EDITORIAL
Insights on feasibility study methodology, lender review, and CRE capital sources.
Long-form guides for sponsors and lenders working through SBA, USDA, and conventional CRE financing decisions.
Financing Programs
Feasibility Study Consultant: The Complete Guide for Sponsors and Lenders
What a consultant does, who is allowed to prepare your study under SBA, USDA and bank rules, what the deliverable must contain, what it costs in basis points of the loan, a ten-criterion scoring rubric, ten red flags, and the ten-point checklist lenders use to read the result.
Read article →Can AI Write a Lender-Grade Feasibility Study?
It can draft one. It cannot author one. USDA requires the opinion of an independent qualified person; SBA requires substantiated projections a lender can defend at guaranty purchase; retrieval-grounded AI tools still hallucinate 17% to 33% of the time. Where generated drafts fail, where the tools belong, and eight questions for the credit file.
Read article →SOP 50 10 8.1 and the Feasibility Study Consultant: What Changes on 1 October 2026
Appendix 15 takes projections out of the acquisition coverage test, mandates a lender-ordered quality of earnings report at $3 million, and caps investor equity. The feasibility study provisions did not move. What the new SOP does to the consultant's brief on acquisitions, expansions, start-ups and ground-up builds.
Read article →Who Is Qualified to Prepare an SBA or USDA Feasibility Study?
USDA writes the preparer standard into 7 CFR 5001 and can reject the author. SBA writes none for the feasibility study, while regulating the appraiser, the valuator and, from 1 October 2026, the QoE provider in the same file. Who is qualified, who is disqualified, and the ten-line authorship checklist for the credit file.
Read article →SBA Feasibility Study vs USDA Feasibility Study: The Nine Structural Differences
SBA orders the study at lender discretion with no codified content or author; USDA defines it, fixes five components, names the preparer, sets the scope and grades it before commitment. Nine differences, the FY2026 program terms, and how one study is scoped to clear both.
Read article →Reliance, Certification and Liability: Who May Rely on a Feasibility Study
The agency's remedy for a bad study runs against the lender, the secondary market never sees it, and the borrower who paid for it is rarely its intended user. Who may rely, what the signature warrants, where Restatement 552 puts the author, and the engagement, certification and E&O terms that allocate the rest.
Read article →SBA 504 Feasibility Studies: The Consultant's Role
A 504 is two lenders, a debenture fixed for 25 years, and a programme that funds after completion rather than at closing. Each of those changes the analysis. Plus the July 2026 change that finally solves the working capital gap.
Read article →USDA Community Facilities Feasibility Studies: The Consultant's Role
Community Facilities is a lending programme that everyone describes as a grant programme. Direct loans ran $1.08 billion in FY2023 against roughly $4 million in competitive grants. What that means for how a project should actually be structured.
Read article →USDA REAP Feasibility Studies: The Consultant's Role
USDA stopped making REAP grant awards in March 2026 pending a rewrite of the programme regulation. Guaranteed loans are still open. What that means for anyone with a project, and what documentation is actually required.
Read article →Conventional, CMBS and Life Company Feasibility Studies: The Consultant's Role
On a 2026 conduit deal a rating agency valued the collateral 36.7 percent below the appraisals. An appraisal is where underwriting starts, not where it ends. What conventional lenders actually require, and when.
Read article →SBA Feasibility Study Consultant: The 7(a) Role Explained
Most SBA 7(a) feasibility studies are ordered at lender discretion, not by SBA mandate. What an SBA feasibility study consultant is actually hired to prove.
Read article →How much does a feasibility study cost in 2026? A lender-grade guide for SBA, USDA, and conventional CRE borrowers.
2026 cost ranges across SBA 7(a), SBA 504, USDA B&I, Community Facilities, REAP, and conventional bank, CMBS, and life-company financing — plus the variables that move the price.
Read article →What does a feasibility study consultant do? A guide to scope, deliverables, and how to choose one for an SBA, USDA, or bank loan.
The five deliverables a lender expects inside a feasibility study and the eight criteria that separate consultants whose work clears program review from those whose work does not.
Read article →SBA feasibility study requirements in 2026: what SOP 50 10 8 means for 7(a) and 504 borrowers.
When the SBA requires a feasibility study under SOP 50 10 8, what changed in June 2025, which property types trigger the requirement, and what the study must include.
Read article →USDA B&I Feasibility Study: The Consultant's Role
How an independent feasibility study consultant satisfies USDA Rural Development's 7 CFR Part 5001 standard, the five required feasibility dimensions and the rural-impact case, to clear a Business and Industry loan guarantee.
Read article →SBA Special-Purpose Property Feasibility Study: The Consultant's Role
Why SBA 7(a) and 504 special-purpose properties require more equity and an independent feasibility study, and how the consultant proves the going-concern that weak collateral cannot.
