Honest, side-by-side comparisons with the major and boutique firms borrowers consider — so you engage the right one for your project and its financing.
Choosing a feasibility study provider is not about picking the biggest name — it is about matching the document to what your lender, agency, or investor requires. Global brokerages excel at transactions and portfolio strategy; specialist firms are built to satisfy a specific financing program. Wert-Berater, Inc. has prepared independent feasibility studies since 1998 — 4,000+ engagements, $41.2 billion in evaluated project value — spanning SBA, USDA, USCIS EB-5, and bank-underwritten loan files and large private- and institutional-capital developments worldwide — from oil & gas refineries in Qatar and Dubai and a 150,000-square-foot indoor food production facility in Qatar, to resort developments across the Caribbean and Latin America, manufacturing facilities in Bulgaria, Finland, the Czech Republic, Germany, and Saudi Arabia, and the approximately $1 billion Collin Creek Mall mixed-use redevelopment in Plano, Texas. The comparisons below lay out, honestly, where each firm fits.
Brand size is not experience, and experience is not the same as the credentials that a lender, agency, or court looks for on the signature page. The table below sets out, for every firm compared here, how long it has been in business and what its team publicly holds — drawn from each firm's own published material. Where a firm does not publish a founding year, an engagement count, or professional designations, that is stated rather than filled in.
| Firm | Experience & track record | Team & credentials |
|---|---|---|
| Wert-Berater, Inc. | Founded 1998 — 25+ years, 4,000+ engagements, $41.2 billion in evaluated project value. | US-based senior team — MAI-designated appraisers and former investment-banking professionals, each with 6–20+ years of direct experience; the principal who signs your study does the analysis. |
| CBRE | Traces to San Francisco, 1906; today the world's largest commercial real estate services firm by revenue, operating from 600+ offices. | Well over 100,000 employees worldwide across brokerage, capital markets, valuation, research, and project management; MAI-designated appraisers sit within its valuation & advisory practice. Who is assigned to a study depends on the local office. |
| JLL | Roots in London to 1783; the firm as it exists today was formed by the 1999 merger of LaSalle Partners and Jones Lang Wootton. | 110,000+ employees across 80+ countries in consulting, capital markets, valuation, and property management; valuation teams include MAI- and RICS-designated professionals. |
| Cushman & Wakefield | Founded in New York in 1917 by J. Clydesdale Cushman and Bernard Wakefield; more than a century of brokerage and valuation history. | Roughly 50,000 employees across about 60 countries; appraisal work is handled by its valuation & advisory group, where MAI and RICS designations are common. |
| Colliers | Canadian roots to 1898 (Macaulay Nicolls); the global Colliers platform was assembled through decades of mergers and is publicly listed. | More than 20,000 professionals in 400+ offices across some 65 countries, spanning brokerage, valuation, and investment management. |
| Newmark | Founded 1929; Nasdaq-listed (NMRK) and among the larger US capital-markets advisors. | Company figures cite over 10,000 professionals across roughly 195 offices; valuation & advisory staffed by designated appraisers. |
| HVS | Founded 1980 in Garden City, New York by Steve Rushmore as Hospitality Valuation Services; 40+ offices worldwide and the origin of a widely cited hotel valuation methodology. | A few hundred hospitality specialists globally; senior consultants commonly hold appraisal and hospitality designations such as MAI, FRICS, and ISHC. |
| RCLCO | Founded 1967 as Robert Charles Lesser & Co.; nearly six decades of real estate strategy and advisory work. | A US advisory team of roughly 65 professionals (third-party estimates) with economics, planning, and institutional real estate backgrounds. |
| John Burns Research & Consulting | Founded 2001 as John Burns Real Estate Consulting; now John Burns Research and Consulting, built around a proprietary US housing data set. | Around 100–125 researchers, economists, and consultants (third-party estimates), specialized in US housing rather than appraisal. |
| Altus Group | Founded 2005 in Toronto; publicly traded, and the owner of the ARGUS valuation software used across institutional real estate. | A few thousand staff across software, data, and valuation advisory; appraisal work is performed by professionals carrying RICS and Canadian AACI designations. |
| AECOM | Founded 1990 (spun out of Ashland Oil); NYSE-listed and one of the largest infrastructure consultancies in the world. | Roughly 50,000 employees — licensed engineers, planners, environmental scientists, and economists — organized around design and program delivery. |
