Draw Inspections in 5 Unique Places, January 2025

The market

Jacksonville straddles the St. Johns River in Northeast Florida. It consolidated with Duval County in 1968, and only the three Beaches cities and the town of Baldwin kept governments of their own, so it is now the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. Building is picking up across it: Duval County issued about 20 percent more single-family permits in 2024 than in 2023.

How RAZE ran it

Across a city that size, one lender's month of draws can land on both sides of the St. Johns and in every corner of the county, all under the same city name. Every photo the inspector captures in the RAZE Mobile App is geo-stamped and time-stamped and linked to its draw sheet line item, so a reviewer can see where each site sits and when the work was documented, and every Jacksonville report arrives in the same format.

The market

Gatlinburg is a mountain town of about 3,600 people in Sevier County and a gateway to Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the most visited national park in the country. Building here means cabins and chalets on the slopes around town, on roads that climb steeply and can see snow and ice in winter. In November 2016, wildfires destroyed more than 2,400 structures in and around Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge.

How RAZE ran it

Hillside sites above town can be a long way from a signal, and the RAZE Mobile App doesn't wait for one. The inspector finishes the capture on site, the app marks which sets of data were taken offline and are still waiting to sync, and the whole record uploads once the phone is back in range. A lender with no inspector of its own in the Smokies can order through the Marketplace, which sends a background-checked inspector from the RAZE Inspection Network.

The market

Proctorville is a village of a few hundred people on the Ohio River in Lawrence County, Ohio, and the East End Bridge carries traffic across the river to Huntington, West Virginia. The land was settled in 1797 as Quaker Bottom, and the village was laid out and incorporated in 1878. Today it belongs to the Huntington-Ashland metro, which takes in parts of West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio.

How RAZE ran it

Proctorville's nearest city is in another state, so a lender based elsewhere in Ohio may have no inspector within reach of this stretch of the river. It can still order there: the Marketplace sends a background-checked inspector from the RAZE Inspection Network, and a lender that already works with someone in the Huntington area can route the order to them by Direct Request. Either way, the report comes back in the same format.

The market

Ocean Isle Beach is a barrier island about seven miles long on the south-facing stretch of the North Carolina coast, incorporated as a town in 1959. Hurricane Hazel destroyed much of the beach in 1954, and canals dug through the island give many lots their own water frontage. The 65-foot Odell Williamson Bridge, built in 1986, carries NC 904 over the Intracoastal Waterway onto the island.

How RAZE ran it

A raised beach house goes up in stages a lender wants to see one at a time: the pilings, the raised floor system, the framing and the roof. RAZE links every photo to its draw sheet line item, with GPS coordinates and a date and time stamp, so a reviewer can match each stage on a canal lot or an oceanfront lot to the money it draws.

The market

Baton Rouge is Louisiana's capital and its second-largest city, on the east bank of the Mississippi River, and its government has been combined with East Baton Rouge Parish's since 1949. The 34-story Louisiana State Capitol, 450 feet tall, is the tallest capitol in the country. In August 2016, record crests on the Amite and Comite Rivers flooded large parts of the parish.

How RAZE ran it

Orders here have come in as lot numbers, before a street address existed. A lender reviewing that draw needs to know the photos came from the right lot, not the one beside it, so every photo taken in the RAZE Mobile App carries GPS latitude and longitude with date and time stamps, linked to its draw sheet line item.