Pre-Development Is Where Velocity Happens: Here's How

The Stakes Just Got Higher

Even after a September rate cut, the U.S. homebuilding landscape remains tense. Affordability is stretched. Buyers are hesitant. Policy shifts—from tariffs to immigration enforcement—continue to unfold, and more are on the horizon. Capital is cautious, timelines are slipping, and every delayed close cuts deeper, lopping off optionality in the future.

The industry is tilting hard toward concentration and deep local scale, systems, and survivorship. Builders and developers not already on a digital path risk missing the next cycle entirely.

Against this backdrop, tools like TraceAir—a drone-powered platform for land development, site balancing, and construction progress tracking—are proving their worth, not as a “nice to have,” but as the connective tissue that saves time, dirt, and dollars in real time.

A $1.5 Million Dirt Decision

Hillwood Communities, a leading master-planned developer in North Texas, found itself stuck in a familiar pain point: paying to move dirt twice. Director of Development for DFW, Patrick Cowden, recalls the moment that changed their approach.

We found ourselves paying a lot of money to try to move dirt twice and to haul in dirt from other places. We said we’ve got to find a better way to track and understand overall site balancing.” — Patrick Cowden, Hillwood Communities.

The solution was TraceAir. In one project alone, Cowden’s team saved over $1.5 million by using TraceAir to proactively measure dirt quantities, adjust grading plans in real-time, and avoid hauling material unnecessarily.

There was one project in particular, when we were using the TraceAir platform, that saved us in excess of $1.5 million by not having to move material twice.” — Patrick Cowden.

That kind of visibility—over individual lots, stockpiles, phases, and active pads—isn’t just a bonus. It’s how builders hit schedules, hit margins, and hit escape velocity from a stagnant market.

“We're in This Together”: A Platform Built for Builders

TraceAir President Ivan Lvov describes the company’s core strategy as one of deep specialization in residential construction, with a focus on understanding its complexity and workflows in granular detail. That decision—counterintuitive during a tech sector push for generalization—was purposeful.

We see that the residential market really has the problems that our technology can solve, and solve in a way that no one else can. We are in this together. We're not going away.” — Ivan Lvov, President, TraceAir.

From dirt balancing and site prep to vertical phase coordination and layout planning, TraceAir now supports multiple stages of the construction lifecycle, always with the same goal: fast, accurate, intuitive decision-making for field teams, developers, and trade partners.

Our idea is that TraceAir – with different products – would help pretty much every single person involved, from the construction manager who is in the field every day to the division president and up to the corporate level.” — Ivan Lvov.

Not Hype. Not Hand-Waving. Just Faster, Smarter Building

One of TraceAir’s major strengths is what it replaces: educated guesswork.

With tools like Lot Viewer, Hillwood teams confirm whether every pad is built to spec—before a home goes vertical. That reduces rework and sharpens builder trust.

We use the Lot Viewer tool to confirm that we built everything per plan, but also to give our builder access to the program. We want to make sure that it’s done exactly right and exactly per the plans.” — Patrick Cowden.

And TraceAir’s visual platform isn’t just for engineers. It's deliberately built for the everyday players on a jobsite and in the office.

Our solution was done in a way that would help pretty much narrow those gaps and make sure that people are looking at the same information. Even the grader in the field should be looking at the same info as the developer and civil engineer.” — Ivan Lvov.

Velocity That Compounds Across the Enterprise

For production builders like D.R. Horton, scaling TraceAir across multiple divisions isn’t just about scanning dirt—it’s about standardization, automation, and measurable time savings across a vast project portfolio.

TraceAir helped prevent schedule delays by 20 days. Now apply that across 100 or 200 projects. That’s 500 days saved. With capital involved, that’s a lot of money.” — Ivan Lvov.

As Horton and others grow, these wins compound. Project managers gain remote access to progress scans. Division leaders get status reports without site visits. Corporate executives gain data-backed ROI. And builders, most critically, get their pads on time.

One of my favorite things about TraceAir is just the ability for me to track 10 to 15 projects from our corporate office a lot quicker than driving all over the metroplex.” — Patrick Cowden.

It’s About Cutting to the Chase

The bigger play? Supporting better decisions at every level—from field to finance—with the correct data at the right time.

The most efficient investment for a homebuilder or land developer is to make sure that as many of the people working for them—and their trade partners—can look at the same information with easy-to-use tools.” — Ivan Lvov.

This isn’t vaporware. It’s already happening. Hillwood’s development managers utilize TraceAir to facilitate collaboration with contractors. Homebuilding partners track vertical progress. Even municipalities are looped in with visual progress reports.

"The communication between both the internal Hillwood team and our external partners has been so much better. We share our screen, use the TraceAir platform, and everyone’s on the same page.” — Patrick Cowden.

Betting on Velocity When the Market Slows

Slower market conditions, while painful, also create opportunity—for those willing to modernize. Ivan Lvov believes the current slowdown is precisely the right time for builders to reassess, streamline, and integrate their operations and tackle their often siloed tech-stack head-on.

We use this opportunity to reallocate resources and start investing in new products. It’s a good time for digital transformation, and we’re setting ourselves up for growth.” — Ivan Lvov.

He’s not alone. Builders increasingly realize that operational inefficiencies—from grading errors to survey delays to misaligned handoffs—are no longer tolerable when margins are under pressure and debt is expensive.

TraceAir steps into that gap—one that has cost the industry billions in overruns, delays, and coordination breakdowns.

The developer can always freeze the construction at a certain milestone. But if the dirt is being moved, you need to finish it. And that’s where we come in—to make sure they finish efficiently, without rework or waste.” — Ivan Lvov.

A Platform Built to Scale, and to Last

As the industry shifts from spreadsheets and silos to platforms and digital threads, TraceAir is evolving too. It’s not just a scanning tool — it’s a system of record, a chain of accountability, and an integrated stream of value creation.

We’ve made our first couple of steps toward being a platform. A place where stakeholders get frequent updates on construction progress. A place where others can enrich the data. That’s our North Star.” — Ivan Lvov

And it’s built to grow.

The ROI with TraceAir has been tremendous. Across all our communities, TraceAir has helped us avoid costly mistakes, reduce rework, and dramatically improve efficiency.” — Patrick Cowden.

The Builder’s Daily Take

In an era where land is tight, margins are tighter, and buyers are sitting on the sidelines, TraceAir isn’t a luxury. It’s leverage.

It helps builders like Hillwood Communities and D.R. Horton turn standing land into inventory turns — with fewer delays, fewer errors, and fewer surprises. It turns dirt into dollars faster.

That’s not hype. That’s survival.

And in today’s market, survival is the new scale.