walker & Dunlop's Second Quarter 2012 Earnings Call. Joining me this morning are Willy Walker, our Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Debbie Wilson, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. This call is being webcast live on our website and a recording will be available later this morning. Both our earnings press release and website provide details on accessing the archived call. This morning, we posted the earnings release and a presentation on the Investor Relations section of our website, www.walkerdunlop.com. Both documents provide additional detail on certain topics that we will refer to during our prepared remarks. Investors are urged to carefully read the forward-looking statements language in our earnings release. Statements made on this call, which are not historical facts, may be deemed forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements, including statements regarding future financial operating results, involve risks, uncertainties and contingencies, many of which are beyond the control of Walker & Dunlop and which may cause actual results to differ materially from anticipated results. Walker & Dunlop is under no obligation to update or alter our forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. We expressly disclaim any obligation to do so. More detailed information about risk factors can be found in our reports on file with the SEC. Due to the pending acquisition of CWCapital, I am required to provide the following additional information: As previously disclosed, the company is expected to issue approximately 11.6 million shares, subject to adjustment, of the company's common stock in a private placement to CW Financial Services LLC at the closing of the announced pending acquisition by the company's indirect wholly owned subsidiary,…

Thank you, Claire, and thank you, everyone, for joining us, this morning's call, to review Walker & Dunlop's Q2 2012 earnings. Q2 will be remembered as a transformative quarter for our company. Similar to Q1 2009, when we acquired certain assets of Column Guaranteed from Crédit Suisse in the depths of the financial crisis, and Q4 2010 when Walker & Dunlop was the first mortgage banking company to go public in almost 4 years. The acquisition of CWCapital dramatically accelerates Walker & Dunlop's progress towards becoming the premier commercial real estate finance firm in the United States. On top of the CW acquisition, we achieved record quarterly loan origination volume of $1.34 billion; the second highest quarterly revenues in the company's history of $47 million; and hired 2 new loan origination teams in Florida and Wisconsin that should triple our annual Capital Markets loan origination volume. Even with the significant acquisition and hiring cost running through our income statement, we produced the third most profitable quarter in our company's 74-year history. I will review these significant accomplishments in further detail. I'll turn the call over to Debbie to provide additional detail on our finances, and then I will provide some insight into where we go from here. The details of the CWCapital acquisition are described in the proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Investors should know that CWCapital was not the first competitor to approach us about being acquired by Walker & Dunlop. This is important for several reasons: First, it says that Walker & Dunlop's management team and capital structure were being sought out by our competition. Second, it is not only Walker & Dunlop but our competition that realizes scale matters in the commercial real estate lending arena. Finally, having looked at other firms, Walker…

Thank you, Willy. Let me start by adding my enthusiasm about our growing business and the significant progress we've made on implementing our strategic initiatives. It certainly is an exciting time in the company's history. Financially, the second quarter was characterized by record loan origination volumes, expanding origination fees, and strong servicing fees, resulting in the company's second highest total revenues and third highest income from operations ever. We incurred new expenses due to the expansion of our origination platform and the CWCapital acquisition and yet we delivered a solid 32% operating margin for the quarter. Our ability to absorb those costs and still deliver these results truly demonstrates the capabilities and profitability of our business model. We originated $1.34 billion of loans, a 2% increase over Q2 of '11, which drove a 10% increase in total revenues. We have focused on the diversification of our products, and Capital Markets or non-GSE HUD originations has become a growing part of our business. In the second quarter, Capital Markets originations grew 57% and accounted for 30% of our total originations compared to 20% in the second quarter of last year. Origination fees continue to be strong across all product lines and the increased concentration of Capital Markets originations did not negatively impact our average origination fee or MSR. Origination fees actually increased 11% to $17.1 million and were 128 basis points of origination volume in the second quarter, up from 117 basis points in the second quarter of last year. Gains from MSRs increased 6% to $16.8 million and were 126 basis points of origination volume in the quarter, up from 122 basis points in Q2 of 2011. The expanding fees demonstrate that our core multifamily business continues to perform very well. Record loan originations drove a 14% increase in the…

Thank you, Debbie. So let me turn for a second to our industry, the CWCapital acquisition and what investors should expect over the coming months. Our industry faces roughly $1.9 trillion of commercial real estate debt that must be refinanced over the next 5 years. That is close to $400 billion a year in an industry where increased bank regulation and a sputtering CMBS market make many people wonder who will provide the needed financing. All indicators are that market fundamentals remain strong and outlooks are positive for continued growth. The second quarter was a good one for commercial real estate and multifamily in particular, with the Mortgage Bankers Association reporting last week that commercial multifamily mortgage origination volumes rose 25% over a year ago. The apartment market is seeing low vacancies at levels not seen since 2001, ending Q2 2012 at 4.7%. This bodes well for Walker & Dunlop's credit portfolio, which as Debbie mentioned, finished Q2 with only 5 basis points of the at-risk portfolio 60-plus days delinquent. Although there are pockets of the country where new development is bringing on significant inventory, there is plenty of velocity in rental growth to be lost before credit becomes a concern with regard to Walker & Dunlop's financial performance. As we outlined in our earnings release, on a stand-alone basis, we are providing Q3 origination guidance of $1.1 billion to $1.4 billion, which is 21% to 54% growth over Q3 2011 originations of $907 million. I'd like to turn for a moment to Walker & Dunlop's competitive positioning. The combination of CWCapital and Walker & Dunlop would have been the eighth largest commercial real estate lender in the United States based on 2011 Mortgage Bankers Association league tables. That is eighth among such household names as Wells Fargo, MetLife and…

The floor is now open for questions. [Operator Instructions] Our first question is coming from Bose George from KBW.

