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Construction draw inspections are a critical step to verify collateral and work complete prior to approving a draw disbursement. Managing the timing, frequency, and quantity of inspections involves time and effort by the lender to oversee the process. There are additional hidden costs to this process as well, including time to oversee and monitor your vendor panel and dealing with inconsistent inspection reports.
When evaluating your average time to disburse a request, from draw package preparation by a builder to disbursement approval, identifying better efficiencies in the inspection process can result in some of the largest reduction in overall turn times. Lenders can still manage their risk, but greatly reduce the time it takes to approve a draw request.
A manual inspection process can result in draw disbursements taking 3 times longer than a more standardized, automated process. Issues that cost your team time and unnecessarily extend the draw timeline include:
- Disconnected Systems
- Manual Process Management
- Budget Versioning
- Disjointed Stakeholder Communication
- Quality Control and Vendor Oversight
With the right technology and automation, a streamlined inspection process can reduce your draw turn time by 80% or more. Let’s review in more detail.
Streamline The Inspection Ordering Process
It all begins with initiating the inspection. This can occur based on an action, such as a draw request, or based on a standard calendar schedule. Whatever the preference, performing the tasks of requesting an inspection and monitoring frequency of inspections are manual tasks that can now be fully automated.
Automating your inspection schedule and order process with construction draw management software will drive efficiency and mitigate risk across your entire construction loan portfolio. If a draw request is submitted on a Friday evening, an automated process can immediately schedule the inspection. No waiting for the team to be back at work on Monday morning. In fact, a completed inspection report could be waiting for your team to review rather than a task to schedule an inspection. Lenders that automate just the inspection task can save on average 1 business day on their overall draw turn time.
On Average, 29% Of Inspection Requests Are Received Outside Normal Business Hours.
Centralized Information And System Of Record
If you’re like many construction lenders, your team probably struggles with multiple systems throughout the construction draw process. This includes during the inspection process. You may have one system that receives the draw request and another system you log into to order the inspection. Receiving the inspection report may even come through a third system.
More often than not, information does not seamlessly flow from one place to the next, forcing your team to copy and paste critical data between systems. This takes time and exposes you to risk of data entry errors.
Draw management software with integrated services will solve this pervasive problem. Along with the automated scheduling previously discussed, important property and contact information is synced with the draw request and digitally delivered to the inspector. This eliminates duplicate data entry or flipping back and forth between screens. With this seamless technology approach, inspection photos can even be viewed directly in each draw container for faster analysis when the report is received.
A technology solution will also provide a single messaging platform where the inspector, builder/borrower, and lender can share and exchange information. Communications are stored in a central location and your team always has access to the latest communication. Clear instructions are provided for the inspector to quickly complete the job.
Industry Standardization And Quality
With inspection reports being generated by third party vendors or independent fee inspectors, your team may never have seen the same inspection report format twice! There is no industry standardization and the cost of that falls squarely on a lender’s construction administration team. They are forced to find information that is presented in different places and formats on every report they review. This becomes a chaotic process and without standardization, it’s impossible to ensure quality.
Technology with fully integrated services will save your team time by providing a standardized report structure and simplifying workflows. Your team can analyze reports quickly, eliminating guesswork and searching for data resulting in a faster draw turn time.
Results From Land Gorilla Customers
FidusFi automated their construction draw and inspection process
“Inspection reports are more detailed and better structured because the system in which the
inspector inputs information is more advanced and standardized. Our previous vendor had more of an outdated system.”
– FidusFi
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Hometown Lenders quickly saw time saving benefits of Land Gorilla Inspections
I look like a hero when I quote a 3-5 day turnaround but we deliver in a fraction of that time.
– Homewtown Lenders
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Going from a totally manual procedure wherein the draw process could take upwards to 5 days, we are now able to get draw funds out to the builder within 24 to 48 hours.
– First Federal Bank
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