It's not about being right. It's about getting it right.
In a previous blog post I mentioned a mantra of mine, about how 'being right is less important than ultimately getting things right,' and thought I would expand on that as I've put it into practice in recent days pertaining to my quest for commercial construction financing for the Oakley Home 2.0 project, which is something I have no prior experience with (as my current home was residential owner-occupant construction financing).
So how do I approach securing commercial construction financing without any experience to draw from? The solution for me is rooted in Design Thinking and more specifically, step 4 in the process that encourages Prototyping as a way of receiving feedback, and using that feedback to improve a product offering. In my case, that product offering is a proforma and personal financial documents that aim to show banks the home construction is worth lending on and that I have the ability to execute this project as an owner/borrower.
On Monday I submitted a first draft of these various forms along with drawings, specs, and a construction budget for the home to the bank, and throughout the week had a back and forth with one of the commercial loan officers where I would receive feedback and make adjustments to the proforma to better align with what they were looking for. That's not to suggest that I did not put a lot of time, research and effort into the first draft of the proforma, but I have learned that feedback from others is often the quickest and most direct way to ultimately getting things right.
While things have been progressing nicely on the commercial construction financing front, it is still very much an ongoing process and might not end up even working out with this particular bank based on their underwriting standards. However, even if it doesn't, it will still be valuable feedback I can use in future interactions with other banks.
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| Image courtesy of http://www.dthsg.com/ |