So I had a couple of questions. First, you guys noted the personnel expenses were up on the new hires. Just wanted to see, when we can start seeing the revenue side of that come in?

So, Bose, we just gave very strong Q3 guidance on a year-on-year growth basis. So I don't think you get to that type of growth on a year-on-year basis if the new hires that we've added aren't contributing to that. So I think the bottom line is, that it varies as we discussed in the past on how quickly producers kind of if you will get up to speed. But we are very pleased with the groups that we've added over the last 12 months. As Debbie pointed out, we have invested significantly in origination talent, and I think that the guidance that we've just given as far as Q3 shows that those hires are already starting to make a difference.

Okay, that's fair. And then actually just switching to the timeline. You have the -- sort of the strategic plan still developing some of the new others -- those other funding sources. And I was wondering if there's a specific timeline for that or how you guys are thinking about that?

So we started 2012 with 3 strategic initiatives. One was to be a top 5 Fannie, Freddie and HUD lender; two, was to grow our Capital Markets business; and three, was to develop proprietary products. The CWCapital acquisition checks the box on strategic initiative number one. The significant hires in Q2 of teams in Florida and Wisconsin gets us about 2/3 of the way towards achieving strategic objective number two. And we continue to work diligently on strategic objective number three. I would say at the beginning of the eighth month of the year, I am absolutely thrilled with the progress we've made on our strategic plan. From my standpoint, the progress we made in Q2 is amazing.

Great. And then actually let me just -- one last political question. We find it interesting, the FHFA strategic plan deal that they put out -- didn't mention the multifamily side while their earlier letter to Congress did. So just curious if there's any -- you guys have any thoughts on that?

No. You know that there is a study going on inside of both Fannie and Freddie as it relates to their multifamily business, and I believe that there will be a report out in the month of September, as it relates to whether those businesses could be spun off, whether they can stand on their own, with a guarantee, without a guarantee and both Fannie and Freddie are -- their teams are working very hard on that analysis. So beyond that, in waiting to see what they come out with, I think we wait to find that out and then as you know, Bose, if it has anything to do with the guarantee, it is not something that either Treasury or FHFA can do. It has to go to Congress. So if the report comes out and says that they either can be spun off with guarantee, without guarantee or they have to stay part of it, anything that deals with the guarantee obviously needs legislation and it's our assumption that any legislation on multifamily would be tied in with single-family and the single-family debate, as you know better than I do, is somewhat protracted.

And we'll go next to the site of Will Marks with JMP Securities.

I wanted to start with -- you mentioned the industry growth figure of 25%, I believe the number was. And just to clarify does that refer to any multifamily refinancing or a new loan?

It's an MBA stat, Will, and I'm assuming it includes all loan originations of members of the Mortgage Bankers Association. So I'm assuming that includes construction, it includes bridge, it includes on-balance sheet, securitized agency, life, CMBS and REIT.

Right.

I guess what I'm getting at, I know you're diversifying away from multifamily. I'm curious how reliant you are on -- within your multifamily business on kind of a hot transaction environment, meaning apartments trading hands or is your business really a factor of just refinancing rather than new loans?

So the majority of our business -- first of all, we did our first deal with Cushman & Wakefield during the quarter, which I know a number of people have been asking us, when are you guys going to do a deal with them? So we did that. The second thing is that I wouldn't say that we're diversifying away from multifamily if you think about the additional scale that we're adding with the CWCapital acquisition. The interesting thing there is with the investments we've made in non-multifamily origination teams in Q2, as I said in my comments, even with the significant growth that we're going to achieve through the CWCapital acquisition in the multifamily space, with the additions of those new teams, the non-multifamily component of our business continues to grow and so the diversification that Debbie and I both spoke about will continue over time. But it's my great assumption that when we put CWCapital and Walker & Dunlop together in Q3, that the percentage of our business that is focused on multifamily will jump back up to where it was historically, just because we're taking on such a huge amount of originations at CWCapital in the multifamily space. The one other piece I'd add to that is that CWCapital, you may know, Will, has a very robust joint venture partnership with ARA, Apartment Realty Advisors, and we are in the process of meeting with ARA executives and CW executives and understanding what the partnership does and how they've originated loans through ARA's investment sales into CW's financings. And we'll have further commentary on that as we figure out how we move forward with that partnership.

