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Enrique Gimenez

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Ditching Your Construction Loan Spreadsheet with Construct

By Blog

What is a Construction Loan Spreadsheet and Why Would You Want to Ditch it?

Construction loan spreadsheets are not only difficult to maintain but also time-consuming. With the help of construction loan automation software like Construct, you can ditch your spreadsheet, streamline your lending process, and get back to focusing on other business.

There are some drawbacks with the manual construction loan spreadsheet process that make it worth considering an upgrade to modern solutions like construction loan automation software.

Construction loan spreadsheets are not the most efficient way to track finances. This can lead to a lot of errors and costly mistakes being made. They also lack some critical features that make managing finances more difficult, such as custom reporting features and draw import features, which are critical for any construction lending institution. Construct, construction loan automation software has been developed to provide lenders with the tools they need to manage all of their loans portfolios efficiently.

How Do I Get Rid of My Construction Loan Spreadsheet?

The manual spreadsheet process that many banks use to track construction lending is slow, with back and forth emails, phone calls, and little to no visibility for some parties. There is now an easy way to get rid of your spreadsheet. Construct is a simple, yet powerful tool that will take care of all the paperwork for you, alert stakeholders when inspections and draws have been submitted, and provide banks with reports and visibility at their fingertips, from anywhere, even while on the construction site.

Four Signs Your Bank Has Outgrown Spreadsheets

  1. Reporting takes too much time to compile and presentations are delayed
    • With Construct, customized reporting is at your fingertips and easy to download and present quickly.
  2. Difficulty consolidating data from multiple lenders and divisions within your bank
    • Construction Loan Software allows all stakeholders to have access to one system.
  3. Errors from too many versions manually collected, prepared, and shared
    • Construct’s automatic calculations and overfunding alerts keep all stakeholders on the same page.
  4. Inability to collaborate yields inefficiency and limited visibility without your organization
    • Construct’s automatic notifications help lenders close faster, increasing staff efficiency and project time

Improve the Borrower Experience

Lenders today are not only looking for efficiency for themselves, they’re looking for ways to keep and attract their best customers. Improving the borrower experience is one of those key ways that banks are maintaining and expanding their lending network. Many borrowers have reported an increase in satisfaction after using construction automation software.

Having the ability to submit an inspection or progress report from the worksite helps borrowers and builders increase their own organization and efficiency. Automatic notifications decrease the number of emails and phone calls needed to keep up with a loan, freeing up more time for borrowers to complete other tasks. Borrowers also appreciate having the ability to check the status of requests from anywhere, on any device, and not having to wait for an email or call to be returned.

Increase Efficiency with Construct

Whether you’re an experienced lender with a huge construction portfolio or just starting to grow your construction lending portfolio, BankLabs has the tools you need to manage all types of loans. With Construct your process is streamlined and your capacity is increased with less manual work, taking days off of your cycle time and increasing your draw interest. Plus, our system will provide a higher level of service to your customers, increasing efficiency and providing a better customer experience.

Mitigate Risk with Construct

Real-time reporting, automatic alerts, and detailed audit trails keep financial institutions better informed and protected than the manual spreadsheet-based process. Spreadsheets can’t send you an alert when your loan is at risk. But Construct can! Get notices BEFORE there is a problem, instead of after.

Start Saving Money And Spend More Time Doing What Matters

Construction lending is complex, time-consuming, and costly. Our solution Construct solves these problems by providing a convenient and easy way to manage construction loans from the lender’s perspective. It eliminates the need for paperwork and manual processes involved in a construction loan, increases borrower satisfaction, and increases draw income but up to 15%. Saving time and money, and freely staff to focus on other internal needs. For many banks, this is a no brainer! 

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Loan Participation Technology

By Blog

How do Loan Participations Work?

In today’s financial climate, banks are looking for ways to reduce risk, diversify their portfolio, increase liquidity, and remain flexible and nimble. One of the growing ways to accomplish all of these advantages is to originate and participate in loans with other institutions. There are several reasons that banks buy and sell loans, and the process benefits both parties. 

Benefits of Loan Participations

A lender can benefit from loan participations in many ways. First, they can reduce and manage risk by working with other financial institutions to fund a loan. Second, they can diversify their portfolio by investing in different types of loans. Each bank must manage their balance sheet appropriately and most even have guidelines and limits they must abide by. 

