Independent, Lender-Facing Feasibility Studies
Feasibility Study Consultant
Independent, third-party feasibility studies for SBA 7(a) and 504, USDA B&I, Community Facilities and REAP, conventional bank, CMBS, life-insurance and agency multifamily credits. Written for the underwriter, signed by a Member of the Appraisal Institute, fixed fee, never contingent on the finding.
- Independent authorship. Not a business plan writer, not a loan packager, not a broker, no interest in the transaction closing.
- Written to the standard that governs your file: SOP 50 10 8 and 8.1 for SBA, 7 CFR Part 5001 for USDA, MAP Guide for HUD, rating agency methodology for CMBS.
- Fixed fee in the engagement letter. Delivery measured from complete data, not from signature.
- All 50 states, 15 asset classes, from hotel to biogas.
The Role
What a feasibility study consultant does
A feasibility study consultant is the independent third party a lender, a Certified Development Company or a government guaranty agency relies on when a credit decision cannot rest on operating history. The consultant defines and defends the trade area, quantifies demand from primary data, inventories competing supply including what is permitted but not yet open, verifies the construction and equipment budget, assesses the site and the operator, builds a projection model with the arithmetic exposed, and tests debt service coverage at the threshold the capital source actually applies, through the ramp and under stress.
The deliverable is a single document written to be read by a credit committee. It is not a pitch, not a plan and not a valuation. It reaches a conclusion of feasibility that the reviewer can check line by line, names the conditions the conclusion depends on, and states plainly what it is not.
Two things distinguish a consultant from the other parties who produce documents on the same file. The first is independence: no brokerage, development, packaging, equity or vendor interest in the transaction, and a fee that does not move with the outcome. The second is scope: a feasibility study is judged on all of its parts at once, so a consultant who can size demand but cannot verify that a rural site can be served, or who can model a pro forma but cannot defend a comparable set, will produce a study that fails on the part they did not cover.
This practice operates only as a feasibility study consultant. We do not package loans, broker debt, develop property or take equity, and we do not accept a fee that depends on the conclusion. That is a business decision with a cost, and it is the reason a lender can put our study in the file. The analytical structure behind every engagement is set out in our feasibility study methodology. For the long-form treatment of everything on this page, read our complete guide to hiring a feasibility study consultant.
Authorship Rules
Who is allowed to prepare your feasibility study
The rules on authorship differ by capital source, and sponsors lose weeks discovering it. Three regimes cover almost every file.
USDA writes it into regulation. Under 7 CFR Part 5001, a feasibility study is defined at 5001.3 as an analysis by an independent qualified consultant of a project's economic, market, technical, financial and management feasibility. The study is required on a Business and Industry guaranteed loan greater than $1,000,000 to a new business (7 CFR 5001.306) and on a Community Facilities guaranteed loan greater than $1,000,000 to a new entity or an entity conducting a new activity (7 CFR 5001.304). "Independent," "qualified" and "acceptable to the Agency" are each a separate test, and a party with a financial interest in the project fails the first one before the analysis is read. Details, including the narrow case where a lender may prepare a CF financial feasibility analysis, are on our USDA feasibility study consultant page.
SBA leaves it to the lender, within limits. SOP 50 10 8, and SOP 50 10 8.1 for loan numbers issued on or after October 1, 2026, require the participating lender or CDC to underwrite prudently and to document how it satisfied itself on repayment. Where repayment rests on projections rather than history, the projections need independent support, and the study is how that support enters the file. There is no SBA list of approved preparers; there is a lender and a reviewer who will decide whether yours was independent enough to rely on. What the SOP does and does not require, and what changed in 8.1, is set out on our SOP 50 10 8.1 update page and on our SBA feasibility study consultant page. A deal can be tested under both editions with our SBA DSCR calculator, and the fee band with the cost estimator.
Conventional, CMBS, life company and agency lenders set it by policy. Rating agency criteria, a life company's own format, Fannie DUS and Freddie Optigo requirements, and the HUD MAP Guide each carry expectations about who may author a market study or feasibility analysis and what it must contain. Those sit on the loan program pages.
