The study ordered at application saves the months the study ordered at committee always costs.
The most expensive feasibility study is the one ordered after underwriting raises the question. By then the appraisal is in flight on the borrower’s income assumptions, the committee calendar is set, and any condition the study surfaces — an equity gap, an expired environmental report, an unhired manager — arrives as a deal-stopper instead of a checklist item. The same study commissioned at application converts each of those into routine closing requirements.
The efficient sequence is study-first or study-parallel: the feasibility analysis’s stabilized projections give the appraiser a tested income basis for the income approach, and its conditions precedent surface curable problems while they are still curable. SOP 50 10 and 7 CFR 5001 both contemplate the study as application-stage evidence, not committee-stage rescue.
Order at intake whenever the file will be projection-based: any start-up or sub-two-year operation, any complete change of ownership, any special-purpose property, any ground-up construction or substantial expansion, any sell-out structure. Whoever initiates — in our experience most often the borrower, though each bank, lender, and CDC applies its own rules and lender confirmation precedes work in every case — the ten-to-fifteen-business-day delivery on a standard study fits inside the application window invisibly; the same study squeezed between committee dates becomes the critical path.
A secondary benefit lenders under-use: the early study disciplines the borrower’s package. Sponsors who know an independent analyst will test the budget and the pro forma assemble better budgets and pro formas — before the lender spends underwriting hours on the weak version.
President, Wert-Berater, Inc. — independent feasibility study consultants since 1998. More than 4,000 feasibility studies completed across all 50 states and internationally, evaluating $40.2 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.
+1 310-857-2443 ext. 800 · email · 1968 South Coast Hwy, Ste 2382, Laguna Beach, CA 92651 · 111 Town Square Pl Ste 1238 PMB 657834, Jersey City, NJ 07310 · 539 W. Commerce St #8486, Dallas, TX 75208
Schedule a ConversationIndependent feasibility studies since 1998 — 4,000+ engagements, $40.2 billion in evaluated project value. Standard delivery in 10 to 15 business days. Fiduciary duty to the lender and agency.