Exit- fee waivers happen in two patterns: when the take-out is from the same lender's permanent program (the lender keeps the relationship and earns origination on the new loan), and when a competing LOI in the bake-off offered a waiver and the sponsor uses that as leverage. Standard exit fee runs 0.25% to 1.0% of loan amount.
When the waiver moves
Same-lender take-out waiver: most institutional bridge lenders that also originate permanent debt (banks, certain debt funds, life cos with bridge platforms) will waive the bridge exit fee on a written commitment to refinance into the same lender's perm program at maturity, subject to the borrower meeting program eligibility. The trade is straightforward: the lender protects the relationship and earns a perm origination; the borrower saves 25 to 100 bps of loan amount at the bridge payoff.
Bake-off leverage waiver: when one bidder in a competitive bake-off offers a waiver or reduced exit fee, the placement firm can use that as a comparison point in the final negotiation. Lenders that are second on price will sometimes match the exit-fee structure of the leading bidder rather than lose the deal.
Open-window protection: separate from waiver, push for a six-month open-prepay window at the back end of the bridge term during which both prepayment penalty and exit fee are zero. This is standard on most institutional bridge loans and protects the sponsor against a refinance that closes a few weeks before the contractual maturity.
Sources
- Quarterly Survey of Commercial/Multifamily Mortgage Bankers Originations · Mortgage Bankers Association · 2026-Q1
- Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey on Bank Lending Practices (SLOOS) · Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System · 2026-Q1