An honest, side-by-side look at where each firm fits — so you engage the right one for your project and its financing.
John Burns Research & Consulting is a housing-market research firm specializing in residential feasibility, absorption, pricing, and rent studies.
Wert-Berater, Inc. has prepared independent feasibility studies since 1998 — 4,000+ engagements representing $41.2 billion in evaluated project value. The firm works in two lanes. First, lender- and agency-facing studies built to satisfy a specific financing program: SBA 7(a) and 504, USDA Business & Industry and Rural Development, USCIS EB-5, and bank underwriting. Second, large private- and institutional-capital projects for private funds, developers, and operators — including resort developments across the Caribbean, Mexico, and Central America, and the approximately $1 billion Collin Creek Mall mixed-use redevelopment in Plano, Texas (office, retail, a hotel, and up to 3,000 residences). In either lane, every study is delivered with a linked financial model, sensitivity analysis, and the supporting narrative a credit committee or investment committee needs to rely on the numbers.
| John Burns Research & Consulting | Wert-Berater | |
|---|---|---|
| Primary focus | Housing market research and residential feasibility (absorption, pricing, rent). | Independent feasibility studies for both government-backed loans and large private- and institutional-capital developments. |
| Best fit for | Homebuilders and residential developers needing housing-market depth. | Two lanes: (1) SBA 7(a)/504, USDA B&I / Rural Development, and USCIS EB-5 loan files; and (2) large private- and institutional-capital projects — resorts, mixed-use, and master-planned developments, including internationally. |
| Experience & track record | Founded 2001 as John Burns Real Estate Consulting; now John Burns Research and Consulting, built around a proprietary US housing data set. | Founded 1998 — 25+ years, 4,000+ engagements, $41.2 billion in evaluated project value. |
| Team & credentials | Around 100–125 researchers, economists, and consultants (third-party estimates), specialized in US housing rather than appraisal. | 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. |
| SBA / USDA / EB-5 compliance | Residential research focus; not an SBA/USDA feasibility specialist. | Built to SBA SOP 50 10 8 and USDA 7 CFR Part 5001 (Guaranteed Loans); institutional-grade modeling for private funds and lenders on projects outside those programs. |
| Independence model | Subscription research plus consulting. | Independent; fiduciary duty to the lender, agency, and capital provider; no success or contingent fees. |
| Geographic reach | National (US). | All 50 states and international — including the Caribbean, Mexico, and Central America. |
Brand size is not the same as experience, and experience is not the same as the credentials a lender, an agency, or a court looks for on the signature page. The table below compares what each firm publishes about the people who actually lead the work. Every entry is drawn from the firm's own published material; where a firm does not publish a name, a designation, an underwriting background, or testimony experience, that is stated plainly rather than filled in.
| John Burns Research & Consulting | Wert-Berater | |
|---|---|---|
| Named leadership | John Burns Research & Consulting publishes named leadership, including John Burns as founder and Chief Executive Officer, alongside a published senior-management team. | 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. |
| Education published | Not published by the firm. | Graduate qualifications in economics, London School of Economics, and law, University of London, following undergraduate studies in English Literature and Economics at Rollins College — held by the firm's President. The Senior Valuation Advisor holds Certified General Real Estate Appraiser licensure in multiple states in addition to his appraisal designations. |
| Valuation designations published | Appraisal designations are not published for its leadership; the team is presented as housing researchers and economists. | 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 holds an MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics and an LLB in Law from the University of London. |
| Who reviews the report you receive | Engagements are led by the assigned research or consulting lead. | The President directs every engagement and signs off on it. One named principal carries review responsibility for every report the firm issues. |
| Underwriting & capital background | Not published by the firm. | Professional career began at Lehman Brothers in 1982 as a college intern, followed by work in real estate investment, underwriting, financial analysis, feasibility analysis, and advisory services. 4,000+ engagements directed since 1998. |
| Expert testimony & litigation support | Not published by the firm. | Litigation support and expert-witness work are published practice areas of the firm. The Senior Valuation Advisor has expert-testimony experience and contributes it on the engagements on which he works. |
For housing-market intelligence the firm is a leading source. Its published team is researchers and economists; where a lender file calls for a signed value and coverage conclusion under appraisal standards, that is a different deliverable and a different credential set.
Three things tend to come up when a credit committee weighs who prepared a study. The first is the designation behind the value conclusion. 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.” The second is the range of credentials available to the assignment. On special-purpose and going-concern assets — hotels, fuel and convenience, senior care, marinas, manufacturing — a project's value can sit partly in the real estate, partly in the operating business, and partly in the machinery and equipment. Wert-Berater's Senior Valuation Advisor holds the MAI designation from the Appraisal Institute, where he has been a member since 2006, together with the ASA Going Concern specialty and the BCA and CMEA designations in business and equipment valuation. The third is whether the conclusion can be defended. Litigation support and expert-witness work are published practice areas of Wert-Berater, and the Senior Valuation Advisor brings expert-testimony experience on the engagements on which he works.
Underwriting background matters for a quieter reason: a study written by someone who has sat on the lending side tends to be organised around the questions a credit committee has to answer. He began his professional career at Lehman Brothers in 1982 as a college intern and has subsequently worked in real estate investment, underwriting, financial analysis, feasibility analysis, and advisory services.
Requirements differ by lender, agency, and transaction. The practical step is to ask your lender which credentials it expects to see behind the conclusions in your file, and then compare the firms on that basis.