| MMCG | MMCG does not publish a founding year on its own website. It publishes $1.62 billion in aggregate construction cost analysed across funded engagements through Q1 2026, $1.15 billion in loan volume supported, and 30+ commercial real estate asset classes. | MMCG publishes Michal Mohelsky, J.D., FMVA as founder and lead analyst, supported by Manjola Bileri as Senior Analyst, and states that every study is reviewed by its principal before it reaches a credit committee. It publishes the FMVA certification and Practicing Affiliate status with the Appraisal Institute; no Appraisal Institute professional designation (MAI, SRA, AI-GRS or AI-RRS) is published. |
| OGScapital | In business since 2006; positions itself as a business plan writing company rather than a valuation or appraisal firm. | A small core team supported by contract writers; the firm markets MBA-qualified business plan writers, not named appraisal or feasibility designations. |
| Prospectus.com | By its own account a global document-writing practice since 1999, citing work with more than 5,000 companies. | Writing staff plus affiliated attorneys; the firm's public materials describe securities-document and capital-markets experience rather than appraisal designations. |
| AdvantEdge Resources | No founding year, engagement count, or track-record figures are published on the firm's website. | Team size and professional designations are not published; the firm's materials describe fundraising and loan-packaging experience. |
| Hotel & Leisure Advisors | Founded by David J. Sangree; the firm cites more than 20 years of hospitality and leisure consulting from Cleveland, Ohio. | A small specialist hospitality team; its president and founder holds the MAI, CPA, and ISHC designations. |
Headcounts and founding dates reflect each firm's own published statements or, where noted, third-party estimates, and change over time. Designations shown are those the firms publish for their teams; the professionals assigned to any individual engagement may differ.
Credentials sit with people, not with logos. The table below sets out who each firm publicly identifies as leading its work, and which professional designations it publishes for them. Where a firm does not name a principal or publish a designation, the cell says so — an absence of published credentials is recorded as exactly that, and nothing is inferred.
| Firm | Named leadership | Valuation designations published |
|---|---|---|
| Wert-Berater, Inc. | Donald Safranek, MSc — President. He has led the practice since 1998 and retains principal review responsibility on the reports the firm issues. Bruce E. Jones, MAI, ASA-GC, BCA, CMEA serves as the firm's Senior Valuation Advisor, a staff member of Wert-Berater, Inc. who is also owner of Special Purpose Realty Valuation. Analytical support includes Alema Shaimerdenova, MBA (with the firm since 2013), plus dedicated financial-modeling and market-analysis staff. | MAI — Appraisal Institute (member since 2006); in real estate since 1987; ASA Going Concern (American Society of Appraisers); BCA and CMEA, covering business valuation and machinery & equipment appraisal; and Certified General Real Estate Appraiser licensure in multiple states — carried by the firm's Senior Valuation Advisor. The President earned graduate qualifications in economics from the London School of Economics and in law from the University of London, following undergraduate studies in English Literature and Economics at Rollins College. |
| CBRE | CBRE publishes named leadership for its Valuation & Advisory Services line, including Thomas Edwards, FRICS, CPV as Global President, Valuation & Advisory Services, and Sung Lee, MAI, CRE, FRICS as Americas President, Institutional Valuation & Advisory. | MAI, FRICS, CRE and CCIM designations are published across its valuation leadership. |
| JLL | JLL publishes named leadership for its Value and Risk Advisory business, including Alexandra Bryant as Chief Executive Officer of Value & Risk Advisory. | MAI- and MRICS-designated professionals are published within its institutional valuation practice. |
| Cushman & Wakefield | Cushman & Wakefield publishes an Americas Valuation & Advisory leadership team; it does not publish a single named principal responsible for feasibility deliverables. | MAI and RICS designations are common within its valuation & advisory group. |
| Colliers | Colliers publishes corporate leadership, including Jay Hennick as Global Chairman & CEO and Gil Borok as President & CEO, U.S. & LATAM. | Designations held by individual valuation professionals are published at the local-office level rather than as a firm-wide standard. |
| Newmark | Newmark publishes corporate leadership, including Barry M. Gosin as Chief Executive Officer. | Designated appraisers staff its valuation & advisory group; firm-wide designation standards are not published. |
| HVS | HVS publishes named leadership, including Stephen Rushmore, Jr., MAI, FRICS as President & CEO and Rod Clough, MAI, CRE, MRICS as President — Americas. The firm was founded in 1980 by Steve Rushmore. | MAI, FRICS, CRE, MRICS and ISHC designations are published across its senior hospitality consultants. |
