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. 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.
Legal disclosure. Wert-Berater, Inc. offices are mailing addresses only. Following the COVID-19 pandemic the firm has elected to work remotely; its office locations receive mail and are not staffed for visitors or in-person meetings. Headquarters mailing address: 1968 South Coast Hwy, Ste 2382, Laguna Beach, CA 92651.
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.