Credentials are easy to list and harder to compare, because they are not all the same kind of thing. Some are university degrees, some are professional designations that may involve examination and documented experience, some are online certifications, and some are categories of membership. The table below sets out what the awarding body itself publishes as the requirement — so the comparison is between the requirements, not between the abbreviations. Where we have not sourced a requirement from the awarding body, the credential is listed by name only rather than described.
John Burns Research & Consulting publishes no professional designations or certifications for its team, so the credentials below are those Wert-Berater publishes.
| Credential | Published by | Awarded by | What the awarding body requires |
|---|---|---|---|
| MAI | Wert-Berater | Appraisal Institute | Required coursework with examinations — including Advanced Concepts & Case Studies and Quantitative Analysis — then admission as a Candidate for Designation, passing the General Comprehensive Examination, completing the General Demonstration of Knowledge, and completing 4,500 hours of specialised experience. Designated Members agree to adhere to the Appraisal Institute's Code of Professional Ethics and Standards of Professional Practice and to complete continuing education. The Appraisal Institute lists its professional designations as the MAI, SRA, AI-GRS and AI-RRS, describes them as “recognized as marks of excellence in valuation,” and states that “only 8% of U.S. appraisers hold an AI designation.” |
| ASA, with the Going Concern specialty | Wert-Berater | American Society of Appraisers | ASA states that its Accredited Senior Appraiser designation requires discipline-specific education and report requirements and at least five years of full-time appraisal experience. ASA describes the Going Concern specialty as “the profession's only specialty in Going Concern Valuation,” for appraisers who value complex commercial real estate with a business component, covering the knowledge of when — and when not — to allocate or segregate the value components and to analyse their effects as required by USPAP. |
| BCA (Business Certified Appraiser) | Wert-Berater | International Society of Business Appraisers | ISBA publishes three steps: a training course, a written examination, and a demonstration report submitted for peer review. Eligibility requires a bachelor's degree or higher, or a minimum of three years' on-the-job experience as an appraiser or business broker; state-certified real property appraisers may be eligible without a degree. The examination is roughly 70 multiple-choice questions under a three-hour limit. |
| CMEA (Certified Machinery & Equipment Appraiser) | Wert-Berater | NEBB Institute | NEBB Institute certifies appraisers “to value tangible personal property which is specifically machinery and equipment,” provides initial and monthly comprehensive education, and states that it adopts and complies with the regulations and ethics rules of USPAP. The Institute does not publish a detailed experience or examination specification on its course-information page. |
Also published, listed by name and awarding body only: Certified General Real Estate Appraiser (State appraiser regulatory agencies) — Wert-Berater; MSc Economics (London School of Economics) and LLB Law (University of London) — Wert-Berater. We do not summarise the requirements for these, because we have not sourced them from the awarding body; consult the awarding body directly.
John Burns Research & Consulting publishes a team of housing researchers and economists rather than designated appraisers, and does not publish educational backgrounds for its leadership. Wert-Berater publishes an economics-and-law education for its President and appraisal designations through its Senior Valuation Advisor.
Credential requirements above are drawn from the awarding bodies' own published materials as of the date this page was generated and may change; consult the awarding body for the current requirements. Leadership details for John Burns Research & Consulting reflect that firm's own published statements as of the date this page was generated and may change. Designations shown are those each firm publishes; the professionals assigned to any individual engagement may differ.
Choose John Burns for residential housing-market data and homebuilding research. There is no single best firm for every assignment — the right choice depends on what your lender, agency, or investor requires from the document.
Choose Wert-Berater when the study has to satisfy a specific financing program and survive underwriting — SBA, USDA, EB-5, or a bank credit committee — or when a private fund, developer, or operator needs an institutional-grade feasibility study for a large, complex, or international project. The firm is independent, owes its duty to the capital provider, charges no success or contingent fees, completes standard studies in 10–15 business days, and works across all 50 states and internationally, including the Caribbean, Mexico, and Central America.
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.
Almost everything a consultant publishes about itself — this page included — is marketing until you check it. The questions below are the ones your lender's credit committee is effectively asking on your behalf, and every one can be answered before you sign an engagement letter. Put them to every firm you shortlist, Wert-Berater among them, and compare the answers rather than the brochures.
Two of these separate firms faster than any feature comparison: verify the credentials with the awarding body, and find out who physically inspects the property. However each firm answers, you will have compared them on what your lender will be examining rather than on what each firm chose to advertise.
Yes. For projects financed through SBA, USDA, or a bank, Wert-Berater prepares independent, program-compliant feasibility studies. John Burns Research & Consulting is often used for residential housing-market data and homebuilding research.
Yes. Studies are built to SBA SOP 50 10 8 and USDA 7 CFR Part 5001 (Guaranteed Loans), structured for lender, credit-committee, and examiner review.
No. Alongside SBA, USDA, and EB-5 loan files, Wert-Berater prepares institutional-grade feasibility studies for private funds, developers, and operators on large and international projects — including resort developments in the Caribbean, Mexico, and Central America and the approximately $1 billion Collin Creek Mall mixed-use redevelopment in Plano, Texas.
Wert-Berater, Inc. is independent and not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by John Burns Research & Consulting. John Burns Research & Consulting is a trademark of its respective owner. This comparison reflects each firm's publicly described service focus and is provided for informational purposes.
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.