One rule holds across all three. A study prepared by a party with an interest in the transaction closing is not a third-party study, whatever the cover page says. That excludes the borrower and its affiliates, the developer or contractor, a broker, a packager whose fee depends on funding, a franchisor's development team, and a vendor selling into the project. It also excludes any consultant paid a percentage of the loan or a fee contingent on a favorable finding, because the economics of the engagement create the interest that the requirement exists to prevent.
Routing
Which consultant does your file need
Most sponsors arrive knowing their asset and not yet knowing their program. The program decides the standard the study is written to, and rewriting a study to a different standard after the fact costs time the file usually does not have. Settle it at scoping.
SBA 7(a) and 504
Startups, ground-up construction, expansions, and the parts of an acquisition that history cannot answer. Written to SOP 50 10 8, or to SOP 50 10 8.1 where the loan number lands on or after October 1, 2026, with coverage tested at the threshold your lender and CDC apply. Special purpose property changes the equity injection and the appraisal treatment, which the study states rather than leaving to underwriting. Read: SBA feasibility study consultant.
USDA B&I, Community Facilities and REAP
Rural projects, where the regulation names five feasibility factors, defines who may prepare the study, and expects the program purpose quantified: jobs for B&I, essential community need for CF, energy for REAP. Rural eligibility is verified at the address before anything else. Read: USDA feasibility study consultant.
Conventional bank, CMBS, life company, agency and HUD
Construction and mini-perm bank credits, conduit and single-asset deals read by B-piece buyers, life company formats with tenant credit and NOI durability at the center, Fannie and Freddie multifamily, and MAP Guide market studies. Read: the loan program pages.
More than one at once
Sponsors at term sheet stage often have two or three paths open. We scope the study so a single deliverable satisfies whichever closes first, with the exception that SBA and USDA cannot guarantee the same loan, so that choice has to be made rather than hedged.
A feasibility study consultant provides the independent, third-party analysis lenders and CDCs require before committing capital to a project. This firm operates exclusively as a feasibility study consultant, not a business plan writer, not a loan packager, not a broker. Every engagement produces a single deliverable: a lender-grade feasibility study built to survive credit committee review, post-purchase quality control, and secondary-market scrutiny. Borrowers, lenders, CDCs, and USDA State Offices across all 50 states rely on this practice for SBA 7(a), SBA 504, USDA B&I, USDA REAP, USDA Community Facilities, and conventional feasibility studies across hotel, self-storage, assisted living, gas station, car wash, senior housing, restaurant, medical office, industrial, multifamily, RV park, event venue, and specialty asset classes.
Methodology
What makes a feasibility study bankable.
A bankable feasibility study travels across capital sources without rework. It carries the regulatory citations a credit committee expects, the comparable-set methodology a B-piece buyer or rating agency will accept, and the financial sensitivity bands aligned to each capital source's underwriting thresholds. When scope is set correctly at the outset, one study can satisfy SBA, USDA, conventional bank, CMBS, life-insurance, and agency multifamily underwriting in parallel.
Regulatory citations, not buzzwords
SOP 50 10 8, and SOP 50 10 8.1 for loan numbers issued on or after October 1, 2026, for SBA. 7 CFR Part 5001 for USDA. MAP Guide for HUD. KBRA, S&P, and Fitch methodology for CMBS. Each citation appears where it belongs.
Sensitivity bands aligned to each lender
DSCR, debt yield, and LTV stress-tested against the published thresholds of every relevant capital source. The pro forma survives a B-piece buyer review.
Comp set methodology that defends itself
STR-grade competitive sets for hospitality. Radius studies and SF-per-capita for self-storage. NCHMA-aligned for LIHTC. Tenant rollover for CMBS-bound deals.
Independent third-party authorship
No operator interest. No conflicts of authorship. The deliverable reads as what it is: an evidence-led conclusion of feasibility, not a pitch deck.
Lender Coverage
Six capital sources. One feasibility deliverable.
Most consultants specialize in one program. Sponsors at term-sheet stage often have two or three lenders on the table at once. Our scope is built so a single study satisfies whichever path closes first.
