Construction, Bullhead City, AZ: a term sheet in two days

The situation

A sponsor was planning a 131-lot residential development in Bullhead City, Arizona, and needed a construction lender comfortable underwriting a programmatic build-out, draws tied to phased completion, not a single-asset construction loan. Ground-up construction is one of the harder placements we see: fewer lenders compete for it, and the ones who do underwrite the exit as hard as the build.

What we did

We sized the request on cost and on projected lot sales at each draw milestone, not on a rough estimate from the total project budget. The package included a phased draw schedule and a stressed absorption case for lot sales, the two questions every construction lender asks first. That level of detail is what let the file move fast once it reached the right desk.

"We sent the phased draw schedule and the lot absorption case with the first package. The term sheet came back in two days."

Jerry Rivera

Director, Originations

The outcome

Fifty-two lenders were reviewed against the file's profile. A term sheet came back in two days at 9.75% and 75% loan-to-cost, a fast turn for ground-up construction, where two to three weeks to a term sheet is more typical when the draw schedule and absorption case need to be built after the fact.

Why it matters

The lesson generalizes beyond construction: a complete file, the right documents, spread from source, stressed before it ships, gets read by more lenders, faster. Our note on why a complete file gets a better quote covers what that completeness is worth in speed and lender interest.