How to join the Fannie Mae Club

[James Eng]

One of the advantages of investing in multifamily real estate is the ability to get non-recourse loans on investment properties through Fannie Mae.  These loans are fixed long-term (5,7,10,12) loans with 30 year amortization at about 3.00% above the corresponding treasury rate.  The question I often get is how to I qualify for non-recourse Fannie Mae loans?  There are 3 ways I know of for qualifying:

1) Sign a recourse loan with a local or regional bank and have at least 2 years of ownership and management experience (5+ units).

2) Sign as a key principal (passive) with someone who has Fannie Mae experience and will be the managing member.   

3) Have someone with Fannie Mae experience sign as a KP on your deal if you want to be the general partner.

A couple questions:

Does anyone know of any other ways of qualifying for non-recourse Fannie Mae?  

Does anyone have experience with Fannie Mae DUS lenders?  Which ones do they prefer working with?

Are there any other options for non-recourse debt on multifamily besides Fannie?