SBA 7(a) and 504
SOP 50 10 8, and SOP 50 10 8.1 for loan numbers issued on or after October 1, 2026. Special-use property classification handled correctly.
Learn more →USDA OneRD
B&I, CF, REAP. The five-factor framework defined at 7 CFR 5001.3, with application requirements at 7 CFR 5001.304 and 5001.306.
Learn more →Conventional bank
Construction, mini-perm, and owner-occupied. Bank examiner-aligned scope.
Learn more →Life-insurance companies
PGIM, MetLife, Northwestern Mutual format. Tenant credit and NOI durability scope.
Learn more →Agency multifamily and HUD/FHA
Fannie DUS, Freddie Optigo, MAP Guide. NCHMA-aligned market study format.
Learn more →Asset Coverage
Pillar-grade analysis across 15 asset classes.
Each asset class carries its own data sources, comparable-set methodology, and lender-specific scope expectations. We work in all of them.
Hotel
Multifamily
Self-Storage
Senior Housing
Industrial
Medical Office
RV Park & Glamping
Gas Station
Car Wash
Restaurant
Data Center
Daycare
Brewery
Mixed-Use
Wedding Venue
Methodology
Three pillars. One bankable deliverable.
Every engagement is built on three analytical pillars. The depth of each adapts to asset class and capital source. The structure does not.
Market Analysis
Submarket vacancy, absorption, comparable supply, demand drivers, and demographic catchment. Comparable-set construction adapted to the capital source: STR-grade for hospitality, NCHMA-aligned for LIHTC, KBRA-aligned for CMBS conduit. Demand modeling with capture rate, absorption timeline, and stabilized occupancy projection.
Financial Projections
Ten-year forward pro forma, monthly through the ramp, sized to the term of the debt rather than to a five-year convention, with revenue build, operating expenses, NOI, capex reserves, and debt service. DSCR, debt yield, and LTV sensitivity stress-tested against every relevant lender threshold. Capital stack analysis covering senior debt, mezzanine or preferred equity if applicable, sponsor equity, and total cost of capital.
Site and Regulatory Review
Zoning, entitlement status, traffic counts, environmental constraints, and the regulatory compliance pathway for the relevant capital source. SBA SOP 50 10 8, and SOP 50 10 8.1 for loan numbers issued on or after October 1, 2026, USDA 7 CFR Part 5001, HUD MAP Guide, and rating agency methodology cited where they apply.
Scope
What your lender will actually look for.
Lender focus shifts by capital source. The scope items below are the ones credit committees, B-piece buyers, and rating agencies routinely ask about. Each is addressed in every engagement, weighted to the capital source.
Stress-tested at the specific threshold of every relevant capital source, including the 1.25x historical test SOP 50 10 8.1 applies to 7(a) acquisitions, the 1.15x expansion test, 1.25x agency, 1.30 to 1.50x life company and 1.20 to 1.35x CMBS conduit.
8–10% for life-co and CMBS conduit, 7–9% for SASB. The metric B-piece buyers screen on before reading the rest of the report.
STR-grade competitive sets, NCHMA-aligned rent comps, KBRA-aligned property comparables. Each comp documented with selection rationale.
Where applicable: weighted average lease term, tenant credit, rollover schedule, and re-lease assumption sensitivity.
Capture rate, monthly lease-up pace, and stabilization timeline. Stress-tested for slow-up scenarios.
Initial capex, ongoing reserves, and lender-specific reserve overlays. Modeled against NOI sustainability.
Track record, regulatory history, and operating cost benchmarks. Particularly weighted for SBA, USDA, and HUD healthcare programs.
Bankability statement with regulatory citations, supporting exhibits, and analyst certification suitable for credit committee submission.
Not Substitutes
Consultant, business plan writer, appraiser, packager, QoE provider
Five documents show up on financed projects and they are not substitutes. Files stall when one is offered in place of another.
Feasibility study consultant
Independent, forward-looking, addressed to the lender and any guaranty agency, no opinion of value, conclusion of feasibility with conditions. This is the document a lender means when it asks for a third-party study.
