Ask any contractor in just about any trade what they hate most about their jobs, and the overwhelming response would probably be “paperwork!”

These hardworking individuals who make our American Dream possible have had to put up with local and regional bureaucratic red tape for decades, forcing them to stand in line to submit paperwork to various city offices every time they perform their handiwork. The time and expense it takes for this permitting process to take place is no doubt included in the price of any new home or remodeling job, thereby driving up the costs of construction.

But Internet technologies are coming to the rescue to hundreds of contractors across the country with the advent of paperless, online permitting, made possible by a South San Francisco-based firm called NetClerk. Founded a year ago on the premise of helping construction trades do business with city governments more efficiently, NetClerk enables cities to grant permits by filling out forms online when it is convenient for contractors, 24/7, eliminating in-person visits to city permit offices, jammed-up fax machines, and volumes of stored paperwork. Although there are other firms utilizing similar technology, NetClerk says it is the first to introduce it to the building industry, gaining it a stronghold, according to company sources.

Now serving 1200 cities nationwide and hoping to double that number by next year, Jeff Krantz, NetClerk's president and CEO, explains, “If you can imagine, a construction firm needing to begin a job, any job, anywhere in the country, their first responsibility lies with getting a building permit with city governments."

He continues, “When the need arises for a construction company to file tens or hundreds of permits monthly, there is a pain point for them in their back office operations where they have to manually file these permits. It’s a very tedious, fragmented environment for them. What NetClerk has done is offer one uniform process; the ability to go to one destination point and then interface with hundreds of cities in their particular geography.”

Krantz goes on to say that there are different sectors of the trades that benefit from their range of services; general contractors, core trades and subcontractors, all of whom can be assisted in interfacing with city governments.

“We’re essentially an expeditor,” said NetClerk’s spokesperson, Laura Hyde, in an interview with Minnesota’s business daily, Finance and Commerce. “What makes us different is that we’re high-tech. This means that we can take all the contractor’s information off the Internet and do all the back-end work. We’re also able to store all the permit applications so you don’t have to keep a physical file.”

Designing a system that can simplify things is not an easy task when dealing with governmental entities. With approximately 18,000 cities in the U.S., each with its own set of forms, this will definitely be a work in progress. Cities themselves are not charged for the services, according to company sources, making it an easier decision to convert to the new technologies. Contractors can pay a small, flat fee for a specified number of permits, or opt to pay a monthly fee if their volume warrants it.

Co-founder John Fisher admits that there are still cities that require a contractor to show up at their counter to file for permits, but for those that have embraced the NetClerk system, a contractor can simply log on through one part of the system and print out permits in a matter of minutes. City governments can use the site to review, approve and manage these building permit applications over the Web.

In addition to online permitting, NetClerk has recently introduced another service; business license renewals. This new feature allows contractors to automatically renew business licenses across multiple cities. Their service can track expiration dates on all licenses and permit NetClerk to submit completed paperwork and payments on behalf of the contractor before the renewal date.

With the Internet and its emerging technologies streamlining what was once cumbersome, time-sensitive, and highly bureaucratic, companies such as NetClerk will allow contractors to reap more productivity, while focusing less on burdensome government paperwork, potentially benefiting consumers as the end-users of their skills.

Published: January 19, 2001

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A veteran of the real estate and homebuilding industries since 1986, Dena Kouremetis first joined Realty Times as a new homes writer in 1998. Since then, she has authored four books, written consumer columns on new homes issues for websites and newspapers all across the country, contributed to builder trade magazines, appeared as a guest expert on several radio shows and even created a ten-chapter podcast for LendingTree.com’s homebuilder website, iNest.com, now available on iTunes, entitled Uncharted Waters; Navigating the Purchase of a New Production Home. Kouremetis recently joined her local Folsom, CA Coldwell Banker office as a broker associate while continuing to write for the real estate industry. For the past three years, she has been training real estate agents for both the resale and new homes industries, putting her experience, research expertise and gift of expression to work to help others entering the business.