Loan Participations are beneficial for both the originator and the participants in many of the same ways:

Benefits of Loan Participations for the Originators

Originators are often looking to retain key clients. By originating a loan and seeking participants, banks can retain those key clients by being able to take on a loan above their limit. This way your best customers do not turn to a competitor to fulfill their larger loans. Other benefits include:

  • Reducing concentration risk
  • Diversifying your portfolio
  • Making more loans
  • Increasing fee income

Benefits of Loan Participations for the Participants

Oftentimes, banks are looking for ways to manage their balance sheet, by putting access funds to work. We all know that investing funds results in more return than when funds are stagnant. Other benefits include:

  • Diversifying your portfolio
  • Increase interest income
  • CRA credits

How to Get Started with Loan Participations?

Many banks start small, with lenders they’re familiar with. Some financial institutions don’t know where to begin, and do not have established trading partners. Maybe their known partners aren’t able to contribute at this time.

 That is where an online marketplace like Participate can come in handy. Not only will you be able to connect with other banks looking for trading partners, you will be able to maintain and keep track of all your documents and shares in one place. Making participations faster and easier to do.

What is Loan Participation Technology?

Loan participation technology has been around for a few years but it has become more popular in recent years as lenders have begun using it more often with the rise of online lending platforms. The old manual process of mailing documents back and forth had formerly driven many banks to avoid the process entirely.

Loan participation technology has had a huge surge recently, with more banks looking for new trading partners than ever before. 

Loan participation software assists in all aspects of the loan process, from origination to servicing. It provides a centralized system to manage loan applications and approvals, while it also manages risk and compliance. 

What to look for in a Loan Participation Technology Tool

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The right loan participation technology connects banks with new trading partners and provides e-signature capabilities and other efficiency tools.

Users are able to choose the terms and conditions of their loans, the amount they want to invest, and other factors. Look for a tool that takes care of your NDA’s and non-compete agreements. As this will save you weeks of back and forth emails and phone calls.

The right tool will increase bank efficiency, cutting weeks off of the traditional slow participation process, giving your bank the additional liquidity and flexibility needed to maximize profits.

BankLabs has created a new way to revolutionize the traditionally slow participation process with Participate, a simple project management system that empowers users to self-serve and submit, track, and follow up on their data requests.

How You Can Start Using Participate: Loan Participation Technology

Participate is a revolutionary new platform that allows lenders to participate in peer-to-peer loans. With Participate, banks  with loans to sell can connect banks that are looking for loans to buy, and our automated platform makes participations faster and easier to do. 

Best of all, Participate is free for downstream buyers.

Participate is the best way to manage all of your participations. Whether you’re looking to buy or sell a participation, you’ll be able to manage it on Participate. With over 250 banks on the platform today, our customer base is growing weekly, and we’re always adding new features to make it easier for you to manage your participations.

Participate is a secure and efficient way to digitize and share loan info, documents, and automate workflow for originators, participants and lenders.

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Construction Loan Administration and How it Can Help You

By Blog

What is Construction Loan Administration?

Construction loan administration is now a vital part of the construction lending process. Whether a bank’s construction lending portfolio is big or small, managing the risk of your portfolio is vital to success.

Although many financial institutions prefer to keep their construction loan administration in house, a growing number are utilizing digital tools to help their staff become more efficient. 

This process includes some or all of the following:

– Reviewing and approving borrower’s construction loan application and related documentation.

– Processing payments to contractors and subcontractors.

– Monitoring progress.

– Disbursement administration.

– Closing out the construction loan.

– Reporting for all parties.

Why You Need an Administration Service for Your Construction Loans – 3 Important Benefits

Construction loans typically have several parties involved. Construction loans are usually long-term and require a lot of documentation to be submitted to the lender by stakeholders. This is where an administration service comes in handy for construction loans.

The benefit of an administration service is that it will take care of all the tedious paperwork. A digital tool benefits financial institutions even more by offering a seamless updated process. Instead of going back to the office to submit an inspector, inspectors can submit documentation on their phone or tablet right from the construction site.

There are three benefits that come from using an administration service for your construction loans:

– It takes care of all the tedious paperwork for you, which would otherwise be time-consuming and difficult. This speeds up your cycle time which increases draw interest income.

– It streamlines the process so errors are minimized.

– It keeps the funding cycle moving, notifying each party when an update has been submitted.

– It offers each participant individualized reports that can be customized to their role and needs.

Essential Requirements of a Construction Loan Management Software

The construction loan management software is a system that helps lenders manage their financial transactions.

The best construction loans management software should be able to solve the following problems:

– It should be able to generate highly customizable reports.

– The user interface and navigation should be easy to use.

– It should provide real-time updates on the current status of payments and loans.

