NexPoint Real Estate Finance Inc

Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures

As required by Rule 13a-15(b) and Rule 15d-15(b) under the Exchange Act, our management, including our President and Chief Financial Officer, evaluated, as of December 31, 2023, the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures as defined in Exchange Act Rule 13a-15(e) and Rule 15d-15(e). Based on that evaluation, our President and Chief Financial Officer concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures were effective as of December 31, 2023, to provide reasonable assurance that information required to be disclosed by us in reports filed or submitted under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified by the rules and forms of the Exchange Act and is accumulated and communicated to management, including the President and Chief Financial Officer, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosures.

We believe, however, that a controls system, no matter how well designed and operated, cannot provide absolute assurance that the objectives of the controls systems are met, and no evaluation of controls can provide absolute assurance that all control issues and instances of fraud or error, if any, within a company have been detected.

Remediation of Previously Reported Material Weakness

For our fiscal year ended December 31, 2022, management identified a single material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting related to the Elysian at Hughes Center investment. The material weakness resulted in an immaterial revision of our consolidated statements as of and for the year-to-date periods ended March 31, 2022, June 30, 2022 and September 30, 2022. During the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023, Management implemented a pre-close and post-close acquisition checklist for proposed investments. The pre-close checklist includes a formal accounting analysis and review of the contract terms and structure of the proposed investment. Subsequently, after a transaction closes, accounting personnel will obtain the final executed documents and compare and review for any changes to initial accounting conclusions reached in the pre-check review. Any differences will be corrected prior to the quarter close.

As a result, Management has determined that the remediation actions discussed above were effectively designed and operating for a sufficient period of time to support the conclusion that the material weakness has been remediated as of December 31, 2023.

Management’s Annual Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting

Our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting (as that term is defined in Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) under the Exchange Act) and for our assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting. Our internal control over financial reporting is a process designed under the supervision of our President and our Chief Financial Officer, and effected by our Board, management and other personnel, to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of the financial statements for external purposes in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles and includes those policies and procedures that: (1) pertain to the maintenance of records that in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the company; (2) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and that receipts and expenditures of the company are being made only in accordance with authorizations of management and directors of the company; and (3) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition of the company's assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.

Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.

Our management, including our President and Chief Financial Officer, has conducted an assessment regarding the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2023, based on the framework established in Internal Control – Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway

Commission. Based on our assessment under the criteria described above, management has concluded that our internal control over financial reporting was effective as of December 31, 2023.

Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting

Other than as set forth above, there has been no change in our internal control over financial reporting (as such term is defined in Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) under the Exchange Act) that occurred during the quarter ended December 31, 2023 that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.