The USDA wrote down what the study must contain. Acceptance is a matter of addressing the list — completely, in order, with evidence.
Financing a rural project? See our USDA feasibility study consultants service — built on the 7 CFR Part 5001 five-factor framework.
Federal lending programs differ in how much they specify. The SBA states principles and trusts the lender’s judgment; the USDA, in 7 CFR Part 5001, enumerates. Appendix A to Subpart D sets out the individual factors a feasibility study must address across five dimensions — economic, market, technical, financial, and management — thirty-seven in all, and agency reviewers work from that list. A study that is brilliant on thirty factors and silent on seven is a returned study.
The discipline this imposes is healthy. The economic dimension forces the analyst to place the project in its regional economy — employment base, demographic trajectory, cost-benefit synthesis. The market dimension demands demand quantification, competitive analysis, and capture-rate justification. Technical covers site, design, construction cost validation, and commissioning. Financial carries the pro forma, coverage, and stress work. Management asks whether these people can run this business — a question credit files are chronically too polite to press.
Every Wert-Berater Reg 5001 study includes a factor-compliance matrix mapping each enumerated requirement to the report section that satisfies it, with the factor’s rating and the evidence relied upon. The matrix is not decoration — it is the reviewer’s reading guide, and in our experience it is the difference between a clean acceptance and a correspondence cycle. A recent marina engagement under this framework carried a FAVORABLE cost-benefit synthesis at a net present value of $7,320,000, documented factor by factor.
Reg 5001 consolidated several older program regulations into a single guaranteed-loan framework, so the same structural discipline now serves B&I and related guaranteed programs — one list, mastered once, applied consistently.
President, Wert-Berater, Inc. — independent feasibility study consultants since 1998. 4,000+ engagements completed across all 50 states and internationally, evaluating $41.2 billion in project value for SBA, USDA, EB-5, conventional, and institutional financing decisions. Fiduciary duty runs to the lender and agency in every engagement.
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Schedule a ConversationIndependent feasibility studies since 1998 — 4,000+ engagements, $41.2 billion in evaluated project value. Standard delivery in 10 to 15 business days. Fiduciary duty to the lender and agency.
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Wert-Berater, Inc. is an independent provider of feasibility studies and other related services. The firm does not provide financing or equity investment advice, and does not arrange, broker, or place debt or equity capital of any kind.
All appraisal assignments are performed by Bruce E. Jones, MAI, ASA-GC, BCA, CMEA, a member of the Appraisal Institute since 2006, a staff member of Wert-Berater, Inc. and owner of Special Purpose Realty Valuation.