USE OF SPECIAL PURPOSE ENTITIES AND VARIABLE INTEREST ENTITIES

A Special Purpose Entity (“SPE”) is an entity designed to fulfill a specific limited purpose of the company that organized it, and a SPE is frequently used for the purpose of securitizing, or re-securitizing, financial assets. SPEs are typically structured as pass through entities that receive principal and interest on the underlying collateral and distribute those payments to certificate holders. As a consequence of their purpose and design, SPEs are typically VIEs.

As further discussed in Notes 2, 6 and 7, the Company has evaluated its investments in Multi-Family MBS and Non-Agency RMBS and has determined that they are VIEs. The Company has then undertaken an analysis of whether it is the primary beneficiary of any of these VIEs, and has determined that it was the primary beneficiary of the FREMF 2011-K13 Trust, FREMF 2012-KF01 Trust and CSMC 2014-OAK1 Trust as of December 31, 2017 and the FREMF 2012-KF01 Trust as of June 30, 2018. Accordingly, the Company consolidated the assets, liabilities, income and expenses of these trusts in its financial statements as of and for the periods ending June 30, 2018 and December 31, 2017. However, the assets of each of the trusts are restricted, and can only be used to fulfill the obligations of the respective trusts. Additionally, the obligations of each of the trusts do not have any recourse to the Company as the consolidator of the trusts. The Company has elected the fair value option in respect of the assets and liabilities of the trusts. As noted in Notes 6 and 7, the Company sold the underlying securities of the FREMF 2011-K13 and CSMC 2014-OAK1 trusts effective May 18, 2018 and June 18, 2018, respectively and henceforth no longer consolidates these two trusts.

On April 30, 2018, the Company acquired Hunt CMT Equity LLC, which comprised of commercial mortgage loans financed through collateralized loan obligations ("Hunt CRE 2017-FL1, Ltd."), a licensed commercial mortgage lender and eight loan participations. The Company determined Hunt CRE 2017-FL1, Ltd. was a VIE and that the Company was the primary beneficiary of the issuing entity, and accordingly consolidated its assets and liabilities into the Company's financial statements in accordance with GAAP. However, the assets of each of the trusts are restricted, and can only be used to fulfill the obligations of the respective trusts. Additionally, the obligations of each of the trusts do not have any recourse to the Company as the consolidator of the trusts.

The carrying values of the Company's total assets and liabilities related to Hunt CRE 2017-FL1, Ltd. at June 30, 2018 included the following VIE assets and liabilities:



ASSETS	June 30, 2018
Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash	$	7,915,511
Accrued interest receivable	1,641,310
Unsettled loan payoffs	20,405,000
Loans held for investment	320,907,160
Total Assets	$	350,868,981

LIABILITIES
Accrued interest payable	$	445,854
Collateralized loan obligations⁽¹⁾	287,738,948
Total Liabilities	$	288,184,802

(1) The stated maturity of the collateral loan obligations per the terms of the underlying collateralized loan obligation agreement is August 15, 2034.

The following table presents certain loan and borrowing characteristics of Hunt CRE 2017-FL1, Ltd.:



As of June 30, 2018
Collateral (loan investments)				Debt (notes issued)
Outstanding Principal		Carrying Value		Face Value		Carrying Value
$	320,907,160	$	320,907,160	$	290,732,000	$	287,738,948