Read article →Asset Classes
Self-Storage Feasibility Studies in 2026: What the Consultant Has to Read, and the Deliverable a Lender Will Accept
National stabilized occupancy at 77.0 percent, move-in rates down 10.7 percent while in-place rents rise 8 to 12 percent, a frozen housing market holding back demand, a reflexive supply pipeline, municipal moratoriums in 15 states, and what SBA and USDA reviewers require of the deliverable.
Read article →RV Park and Campground Market Report 2026: Demand, Financing and What Makes a Project Feasible
52 million camping households, softer holiday weekends, long stays up 19.1 percent and glamping up 43.6 percent. REIT read-through, cost per site, cap rates near 8 to 9 percent, SBA 7(a), 504 and USDA B&I rules, DSCR thresholds and three worked coverage examples.
Read article →RV and Boat Storage Market Study 2026: What the Data Supports, Where Projects Fail, and How a Feasibility Consultant Tests a Site
2,060 dedicated properties on 17,433 acres, record parking rent growth in September 2025, and bank foreclosures in Texas in the same cycle. Five formats with different economics, a four-layer supply inventory, a worked 8-acre pro forma at 1.27x coverage with a 74 percent break-even, five failure patterns, and what SBA 7(a), SBA 504 and USDA B&I lenders expect.
Read article →US Gas Station Market Report and Outlook, 2026 to 2035
Gasoline consumption peaked in 2018, yet fuel margins ran above 40 cents per gallon in 2025 and in-store sales grew for the 23rd straight year. Store counts, margins, foodservice, net lease cap rates, SBA default and loss history, tank age and cleanup funds, regional outlook, and three scenarios to 2035.
Read article →Why Gas Station Feasibility Studies Get Sent Back
Fuel margin capitalized from the 2025 headline, gallons without a capture case, inside sales at chain averages, an environmental file that stops at the Phase I, a tank field with no age and no reserve. The nine send-backs, ranked, with the NACS, EIA, EPA and SOP numbers reviewers check them against.
Read article →Hotel Feasibility Study vs STR Report vs Appraisal: What Each Proves
The STR report says what a chosen set of hotels did. The appraisal says what the property is worth. Only the feasibility study says whether this hotel will produce the cash flow the loan requires. What each proves, what each cannot, where the three must agree, and the August 2026 forecast, HVS cost and AHLA labor figures a study is read against.
Read article →Car Wash Feasibility Study: The Six Assumptions SBA Lenders Challenge First
The largest operator went private at $7.00 a share, the biggest consolidator went through Chapter 11, and new express openings fell by roughly half from 2022. The loan tape still says car washes default below the SBA baseline. The six assumptions a credit committee now reads first, and how each is defended.
Read article →RV Park Feasibility Study: SBA or USDA B&I, and Why the Answer Changes the Study
The contracted annual book that covers the winter debt service is the tenure mix that fails SBA's 50% transient test. USDA B&I has no such test, a 40-year term and an 85% guarantee, but reaches only rural sites and hands the study's scope to the State Office. The decision matrix, and what each program does to the study.
Read article →Self-Storage Feasibility Study: The Consultant's Comp Set vs the Broker's Feasibility Report
The developer's report was commissioned to finance the deal; its comp set and radius were chosen to support the conclusion and its lease-up came from a cycle that ended in 2023. What the independent study rebuilds, with the 2026 Yardi Matrix, REIT and moratorium record a reviewer checks it against.
Read article →The Feasibility Study Consultant's Role in Restaurant Feasibility Studies
Restaurants are the largest category in SBA lending and the highest-defaulting. Why the failure statistic everyone quotes is wrong, why the real risk is real anyway, and what a consultant has to prove after June 2025.
Read article →The Feasibility Study Consultant's Role in Medical and Dental Practice Feasibility Studies
Healthcare is the safest sector in SBA lending, and that fact is more dangerous than it looks. What actually predicts a practice loan going bad, and why heavy PPO participation costs more than Medicaid does.
Read article →The Feasibility Study Consultant's Role in Child Care Center Feasibility Studies
Nearly half of young children live in a child care desert, and most centers are underenrolled anyway. When NAEYC asked why, lack of demand was the least cited reason. What a feasibility study has to prove instead.
Read article →The Feasibility Study Consultant's Role in Fitness Center Feasibility Studies
Record membership, above-average defaults, and brand-level charge-off rates ranging from zero to 56 percent. Why segment tells you nothing and what a fitness feasibility study actually has to establish.
Read article →The Feasibility Study Consultant's Role in Cold Storage Feasibility Studies
Vacancy at a 20-year high, and modern well-located stock at 2.7 percent. The aggregate hides a flight to quality. What a cold storage feasibility study has to establish in a corrected market.
Read article →The Feasibility Study Consultant's Role in Meat Processing Feasibility Studies
In 2021 the problem was too little slaughter capacity. In 2026 the Big Four are closing plants because there are not enough cattle. What that inversion does to a meat processing feasibility study.