Business plan writer
The sponsor's own document: strategy, positioning, the sponsor's projections. A useful application exhibit, written by an interested party. It cannot satisfy an independent study requirement, and a feasibility study that reads like a business plan invites the reviewer to treat it as one.
Appraiser
A USPAP opinion of value on the real property, allocated among real estate, equipment and intangibles where the asset is a going concern. Required on most real estate credits. It contains no operating conclusion, and a feasibility study contains no value opinion. Many files need both.
Loan packager or broker
Assembles and places the file. Legitimate work, and disqualifying as authorship of the independent analysis, because the fee depends on the closing.
Quality of Earnings provider
Backward-looking verification of an acquired business's earnings. Under SOP 50 10 8.1 a QoE is required on 7(a) Initial Acquisitions and Business Expansions where the business purchase price is $3 million or more, and it must be ordered by and prepared for the lender. It verifies history; the feasibility study projects forward. On a larger acquisition with an expansion component the file holds both.
Selection
How to choose a feasibility study consultant
Ten questions, in the order a lender would ask them.
- 1.How is your fee set, and does it change with the conclusion? Anything other than a fixed fee agreed before work begins is a conflict.
- 2.Do you or any affiliate have an interest in this transaction: brokerage, development, packaging, equity, a management contract or a vendor relationship?
- 3.Who signs the study, what are their credentials, and will that person take the underwriter's call in month three?
- 4.Which lenders, CDCs and agency offices have accepted your studies in the last two years, on this asset class?
- 5.How often does your work come back with questions, and what were they about?
- 6.Show me a redacted study on a comparable asset under the same program.
- 7.What standard will this study be written to, and which version of it governs my file?
- 8.Where will the demand numbers come from, and will the arithmetic be shown or only the conclusion?
- 9.How will the competitive set be built, and will it include what is permitted but not yet open?
- 10.At what coverage threshold will you test, and how did you arrive at that number?
Question ten separates most of the field. A consultant who advertises that every study clears a fixed pair of ratios has chosen the threshold that flatters the study. Thresholds belong to your lender's credit policy, the guaranty program and, on an SBA acquisition, to the SOP itself. We ask for the term sheet first and test at the number your file will actually be measured against.
Transparent Pricing
Fixed fees. Fixed turnaround. No surprises.
Fees are fixed in the engagement letter and never set as a percentage of the loan or contingent on the finding, because a fee that moves with the outcome would disqualify the study under the standard it is written to satisfy. The bands below are typical ranges by asset class and capital source; a specific fixed quote follows a 30-minute scoping call.
| Asset Class | Typical Capital Source | Fee Band | Turnaround |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hotel (limited-service, midscale, upper-midscale) | SBA 504, Conventional, CMBS | $6,000 – $9,500 | 4 – 6 weeks |
| Hotel (full-service, resort, conversion) | CMBS, Conventional, Life-Co | $9,500 – $18,000 | 6 – 10 weeks |
| Multifamily (market-rate) | Agency, Conventional, CMBS | $7,500 – $14,000 | 4 – 8 weeks |
| Multifamily (LIHTC, workforce, affordable) | HUD, Agency, Bond | $12,000 – $22,000 | 6 – 10 weeks |
| Self-Storage | SBA, Conventional, CMBS | $5,500 – $10,000 | 3 – 6 weeks |
| Senior Housing | HUD 232, Conventional, USDA | $14,000 – $26,000 | 6 – 10 weeks |
| Industrial | Life-Co, CMBS, Conventional | $8,500 – $16,000 | 5 – 8 weeks |
| Medical Office and ASC | Life-Co, SBA, Conventional | $7,500 – $14,000 | 4 – 8 weeks |
| RV Park, Glamping, Outdoor Hospitality | SBA, USDA, Conventional | $6,500 – $12,000 | 4 – 7 weeks |
| Gas Station, Car Wash, QSR | SBA, Conventional | $5,500 – $9,000 | 3 – 6 weeks |
| Data Center | Life-Co, CMBS, Debt Fund | $18,000 – $40,000+ | 8 – 14 weeks |
| Daycare, Brewery, Wedding Venue | SBA, USDA, Conventional | $5,500 – $9,500 | 4 – 6 weeks |
| Mixed-Use | CMBS, Conventional, Agency | $9,500 – $18,000 | 6 – 10 weeks |
Turnaround runs from the date the document set is complete, not from signature. Incomplete document sets are the largest single source of delay in this work, which is why the document request goes out at engagement and is specific to the program and asset. Rush is available for files already in underwriting at a fixed add-on quoted up front.
