Construction is where diaspora property usually breaks. Money goes in, photos appear on WhatsApp, and somewhere between the slab and the roof the relationship fractures. The Okava construction module exists to take that pattern apart. This is how it works in practice, milestone by milestone.
Why five phases, not three
The phases are Foundation, Slab, Walls, Roofing, Finishes. Five is a deliberate choice. Three (slab / structure / handover) hides too much progress between releases and leaves buyers feeling like nothing is happening for weeks. Seven is over-engineered for residential. Five gives you a milestone roughly every 4–8 weeks on a typical 6–9 month build, which keeps confidence high without burying the developer in admin.
What each phase actually covers
Foundation includes excavation, footings and the slab base — the visible work of "breaking ground". Slab is the damp-proof course and ground-floor slab pour, the first hard line in the sand. Walls go up to wall-plate height, doors and window frames in. Roofing is structure plus cover; the building becomes weather-tight, which matters more than it sounds. Finishes is everything from plaster and plumbing through to paint and the snag-list handover.
The evidence we collect
Every progress upload carries three things: GPS coordinates, a timestamp and the user ID of who took it. If a photo's GPS drifts outside the registered stand boundary, the upload is flagged before it reaches you. Developers upload high-resolution photos, short walk-through videos, voice notes describing what changed, and (on larger sites) periodic drone footage. You see exactly what we see.
The approval workflow
When a developer submits a milestone, four steps follow: internal inspection by our verification team; buyer review (that's you); approval; payment release. Approval is a one-click action inside your account, but it's a meaningful one — once you approve, escrow releases the tranche and the developer is paid for that phase. Nothing about that is reversible without going through dispute resolution.
What you can do at each milestone
Three options: approve, query, or request a site call. Querying sends a typed note back to the developer with optional reference photos — they have to respond before approval can be granted. A site call is a 15-minute video walk-through where the developer walks the stand with you watching. Most buyers approve directly for the first two milestones and then book a site call for Walls and Roofing, where workmanship is most visible.
When milestones go wrong
Milestones are declined when the verification team or the buyer flags an issue: incomplete work, GPS outside the stand boundary, missing required uploads. The developer has 7 days to correct and re-submit. Repeated declines on the same milestone trigger a review of the project itself — the platform isn't designed to drag a buyer through a failing build. Okava can hold escrow pending dispute resolution if matters escalate.
What approval doesn't waive
Approving a milestone confirms that, based on the photos and any inspection you've commissioned, you accept the work to date. It does not waive defects later discovered. Snagging — the final list of small fixes at handover — is a separate step, and the developer's contract should specify a defect-liability period typically running 6–12 months from completion.
The simplest mental model
Money never moves to a developer without three things being true: the work exists (photos), the work is in the right place (GPS) and you've said it's acceptable (approval). That's the entire system, and it's the bit that lets a diaspora buyer trust a $90,000 build from 10,000 km away.