As a lender, it can be difficult to keep track of your contracts, invoices, and payments. That’s why we’ve developed Construct – the world’s leading construction loan management software. With its robust features, it’s easy to create a personalized contract management system that will save you time and money. Best of all, it works with your core system and other software.

Simplify Managing Construction Loans

The manual construction lending process is inefficient and prone to errors. Our solution, Construct, simplifies the process of managing construction loans. With a single software platform, lenders can originate, track, manage, and close any type of construction loan from start to finish.

Traditionally, construction lenders have to manage the workflow themselves, which includes making sure that the right documents are submitted at the right time and coordinating paperwork with the borrower and other parties. With Construct, all lenders need to do is upload their docs and get a complete dashboard of their construction loan. Construct also has a powerful dashboard for builders to manage their projects. It’s as easy as logging in at any time to view progress on a job, submit changes or request approvals.

Increase Draw Interest and Efficiency

Lenders are always looking for ways to manage their risks and provide more efficient services. A large part of the process is drawing interest from clients that want to finance their next project. The problem is, lenders spend hours coordinating projects, which can extend the drawing process by days. That’s where our solution comes in. Construct helps lenders draw more interest in less time and make more efficient deals by automating the process.

We developed a system to automate the process of managing construction loans. Our platform provides lenders with an automated system to manage all the necessary documents, calculations and reporting so they can focus on what matters most – serving your community. No more manually calculating interest, no more uploading documents one by one, no more copying and pasting data from one form to another. The age of spreadsheets is over.

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Construct – Construction Loan Management

By Blog

Construction Loan Management to Help You Build a Better Bank

Years ago, lenders used spreadsheets and manually entered calculations in order to keep up with the complex and tedious details of each and every construction loan they managed. It could take days to receive inspection details and approve draw requests. Fast forward to today, where bankers have custom reports at their fingertips and inspections can submit details from the construction site.

We created BankLabs Construct to streamline the construction loan management process, so bankers could spend less time on spreadsheets and get back to serving their communities. With automated draw exports, budget calculations, and inspections, bankers are adding days of interest income back to each draw. At the same time, bankers are seeing a stronger relationship with borrowers, builders, and other stakeholders that appreciate having an efficient, easy digital solution to work with.

Construction Loan Management Process: How To Modernize and Streamline

The days of waiting a week for draw approvals and inspections are gone. Banks are now using construction loan management software like Construct to streamline their draw approval process. Our digital workflow accelerates draw cycle times, providing approvals days after than the manual process and can increase draw interest by 8-12%. 

Automated inspections also accelerate the draw approval process by instantly providing bankers with the information they need to fund a draw request quickly. This can add additional days of interest income to every draw. These features, combined with digital notifications, are helping over 150 banks streamline and modernize their construction loan management process today.

Manage Your Construction Loans Effectively

 

The amount of manual data entry needed to manage a construction loan portfolio can be daunting, not to mention ineffective. Without constant analysis, problems can arise within a spreadsheet without an admin noticing. Construct uses budget and loan data imports to reduce the amount of time needed to enter data into the system. The ability to upload loan data into BankLabs Construct eliminates the need to manually re-enter information and reduces the risk of human error.

Our automatic budget calculations feature automatically calculates remaining budgets based on draws, further reducing the risk of human error and allows bankers to spend less time doing manual calculations. 

Construction Loan Management Benefits

Construction lending is a significant portion of many financial institutions’ portfolio. Construction loan management tool benefits include:

– Maximizing ROI by taking days off of your turn-around time.

– Mitigating risk by providing detailed audit trails and real time alerts. Spreadsheets can’t alert you when a loan is overfunded.

– Improving the experience with borrowers, builders, and other stakeholders by offering an easy-to-use mobile solution.

Construction Loan Management Reports

One of the best features of a construction loan management tool is that it provides a detailed audit trail for each property and real-time reporting for an institution’s construction loan portfolio. This allows for efficient and informed oversight from an executive level. One of the most popular features of Construct is our custom reporting feature. At the click of a button, this automated feature provides a real-time look at a bank’s construction portfolio, decreasing risk and helping institutions make faster business decisions. 

Mitigate Risk and Optimize Construction Lending

Construction lending, traditionally a high-risk industry, is ripe for change and digital transformation. Our tool maximizes risk mitigation for our clients. In fact, auditors love us! Construct helps reduce risk by providing a detailed audit trail and real time alerts to users. You have 24/7 access to loan monitoring on any mobile device.

Construct – Leading Construction Loan Management Software

Struggling to manage your construction loans? We’ve got a solution! Construct is the industry-leading Construction Loan Management Software, providing construction lenders and contractors with a streamlined system allowing them to manage their loans and projects. With a suite of tools, Construct helps you minimize risk while making the most of opportunities.

