Marketplace vs. Direct Request for Draw Inspections

Every draw inspection ordered through RAZE is fulfilled one of two ways. Marketplace is RAZE-managed fulfillment: RAZE sends a background-checked inspector from the RAZE Inspection Network, at $125 per single-family inspection at any U.S. address. Direct Request is lender-directed fulfillment: your own staff or a vendor you already work with performs the inspection, ordered and standardized through RAZE, at $25 per request, and you pay your inspector directly.

Both paths run through the same Ordering Engine, the same RAZE Mobile App in the field, and the same standardized report in your loan file. What changes is who performs the inspection, who manages that relationship, and what you are optimizing for: coverage, control, cost, or all three.

This guide explains how each model works, the advantages and trade-offs of each, and a short framework for deciding which to use on a given order, market or portfolio. Most lenders end up running both, and the workflow is built so they can.

The RAZE Marketplace is managed fulfillment through the RAZE Inspection Network. When an order is routed to Marketplace, RAZE assigns an inspector by location, availability, experience and the rules your institution has configured, manages the assignment through to report delivery, and reviews the report before it reaches you.

The network is not an open crowd. Every inspector and inspection firm passes the same published screening before any assignment is visible: identity verification, a competency assessment, watchlist and AML screening, and proof of insurance. On residential draw inspections, RAZE averages 1.1 days from request to submission nationwide.

For a lender, the practical effect is coverage without vendor management. You do not find, screen, contract or chase an inspector in a market where you have none. You place the order, RAZE fulfills it at the published rate, and the report arrives in the same format as every other inspection in your portfolio.

Where Marketplace has trade-offs

Marketplace is the answer to a coverage problem. It is not automatically the answer everywhere.

• You are choosing a standard, not a person. RAZE assigns the inspector within your rules. If a specific relationship matters on a specific project, that is a Direct Request.
• It can duplicate a panel you already run. If your preferred vendors turn inspections quickly and cheaply in your core markets, routing those orders to Marketplace adds little. Keep the panel, and use Marketplace for what it cannot cover.
• Your negotiated rate may be lower. Direct Request charges $25 per request, and you keep paying your inspector at the rate you agreed with them. Where that rate is low, Direct Request can be the cheaper path.

Direct Request is lender-directed fulfillment. You decide who performs the inspection: an internal inspector, other lender personnel, or a preferred vendor you already contract with. RAZE does not choose the inspector. It gives that inspector a structured order in the Inspector Portal, the RAZE Mobile App for field capture, and the same report template everyone else follows. You pay your inspector directly; RAZE charges $25 per request for the software and the report.

This is the model for institutions that have inspection resources and want to keep them. It also answers the most common objection lenders raise when they evaluate inspection software: "We are not replacing our vendors." With Direct Request you do not. Your vendors keep the work. What changes is that every one of them now submits through one intake, one capture standard and one report format, which is what a reviewer, an auditor or an examiner needs to see.

Where Direct Request has trade-offs

Direct Request gives you control, and control has a cost.

• Coverage is yours to solve. If your vendor is unavailable, on vacation or two hundred miles away, the order waits unless you have a backstop. Marketplace is the backstop.
• Screening and performance management stay with you. RAZE standardizes what your vendor submits, but who is on your panel and whether they belong there is your call.
• Onboarding is real, if small. Each internal inspector or vendor is set up once in the Inspector Portal and the RAZE Mobile App before their first assignment. Many draw inspection vendors already work in the app.

The models are not two systems. They are two routing destinations inside one workflow, and they differ at exactly one step: who gets the assignment. The order is created once, in the Ordering Engine, through the RAZE API or from an MCP-compatible AI assistant, with the project address and your template attached. Routing then sends it down one of two lanes, and both lanes end at the same report and the same audit trail.

Route an order, a market or a whole segment of the portfolio to Marketplace when the problem is coverage.

• New markets. You closed a loan two states away from your nearest inspector. Marketplace gives you a screened inspector there without opening a vendor search, at the same rate you pay at home.
• Rural and remote properties. Long drives and thin local supply are the norm. The rate is the same at any U.S. address, and offline capture means the report is complete even where the signal is not.
• Volume spikes. A builder program, a seasonal push or a portfolio acquisition adds draws faster than your panel can absorb. Marketplace flexes; a fixed panel does not.
• Your vendor is unavailable. They declined, missed the service level or went quiet. The order should fall through to Marketplace automatically rather than sit in someone's inbox.
• Vendor concentration. If one firm performs most of your inspections in a region, Marketplace is a ready alternative when you need one.
• Scopes outside your panel's specialty. Commercial draws, property condition assessments and other work your residential panel does not handle.

Route to Direct Request when you already have the inspector and the problem is consistency, not coverage.

• Established preferred vendor panels. You have negotiated pricing, known quality and years of history. Keep it, and standardize the output.
• In-house inspection teams. Internal inspectors get structured orders, mobile capture and a report format that matches what your outside vendors produce.
• Relationship-sensitive projects. A repeat builder, a high-profile borrower, or a project where continuity from draw to draw matters.
• Policy or program requirements. Some programs require, or your credit policy prefers, that a designated employee or approved firm performs the inspection. Direct Request satisfies that without a separate process.
• High-density local volume. In a market where your panel turns inspections quickly and cheaply, there is no reason to change what works.

The models are not a fork in the road. They are two routing destinations inside one workflow, and the strongest configuration uses both:

1. Direct Request as the default in core markets. Orders route to your preferred panel or internal inspectors first.
2. Marketplace as the automatic backstop. If no preferred resource accepts the order within your service level, it falls through to Marketplace without anyone re-keying it.
3. Marketplace as the default outside the footprint. New states, rural counties and scopes your panel does not handle route straight to the network.
4. Routing rules by branch, portfolio or project type. One institution-wide reporting standard, with routing that reflects how each business line operates.
5. One service level, tracked either way. Scheduling, inspection and delivery times are measured against the same expectations whether RAZE or your vendor performed the work.

Both models return the same report, so the mix can change over time without any change to what reviewers, auditors or your CLA platform receive. Start with the model that matches your current resources, and let the routing rules absorb growth.

Both rates are on the RAZE Rate Card. Marketplace is $125 per single-family draw inspection when RAZE sends the inspector, plus $35 per additional unit, so a duplex is $160, a triplex $195 and a quadplex $230. Direct Request is $25 per request with your own inspector, whom you pay directly; RAZE charges for the software and the report and adds no markup to your inspector's fee. Either way the rate is the same at any U.S. address, including Alaska and Hawaii, with no geographic or travel surcharge, no minimums and no platform fee, billed monthly and subject to a RAZE master services agreement.

For the general question, a standard residential draw inspection in the U.S. typically runs $100 to $300 per site visit; that is the market, not a RAZE price. In residential programs the fee may be incorporated into borrower closing costs, subject to lender policy and applicable requirements.

Neither model asks you to replace your construction loan administration system. RAZE runs beside the CLA you already use, including Presidium (by Codefi, a RAZE affiliate), and the inspection record returns to the environment your team already works in.

For audit and compliance purposes, the point is that the record does not vary by who performed the inspection: one capture standard, one report, one traceable chain from order to delivery. See the compliance and audit-readiness FAQs for how lenders use that record, and the construction lending glossary for the terms behind it.