Authorship
Who signs your study
FSC Consulting, Inc. is run by Sarrah Allen, MAI, a Member of the Appraisal Institute, who signs every study this practice issues. The person who signs is the person who answers the underwriter's question in month three, which is included in the fee rather than billed as support.
The team that writes the studies is the team that maintains the data behind them: the full SBA loan-level FOIA file, a national parcel corpus, aerial imagery, traffic counts and CMBS property-level performance data. That is why the benchmarks in our studies are computed rather than described.
Selected Engagements
Recent engagements.
Six recent anonymized mandates across asset classes, capital programs, and states.
Data Center
Data Center Colocation Facility, Prince William County, Virginia
Did Northern Virginia data center demand, power-availability constraints, and pre-leasing pipeline support a 36 MW colocation facility.
Resort
72-Key Boutique Resort Conversion, Maui County, Hawaii
Did Maui leisure visitor inflows and post-conversion ADR positioning support 72 boutique keys at $548 stabilized ADR.
Entertainment
Bowling and Family Entertainment Center, Tulsa County, Oklahoma
Did Broken Arrow trade-area family-household density support a 32-lane bowling and entertainment program.
Distillery
Bourbon Distillery and Tasting Experience, Nelson County, Kentucky
Did Bourbon Trail visitation and craft-spirit DTC channel growth support a $9M distillery and visitor center.
Wedding Venue
Destination Wedding and Events Venue, Anderson County, Kentucky
Did Lexington-Louisville regional wedding demand support 64 annual paid bookings at $18,400 average package.
Senior Living
180-Unit Assisted Living and Memory Care Campus, Williamson County, Tennessee
Did Franklin-area 75-plus growth and household income support a 144-unit assisted living and 36-unit memory care campus.
Selected recent feasibility case studies
When the comp set is wrong, the underwriting is wrong.
A 142-key full-service hotel reposition. Rebuilt STR competitive set, monthly PIP ramp-up modeling, and three-level stress scenarios produced a defensible post-PIP ADR conclusion that survived examiner review.
Apparent oversupply, real undersupply.
A Florida climate-controlled self-storage acquisition. Product-type disaggregation of supply contradicted the headline square-feet-per-capita reading and unlocked SBA 7(a) credit approval.
Capture rate against the right denominator.
A workforce multifamily development tested against the NCHMA-aligned income-qualified renter pool. The corrected capture rate reframed absorption risk and resolved the lender's primary underwriting question.
Strong frontage, fragile first year.
A ground-up express tunnel on a 40,000-VPD suburban arterial. Capture rate was re-rated for traffic count, and the first-year membership ramp, not stabilized NOI, became the binding SBA 7(a) coverage test.
The market was full of weddings. The calendar only held forty Saturdays.
A ground-up rural wedding venue. Why finite prime-date inventory and utilization (RevPAS), not the size of the regional market, governed the USDA Business & Industry coverage.
The plant could make the volume. The volume couldn't make the margin.
A 30-barrel production microbrewery. Why channel mix (taproom versus distribution margin), and not production volume, governed SBA 7(a) coverage in a contracting craft beer market.
Questions
Feasibility study consultant: common questions
What does a feasibility study consultant do?
Independently tests whether a project can generate the cash flow to service its debt at the lender's threshold: quantifies demand from primary data, inventories competing supply and pipeline, verifies cost, assesses site and operator, builds an auditable projection model and stresses coverage. The deliverable is written for the credit file, not for the sponsor who commissions it.
What makes a feasibility study third-party or independent?
