Prepared for lenders, CDCs, and federal agencies to SBA SOP 50 10 8, USDA RD Instruction 5001, and conventional underwriting standards. Fiduciary duty runs to the lender and the agency, never the borrower. More than 4,000 studies since 1998 covering $40.2 billion in evaluated project value.
Land analysis asks a different question than project feasibility: not whether a stated project works, but which use the parcel's location, zoning, physical characteristics, and market context most profitably support. The highest and best use study screens candidate uses for legal permissibility, physical possibility, financial feasibility, and maximal productivity in the appraisal-discipline sequence, then concludes a residual land value under the indicated use. For entitled land and pad sites, the analysis values the entitlement itself — the spread between raw and approved land — and tests the absorption assumptions buried in the takedown schedule.
The firm's HBU methodology develops full development-cost and residual-value models for each surviving candidate use, with RSMeans location-adjusted budgets, market-derived rents and cap rates, and explicit screening of uses that fail immediate feasibility — including ranked deferral of uses that may become feasible under future conditions. Conclusions are presented as concluded residual values, not advocacy for a predetermined outcome.
Every Wert-Berater financial model is fully linked with no hardcoded values, so any reviewer can stress any input. Deliverables comprise a complete narrative report and the linked Excel model, with ten-year pro forma, sensitivity analysis at ±5, 10, and 15 percent, interest-rate stress from +0.5 to +3.0 percent, and ratio analysis benchmarked against RMA and IBISWorld data.
SBA engagements are prepared to SOP 50 10 8, including its debt-service-coverage minimums of 1.15x operating and 1.00x global. USDA engagements follow RD Staff Instruction 5001 across the Business & Industry, Community Facilities, REAP, and Value-Added Producer Grant programs. Conventional engagements are built to the lender's stated coverage standard, typically 1.20x. Land and HBU studies support conventional acquisition and development lending, municipal and institutional decision-making, and pre-application screening for SBA and USDA projects where the proposed use must first be demonstrated to be the right one.
Recent HBU work includes a $95,000,000 highest and best use engagement in Durham, North Carolina, a healthcare-and-flex-hub residual analysis in Eustis, Florida concluding $1,342,640 across 54,000 SF of indicated use, and a municipal parcel portfolio in Mountain Home, Idaho. Independence is non-negotiable: determinations follow the evidence and are not revised under pressure, and studies are built to pass lender, agency, and third-party review without exception items.
Qualify a project. Tell us about the project and the program. We will tell you the truth about it — scope, timeline, and fee confirmed before work begins.
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