Will, it's Debbie. Over time, most of the volume does come from refinances. Clearly, transaction activity in construction does have an impact. But if you look at it, there's always a base of refinancings, just based on the structure of the loans, that can be increased or decreased slightly given the activity in construction as well as transactions.

A few other things. Is the comp structure the same for CW and you all in terms of originating, employees who originate?

Yes.

Okay. And then actually, I mean, whether -- does it vary by market or some salary bonus, some commission?

No. I mean, as a general comment, their -- the way they pay their originators is very similar to the way that we do and quite honestly, very similar to the way that most of our competitors do.

Okay. And I guess the next question, on looking at your originations this year on maybe a same-head basis versus maybe last year or the peak, how are your originators doing?

I don't have that stat. I don't have that. I don't have it on a person-by-person basis. As we've said previously, Will, I mean one of the things that scale brings us is the ability for one person to have a very strong year at one point and they've got a client base that's very active and then somebody else steps in. And I think we've actually discussed previously with you about the lack of concentration in sort of 1 or 2 huge 10-ton gorilla originators. That doesn't mean we don't have people who show up at the top of our league tables every year who have big books of business. But that varies significantly. I would also point out that as it relates to our, if you will, producer rankings of origination volumes, given the growth of our Capital Markets business, we have a number of Capital Markets originators who have moved up in our internal rankings, as it relates to the volume of business that they've originated in 2012.

Okay. Just one final question, on the homebuilding market, how should we look at any kind of relationship with perhaps a pick up on -- I've been looking for this for a long time, but in home sales versus -- or how does that impact your business?

So I guess, everyone's been looking for some reason to have multifamily as an asset class sort of fall off. I think for a while when there were all these buy-to-lease programs going on, and lots of people raising capital about it, everyone said, "Well, there's this big overhang." And all these people are going to come in and buy up these big portfolios and start leasing them out and that's going to impact rental occupancy levels. And as we know, that has not happened or materialized yet. And I think now that the single-family world home prices are starting to show some rebound. Everyone, all of a sudden, is sort of saying, "Oh, we're going to have a recovery in the single-family space and that's going to start to put a drag on occupancy levels at multifamily properties." We have -- in our portfolio, we have not seen any let up as it relates to either very, very solid occupancy numbers or very, very impressive net operating income growth. Now that's just our portfolio. And if you talk to some of the developers that we finance properties for, as I said in my comments, they believe that there are pockets across the country from a multifamily standpoint that are getting -- they have a significant amount of construction starts or inventory that's coming online. And there are even some that are getting back into the condo business. And anyone who was smart enough to go and start building single-family homes 1 year or 2 ago has been selling that inventory of new homes very rapidly, particularly markets like here in Washington, D.C. But at the end of the day, the general trend of multifamily as being a higher percentage than historically, as you know, single-family homeownership got up to…

And our last question comes from Brandon Dobell with William Blair.

I was wondering if you could give us some color on where you expect the non-GSE, let's call it non-multifamily and kind of scale of originations to exit the year? You talked about where you kind of finished the first 6 months. And I guess, excluding CW, since that hasn't closed yet, where should we expect that number to finish out 2012?

Yes, Brandon, as you know, we haven't -- we've not given guidance in the past on the breakout between Fannie, Freddie, HUD and Capital Markets, and don't plan to start giving that now. So we're not in the guidance breaking out between the various executions, if you will, at this time.

Okay, all right, fair enough. And then from a servicing fee point of view. Given the, I guess, the flight of human capital out of the agencies, any discussions with your counterparts, especially at Fannie, in terms of what the fee structure may look like on service loans or any movement back-and-forth there or changes on how they're viewing risk versus no risk?

Nothing.

Okay, fantastic. And then from an originator point of view, given the strength of multifamily, how do we think about where you guys are putting your efforts in terms of attracting new talent. Are you still going after the multifamily origination guys, or should we expect in the future headcount additions to come in different parts?

It's a very good question, Brandon. I would just put forth that the CWCapital acquisition and the additional scale that it brings to us and where we will be the largest combined Fannie, Freddie, HUD originator in the country, we'll be the second largest multifamily finance company in the country. We'll continue to add talented people to that, but we don't need a whole lot more scale there, if you will. And so, the continued additions will be to the broadening of our platform to adding origination talent that may focus on other asset classes and then also the growth of our proprietary products to be able to build up new products inside of Walker & Dunlop and our own capital sources. So it's a good question. We obviously are always looking for good talent and if good talent -- if we come across good talent, we will work hard to get them on to our platform. But investors I don't think should expect W&D to be looking at other major acquisitions in the, if you will, agency multifamily space for now.

And we have no further questions at this time. I'd like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Willy Walker for any additional or closing remarks.

Great. Thank you, all, for participating this morning. I think this was a fantastic quarter for Walker & Dunlop. We made some very important strategic investments. I think our financial performance is reflective of an extremely strong quarter. And appreciate your interest in hearing about the quarter and we will talk to many of you in the coming days. Thank you very much.

Thank you. This does conclude today's conference call. Please disconnect your lines at this time, and have a wonderful day.