The preparer has no interest in the transaction closing, and the fee is fixed before work begins rather than set as a percentage of the loan or contingent on the finding. A study from a borrower affiliate, developer, broker, packager or vendor is not third-party regardless of what the cover page says.
Who needs a feasibility study consultant?
Sponsors and lenders on projects without operating history to underwrite: startups, ground-up construction, major expansions, changes of use, and special purpose properties with few alternative users. Also any file where the lender's own credit policy or a guaranty program requires independent support for projections.
Is a feasibility study consultant the same as a business plan writer?
No. A business plan is the sponsor's own document and is written by an interested party. A feasibility study is independent, addressed to the lender, and reaches a conclusion the reviewer can check. A business plan cannot satisfy an independent study requirement.
Is a feasibility study the same as an appraisal?
No. An appraisal is a USPAP opinion of value by a licensed or certified appraiser. A feasibility study is forward-looking and contains no opinion of value. Most real estate credits need both, and they are separate engagements.
How much does a feasibility study cost?
Fixed and quoted in the engagement letter, scoped to asset class and capital source. Typical bands run from roughly $5,500 for a smaller SBA-financed operating asset to $40,000 and above for a data center, with the full table published on this page. Never a percentage of the loan, never contingent on the finding.
How long does a feasibility study take?
Measured from the date the document set is complete rather than from signature; see the turnaround column in the fee table. Rush is available for files already in underwriting.
Does the SBA require a feasibility study?
Not by a checklist line. SOP 50 10 8, and SOP 50 10 8.1 for loan numbers issued on or after October 1, 2026, require the lender to underwrite prudently and document repayment ability, and where the file rests on projections the study is how independent support enters it. Full detail on our SBA feasibility study consultant page and, for what changed in 8.1, the SOP 50 10 8.1 update.
Does the USDA require a feasibility study?
Yes, by regulation, on the transactions 7 CFR Part 5001 names: a B&I guaranteed loan greater than $1,000,000 to a new business, and a Community Facilities guaranteed loan greater than $1,000,000 to a new entity or new activity, in each case prepared by an independent qualified consultant acceptable to the Agency. Full detail on our USDA feasibility study consultant page.
Can one study satisfy more than one lender?
Usually yes, if the scope is set that way at the outset: the citations, comparable-set methodology and sensitivity bands can be built to satisfy several capital sources in parallel. The exception is SBA and USDA, which cannot guarantee the same loan, so that path has to be chosen rather than hedged.
What coverage ratio does a study have to show?
No single number applies to every credit. Thresholds come from the lender's credit policy, the guaranty program and, on SBA acquisitions under SOP 50 10 8.1, from the SOP itself. Treat any consultant who advertises that every study clears a fixed pair of ratios as having chosen the threshold that flatters the study.
Do you work outside your home state?
All 50 states. Program expertise is national; the site work is local, and the site and technical section is written from the project's own access, utility and labor evidence rather than from a template.
Who signs the study?
Sarrah Allen, MAI, signs every study this practice issues, and answers underwriter questions after delivery as part of the fee.
What happens if the conclusion is negative?
You receive it in full and the fee does not change, because it was never contingent. A negative finding usually names what would have to change: scale, site, product mix, capital structure or operator. That answer is far cheaper at application than at construction.
Sources
- 7 CFR Part 5001, Guaranteed Loans (OneRD Guaranteed Loan Regulation), Section 5001.3, Definitions.
- 7 CFR 5001.304, Specific application requirements for Community Facilities projects.
- 7 CFR 5001.306, Specific application requirements for Business and Industry projects.
- U.S. Small Business Administration, SOP 50 10 8, Lender and Development Company Loan Programs, effective June 1, 2025.
- U.S. Small Business Administration, Information Notice 5000-880695, Issuance of SOP 50 10 8.1, August 14, 2026, effective October 1, 2026.
- U.S. Small Business Administration, SOP 50 10 8.1, including Appendix 15, 7(a) Changes of Ownership.
- 13 CFR Part 120, Business Loans.
- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, MAP Guide, current edition.
- The Appraisal Foundation, Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice, current edition.
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