Read article →The Feasibility Study Consultant's Role in Funeral Home Feasibility Studies
A funeral home can take more calls and earn less. The cremation crossing, the 150-call viability floor, and why one piece of equipment decides whether the SBA treats the property as special-purpose.
Read article →The Feasibility Study Consultant's Role in Veterinary Practice Feasibility Studies
Veterinary charges off at a fraction of the SBA average, and visits have declined every year since 2022. Revenue grows on price alone. What that does to a practice projection, and why the shortage figure everyone quotes was commissioned by Mars.
Read article →The Feasibility Study Consultant's Role in Brewery, Winery and Distillery Feasibility Studies
A taproom pint returns five to eight times the revenue of the same beer sold to a distributor, and the most distribution-dependent segment is failing fastest. Why grow-into-distribution stopped being the answer.
Read article →The Feasibility Study Consultant's Role in Grain Elevator Feasibility Studies
Surplus storage capacity fell to 5 percent in 2025, the tightest since 1988. And the elevators that failed did so from losses outside grain trading. Why throughput and hedging discipline matter more than bins.
Read article →The role of a feasibility study analyst in gas station feasibility studies.
How a feasibility analyst translates traffic capture, fuel margin, and inside-sales mix into a lender-grade projection for SBA, USDA, and conventional gas station financing.
Read article →The role of a feasibility study consultant in car wash feasibility studies.
How a consultant translates trade-area capture, membership penetration, and retail wash volume into a lender-grade projection for SBA, USDA, and conventional car wash financing.
Read article →The role of a feasibility study consultant in RV park feasibility studies.
How a consultant translates site mix, seasonal occupancy, ADR, and ancillary revenue into a lender-grade projection for SBA, USDA, and conventional RV park financing.
Read article →The Feasibility Study Consultant's Role in Truck Stop and Travel Center Feasibility Studies
How a feasibility study consultant turns corridor truck traffic into bankable fuel volume, inside sales, and a defensible DSCR for SBA, USDA, and conventional travel center loans.
Read article →The Feasibility Study Consultant's Role in RV and Boat Storage Feasibility Studies
How a feasibility study consultant converts trade-area ownership and storage scarcity into bankable occupancy and a defensible DSCR for SBA, USDA, and conventional RV and boat storage loans.
Read article →The Feasibility Study Consultant's Role in Wedding Venue Feasibility Studies
How a feasibility study consultant converts trade-area wedding demand into bookable event-days, contracted revenue, and a defensible DSCR for SBA, USDA, and conventional wedding venue loans.
Read article →The Feasibility Study Consultant's Role in Hotel Feasibility Studies
How a feasibility study consultant turns market lodging demand into a penetrated occupancy and ADR forecast, a multi-year RevPAR ramp, and a defensible DSCR for SBA, USDA, and conventional hotel loans.
Read article →The Feasibility Study Consultant's Role in Self-Storage Feasibility Studies
How a feasibility study consultant converts trade-area demand and square-feet-per-capita saturation into absorbable square footage, a multi-year lease-up, and a defensible DSCR for SBA, USDA, and conventional self-storage loans.
Read article →The Feasibility Study Consultant's Role in Multifamily Feasibility Studies
How a feasibility study consultant converts trade-area renter demand into absorbable units, achievable rent net of concessions, and a defensible DSCR for agency, HUD/FHA, conventional, and LIHTC multifamily financing.
Read article →The Feasibility Study Consultant's Role in Assisted Living Feasibility Studies
How a feasibility study consultant converts age- and income-qualified senior demand into absorbable units, achievable rate, and a defensible DSCR for SBA, HUD 232, agency, and conventional assisted living and memory care financing.
Read article →The Feasibility Study Consultant's Role in Glamping Feasibility Studies
How a feasibility study consultant converts drive-to leisure demand into seasonally-blended occupancy, achievable nightly rate, and a defensible DSCR for SBA, USDA, and conventional glamping and outdoor hospitality loans.
Read article →The Feasibility Study Consultant's Role in Distillery Feasibility Studies
How a feasibility study consultant converts production capacity into channel-weighted revenue, funds the aging cash-flow gap, and builds a defensible DSCR for SBA, USDA, and conventional craft distillery loans.
Read article →Industrial Feasibility Study: The Consultant's Role
How a feasibility study consultant resolves the owner-occupied versus income-producing question and converts industrial demand, location, and functionality into a defensible DSCR for SBA, USDA, and conventional financing.
Read article →Marina Feasibility Study: The Consultant's Role
How a feasibility study consultant converts boating demand into a layered slip, storage, fuel, and service revenue model, accounts for permitting, infrastructure, and storm risk, and builds a defensible DSCR for SBA, USDA, and conventional marina financing.
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