What is the difference between a draw inspection and a phase inspection?

What a phase inspection is.

A phase inspection is a private inspection of a home while it is being built, made at stages chosen to catch problems before they are covered up. Buyers of new homes commonly order one before the foundation is poured, one before drywall hides the framing and the rough-in work, and one at completion. Builders order the same kind of visit for quality control.

Texas treats these visits as their own category. The Texas Real Estate Commission's report form rule exempts quality control inspections of new homes performed for builders, including phased construction inspections, from the standard form it requires for buyer and seller inspections, and its standards of practice are written for homes that are substantially completed. Other states regulate home inspectors differently, so the scope of a phase inspection is whatever the client's agreement says.

What the draw inspection asks instead.

A draw inspection is ordered by the lender because a draw request is on the desk. The inspector reports percent complete by budget line item, with dated photos, so the lender can decide whether the amount requested is supported. Workmanship and code compliance sit outside that scope unless the lender adds them. A phase inspection reports defects to the person who ordered it; it says nothing about the budget, the balance left to fund or the amount requested.

Why it matters for lenders.

On a custom home or a construction-to-permanent loan, the borrower may share a phase inspection report and ask that it stand in for the next draw inspection. It can't. Bank supervisors expect disbursements to follow written inspection reports made before draw requests: the FDIC's construction and land development procedures look for inspections by qualified inspectors independent of the lending function. A report the buyer commissioned for their own purposes is useful context, not evidence that a draw was earned. For the finished-home version of the same mix-up, see draw inspection vs home inspection.

How RAZE handles it.

In RAZE the lender sets the required questions and photos on every order from the Ordering Engine, and the inspector completes them in the RAZE Mobile App. Photos carry GPS coordinates and date and time stamps and link to the draw sheet line items they support, so each report shows the stage the house had reached on the day of the visit. RAZE documents the work; the lender decides what funds.