At ACUMA's Make Your Mark 2025 Annual Conference in Denver, Penny Roach, EVP of Client Growth at Trinity Real Estate Solutions, delivered a powerful message to credit unions: construction lending doesn’t have to be risky—if you have the right tools, processes, and partners. Her presentation, “Mitigating Risk and Leveraging Tech Solutions in Construction Lending,” addressed the national housing shortage and laid out a clear path for credit unions to become proactive, confident players in the construction finance space.
The Housing Gap: Urgency Meets Opportunity
The numbers are sobering. Builders need to produce approximately 2 million homes annually for the next 7.5 years just to catch up with demand. Total annualized housing permits through 2025 were 1,330,000 which represents an approximate 7% decline over 2024.
That is well below the annual new homes needed to close the gap. Zoning restrictions, limited inventory, and affordability constraints have slowed progress for years. Yet 2024 marked a turning point: for the first time since 2016, new home construction outpaced household formation. Builders are responding with incentives such as closing cost credits and interest rate buydowns to address affordability issues, but increasing housing costs have driven many first-time home buyers out of the market.
Construction lenders need to finance approximately 400,000 homes annually to help close the gap but building and managing a construction loan portfolio is not for the weak hearted.
Risk Isn’t Inevitable—It’s Manageable
Roach made it clear: up to 70% of construction lending risk can be mitigated before a single dollar is disbursed. Trinity’s approach begins with thorough builder and project vetting—credit checks, license verification, insurance coverage, and background searches. But it goes deeper. Trinity helps lenders assess construction budgets, contracts, plans, and draw schedules to ensure every project is viable and well-documented.
As Penny Roach put it during her presentation, “Risk isn’t something you eliminate, it’s something you mitigate. And with the right partners, policies and process, you can effectively reduce risk by implementing a strong pre-close process before the loan is closed.
This isn’t just paperwork, it’s protection. And it’s the kind of due diligence that credit unions can rely on to safeguard their portfolios and their members.
To support this process, Trinity offers a downloadable Pre-Close Checklist on its website, a practical tool that helps lenders evaluate projects with confidence and consistency.
Post-Close Oversight: Where Many Lenders Falter
Once construction begins, the risks shift. Delays, cost overruns, misappropriated funds, and lien issues can derail even the most promising projects. Trinity’s post-close draw management system is designed to prevent these pitfalls. From signed draw authorizations and reconciled budgets to lien waivers and cost overrun tracking, its process ensures that every dollar is accounted for and every milestone is verified.
It’s not just about catching problems, it’s about proactively preventing them.
Technology That Works for You
In today’s lending environment, manual processes aren’t just inefficient, they’re dangerous. Trinity’s tech platform offers API connectivity, secure compliance, and full lifecycle support from pre-close builder and project underwriting to post-close inspections. Automated inspection ordering and real-time risk reporting give credit unions the tools they need to stay ahead of issues, not react to them.
And because Trinity integrates with multiple third-party vendors, credit unions don’t have to overhaul their systems, they just plug and play.
Trinity: A Strategic Ally for Credit Unions
Trinity Real Estate Solutions isn’t just a vendor, they’re a strategic and trusted partner. Their deep expertise in construction lending, combined with their commitment to transparency and innovation, makes them an ideal partner for credit unions ready to make a difference in construction financing.
As Penny Roach made clear at ACUMA 2025, the housing crisis is real, but so is the opportunity. With the right tools, the right processes, and the right partner, credit unions can lead the way in building homes, strengthening communities, and managing risk with confidence.
Ready to elevate your construction lending program?
Download Trinity’s Pre-Close Checklist and discover how their tools and expertise can transform your approach to risk, oversight, and growth.