The construction industry is one of the most profitable industries in the US and it’s only getting bigger. Unfortunately, it can be time-consuming and manual for lenders, especially as a financial institution grows. Construct solves this by automating the workflow, providing real-time analytics, and helping avoid costly mistakes.

loan management

Construction Loan Monitoring and Why You Need It

By Blog

What is Construction Loan Monitoring and Why is it Important?

Construction loan monitoring is the process of reviewing and monitoring a construction loan to ensure that it is being paid in a timely manner.

Construction loans are typically loans that are taken out for the construction of a building, which need to be repaid in full after the completion of the project. Construction loan monitoring ensures that these construction loans are being repaid on time and will not negatively affect the borrower’s credit rating.

Construction financing is often considered to be one of the most risky types of lending because it relies on future income and assets. This type of financing usually has higher interest rates than other types of lending but also has more lenient repayment schedules and terms.

Construction loans are a type of financing that allows developers to build homes and other buildings. Construction loan monitoring is an important part of construction loans because it helps ensure that the developer does not default on the loan.

Defaulting on a construction loan can be catastrophic for both parties involved. The developer could lose access to their funds, which will make it difficult to complete their project. The lender will also suffer from a loss in revenue, which they might not be able to recover from.

How to Choose the Right Construction Loan Monitor for Your Company

In the construction industry, there are many different types of loan monitors and lenders. It can be daunting to find the right one for your company.

The right construction loan monitoring tool can increase efficiency while reducing errors. It can provide a detailed audit trail and custom reporting. The best construction financing monitor will give you all of this information in an easy-to-read format.

Banklabs Construct brings all your loans under one roof and gives you a complete overview of your portfolio. It calculates your risk exposure, provides alerts on delinquent loans, and keeps you updated on changes in interest rates. With all parties on the same page, Construct reduces risk while increasing cycle times, leading to fewer losses and greater gains.

 

5 Construction Loan Monitoring Best Practices

When it comes to construction finance, there are a number of best practices that can be followed. These practices will help in the monitoring of construction loans and the process of securing them.

These 5 tips will help you monitor your construction loans more efficiently:

  1. Make sure your process has risk monitoring checks throughout the process
  2. Increase your staff capacity with modern technology
  3. Have reporting capability on hand at all times
  4. Store documents all in one place for easy monitoring
  5. Automate as much of the manual process as possible to reduce errors

How Construct Loan Monitoring Software can Help You Save Money While Raising Awareness of Risks

Construction loan monitoring helps you save money in a variety of ways. It helps you save money by catching any problems with your contractor before they become costly problems that can’t be fixed. It also saves you money by preventing unnecessary change orders and by catching any errors before they happen. Alerts take the guesswork out of your lending process.

In addition to saving you money, construction loan monitoring also serves as an awareness tool for risks. When done properly, it can help identify risks and vulnerabilities in your project so that they can be mitigated ahead of time. 

Other construction lending process risks include:

  • Project Delays
  • Overfunding
  • Unnecessary line items
  • Delayed timeline

By carefully monitoring the project process and receiving overfunding alerts and notifications, lenders can catch mistakes before they become a problem.

What are the Benefits of Loan Monitoring Services?

Construction loan monitoring is an important aspect of construction lending. 

The benefits of construction loan monitoring include:

– Ensuring timely repayment

– Protecting lender’s interest

– Ensuring that the project is completed on time and within budget

What is the Best Way to Monitor a Construction Loan in the New World of Digital Technologies?

Construction loans are complex, and the best way to manage them is to make sure that you have a system in place.

Monitoring construction loans is not an easy task. It requires a lot of know-how and experience, which can be hard for some people to come by.

As the world of digital finance continues to grow, the need for a new type of construction loan system is arising. Construct is an innovative and simple solution for this growing need. The platform provides transparency and control for both lenders and borrowers as it tracks the loans in real-time. A unique and highly secure process, Construct helps to better manage risk. As a result, it is easier for companies to grow their business with less risk involved.

 

Expediting Draw Processing through Construction Loan Monitoring

Monitoring your construction loan is very important because it will help you stay on top of any changes in your financial status and manage your assets and liabilities more effectively.

The construction loan monitoring process is an important part of the entire construction finance process. Construction loans are often complex and involve a lot of moving parts. As a financial institution grows it’s construction portfolio, manual monitoring can extend the draw process time to an unhealthy level. A monitoring tool will use automation to cut the manual time down and expedite your draw process timeline, leading ultimately to more funding.