Omni Builder's Risk

OMNI Insurance Services, Inc. is an insurance brokerage located near Atlanta, Georgia. Since its founding in 1999, OMNI has worked with thousands of lenders developing new solutions that address many of the weak links in traditional lending processes. OMNI C2P Builders Risk was the first automated solution developed by OMNI for construction lenders. For over a century, lenders have required borrowers to buy property insurance to protect projects during the course of construction. For all those years, lenders sought to protect their majority capital investment in each loan by tracking their borrower’s insurance policies to make sure coverage was in place. If the builder’s coverage lapsed (and the lender’s tracking system worked), best practices forced the lender to damage his customer relationship by ordering very expensive “force placed” insurance and sending his borrower the bill. If the borrower failed to complete the project for whatever reason, the borrower’s insurance would lapse, leaving the lender without much needed protection. This traditional lending model was fraught with expense, bad will and risk for the lender. Between 1999 and 2001, OMNI developed and patented OMNI C2P Builders Risk, a much better system that provides tangible benefits for both the lender and the borrower. In the past ten years, OMNI C2P has served over 4,000 lenders by making 100,000+ loans more secure and has paid lenders millions of dollars in additional revenue while saving builders and consumers over $8,000,000 on the cost of the required property insurance.

More recently, OMNI has been working on automated solutions designed to make “problem loans” less problematic with proactive solutions designed to mitigate risk and improve bank results. The current recession has forced lenders into the role of developer/builder/seller. Thus, lenders have the liability exposures of a builder/developer. Legally, it is the party who ‘places the real estate into the stream of commerce’ that has the legal exposure, not just the original builder who constructed it. Many lenders have sought to discourage future construction defect claims by using “As Is” sales contracts, however these agreements are not legally effective when tested in court.

With OMNI’s REO Warranty coverage, lenders can obtain an average of 4% or more increase in the sales price of their REO properties by offering a 2-10 year warranty with the sale of the property – A warranty that addresses the lender’s statutory liability and only costs 1% of the sales price. The REO Warranty is effective risk management that enables the lender to capture construction defect claims in contractual arbitration rather than at tort in a court of law.

Once again, OMNI is pioneering solutions that help protect the bank against declines in the market value of REO property while decreasing the time to market. Recognizing banker’s need to clear these distressed assets off their balance sheets as effectively and efficiently as possible, OMNI has solutions that allow lenders to mitigate many of the risks associated with consumer real estate sales.