| RCLCO | RCLCO publishes named leadership, including Adam Ducker as Chief Executive Officer and Taylor Mammen as Chief Executive Officer of RCLCO Fund Advisors. The firm reports a generational leadership transition in 2021 after Gadi Kaufmann led it for 40 years. | Appraisal designations are not published for its leadership; the team's published background is economics, planning and real estate strategy. |
| John Burns Research & Consulting | John Burns Research & Consulting publishes named leadership, including John Burns as founder and Chief Executive Officer, alongside a published senior-management team. | Appraisal designations are not published for its leadership; the team is presented as housing researchers and economists. |
| Altus Group | Altus Group publishes corporate leadership, including Mike Gordon as Chief Executive Officer & Chair, appointed following the leadership transition announced in November 2025. | RICS- and AACI-designated valuation professionals are published across the firm. |
| AECOM | AECOM publishes corporate leadership, including Troy Rudd as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer and Lara Poloni as President. | Licensed engineers and planners are published across the firm; appraisal designations are not published as a firm-wide standard. |
| MMCG | MMCG Invest publishes its principal by name: Michal Mohelsky, J.D., FMVA, founder and lead analyst, supported by Manjola Bileri as Senior Analyst. The firm states that every study is reviewed by its principal before reaching a credit committee. | The firm publishes a Juris Doctor from Charles University Faculty of Law, attendance at a programme at John Marshall Law School in Chicago, the Financial Modeling and Valuation Analyst (FMVA) certification, and Practicing Affiliate status with the Appraisal Institute. |
| OGScapital | OGScapital does not publish the names of its principals or leadership. Its About page states that each senior team member has more than 15 years of industry experience. | No appraisal designations are published; the team is described as business-plan writers, financial modelers and analysts. |
| Prospectus.com | Prospectus.com does not publish the names or credentials of its leadership; its About page was not reachable at the time of writing. | No appraisal designations are published. |
| AdvantEdge Resources | AdvantEdge Resources does not publish the names or credentials of its principals. It describes itself as a Houston, Texas financial services firm focused on fundraising support. | No appraisal designations are published. |
| Hotel & Leisure Advisors | Hotel & Leisure Advisors publishes its president by name: David J. Sangree, MAI, CPA, ISHC, who has worked in hospitality consulting since 1987. | MAI (Appraisal Institute), CPA and ISHC designations are published for its president, with further designated appraisers on staff. |
Why it matters to a lender or an investor: the Appraisal Institute describes its MAI designation as one that “has long been recognized by courts of law, government agencies, financial institutions, and investors as a mark of excellence in the field of real estate valuation and analysis.” On special-purpose and going-concern assets, value is divided between the real estate, the operating business, and the machinery and equipment — the territory the ASA Going Concern, BCA and CMEA designations address. Requirements differ by lender, agency and transaction, so the practical step is to ask your lender which credentials it expects to see behind the conclusions in your file. Each comparison page below sets out what every firm publishes.
Leadership details reflect each firm's own published statements as of the date this page was generated and may change.
The largest advisory firms have capable leadership — but a feasibility study there is often staffed by rotating junior analysts, priced at enterprise rates, and shaped to a standard template. Wert-Berater is built the opposite way. The principal who signs your study does the analysis, with blue-chip credentials and a track record of 4,000+ engagements and $41.2 billion in evaluated project value since 1998 — spanning SBA, USDA, and EB-5 loan files and large private and institutional projects worldwide, from oil & gas refineries in Qatar and Dubai to resort developments across the Caribbean and Latin America and manufacturing facilities across Europe and the Middle East. You get senior judgment applied directly to your project — deeper, more customized work, without the overhead and cost of a global brand.
The large advisory and brokerage firms hand you a static PDF and an invoice. Wert-Berater gives you something the large firms typically don't — a secure, private client portal where your feasibility study and financial model stay live. Update an assumption and the results recompute; enter actuals and monitor the project against its original projections 24/7, for the life of the deal. Your lender, your team, and your investors can all follow the same numbers in one confidential place, restricted to your engagement and enforced on the server. It is feasibility delivered as living technology — not a document that is out of date the day it prints.
Independent feasibility studies since 1998 — 4,000+ engagements, $41.2 billion in evaluated project value, serving clients worldwide. 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.