SBA and USDA Feasibility Study Company, Built on the Lending Data

Loan Analytics prepares independent feasibility studies for SBA 7(a), SBA 504, USDA Business and Industry, REAP and Community Facilities loans, and publishes the state-level lending, demographic and commercial real estate data those studies are underwritten from. Lenders, CDCs and sponsors engage us when a credit file needs a third-party report that reviewers can trace line by line to a public source.

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What a Feasibility Study Company Does on a Guaranteed Loan

A feasibility study company produces the independent report that stands between a sponsor's projections and a lender's credit decision. On an SBA or USDA loan the report has a defined job: establish that the market can absorb the project, that the cost basis is supportable, that projected cash flow covers debt service with a margin the program accepts, and that the sponsor's assumptions survive stress. The study is commissioned by the lender or the sponsor, addressed to the lender, and relied upon by the reviewer who signs the guarantee.

Loan Analytics does this work across the full SBA and USDA program set. The difference between our studies and most others is where the numbers come from. We maintain the state and county lending tables, the demographic series and the market metrics that a study cites, so the demand section of a Loan Analytics report is written from a dataset we already publish, not assembled from a broker flyer the week the engagement starts. Reviewers can check our figures against our own published pages.

Three questions decide whether a feasibility study company is the right one for a file:

Independence. The firm has no financial interest in the project, the sponsor or the lender, and states so in the report.
Program literacy. The study is written to the rule the reviewer applies: SOP 50 10 8 for SBA, 7 CFR 5001 for USDA guaranteed programs, and the specific agency guidance for Community Facilities and REAP.
Traceable evidence. Every demand, cost and revenue figure carries a public, dated source that a credit committee can open.

Two Programs, Two Rulebooks

SBA Feasibility Study Company

The SBA guaranteed a record $44.8 billion in fiscal 2025, and its lending manual never requires a feasibility study for any of it. SOP 50 10 8.1, effective 1 October 2026 by loan-number date, does not change that. What it changes is where projection risk is allowed to live: acquisitions must now clear 1.25x coverage on historical earnings, so a deal that only works on a projection is no longer an acquisition file. It is a start-up, construction or expansion file, and those are the files lenders order studies on. Loan Analytics writes 7(a) and 504 studies to the SOP in force on the loan-number date, sized to the loan and formatted for the credit memo.

USDA Feasibility Study Company

USDA is the stricter program. 7 CFR 5001 requires an independent feasibility study from a qualified consultant for start-up businesses under Business and Industry and for any project where the Agency or the lender determines one is needed, and the reviewer expects the study to cover economic, market, technical, financial and management feasibility in that order. Loan Analytics prepares B&I, REAP and Community Facilities studies with the sensitivity analysis and rural-market demand work that USDA reviewers send files back for when it is missing.

Feasibility Study Consultant or Feasibility Study Company

Lenders search for both, and the distinction matters to the file. A feasibility study consultant is an individual who signs the report and stands behind it under the independence rules of the program. A feasibility study company is the firm that houses the consultant, the analysts, the data and the quality control. On a Loan Analytics engagement the lender gets both: a named signatory with the credentials the reviewer expects, and a firm with a published data spine behind every figure in the report.

Who signs matters because the SBA and USDA both attach the independence requirement to the person and the firm, and because a study signed by someone who cannot answer a reviewer's follow-up question is a study that stalls in committee. Every Loan Analytics study is signed by Daniel Smith, MAI, who is available to the lender and the agency reviewer for questions after delivery.

Loan Analytics.

Federal lending records, county demographics, and CRE market metrics, organized the way credit decisions are made.

Loan Analytics turns public data into decision-grade market intelligence. We aggregate SBA 7(a) and 504 loan records, USDA Rural Development obligations, Census Bureau demographics, and commercial real estate fundamentals into state-level datasets that lenders, sponsors, and analysts can read in minutes and rely on in committee.

Why the Data Behind the Study Decides the Review

SBA and USDA loan programs run on evidence. Underwriters, CDCs and agency reviewers expect every demand claim to trace back to a verifiable source, and the most common reason a feasibility study is sent back is that it cannot. A study written from a published dataset:

Surfaces market risk before it surfaces in credit committee.
Quantifies demand with public, dated, citable sources rather than sponsor assertions.
Shortens the review cycle, because figures that carry their own citations invite fewer questions.
Survives the reviewer's spot check, because the reviewer can open the same table the analyst used.

How the Dataset Is Built

Source: loan-level SBA FOIA releases, USDA obligation files, Census and BLS series, and brokerage-published market reports.
Standardize: records are cleaned, deduplicated, and mapped from zip code to county and metro.
Aggregate: approval counts, dollar volume, average loan size, program mix, and industry concentration by state and county.
Contextualize: lending figures are paired with demographics, CRE fundamentals, and construction cost indices.
Refresh: tables are updated on the federal fiscal-year cycle, so the data matches the vintage lenders underwrite against.

What the Coverage Includes:

Lending programs: SBA 7(a), SBA 504, USDA B&I, REAP, and Community Facilities.
Market layers: population and migration, household income, vacancy, absorption, rents, pipeline, and construction costs.
Geography: state-level pages with county detail, expanding market by market.

The same data spine underpins independent feasibility studies for projects that need a full lender-grade report.

Need More Than the Data?

When a project requires a complete, agency-conforming feasibility study rather than the underlying data, Loan Analytics prepares independent reports built on the same dataset. Start with the numbers, and engage us when the file needs the full narrative. Contact us for scope and timeline.

Asset Classes We Study

Owner-occupied real estate, hospitality and outdoor hospitality, food and beverage, automotive and convenience, franchised and personal services, senior and health care, self-storage and specialty industrial, rural manufacturing and value-added agriculture, renewable energy, cold-chain and logistics, community facilities and broadband. The asset classes where SBA and USDA lending concentrates are the ones our dataset tracks in the most depth, and the ones our published analyses cover:

How to Choose a Feasibility Study Company for an SBA or USDA File

Ask which regulation the study is written to, and expect a specific answer: SOP 50 10 8, and SOP 50 10 8.1 from 1 October 2026, for SBA; 7 CFR 5001 for USDA guaranteed programs.
Ask who signs, and whether that person will take the reviewer's call after delivery.
Ask where the demand figures come from, and whether you can open the source yourself.
Ask for the sensitivity analysis before you ask for the base case. USDA reviewers do.
Ask for the fee as a fixed number by asset class, and compare it to the loan in basis points, not in dollars.
Ask whether the firm has a financial interest in the project, the sponsor, the lender or the site. The correct answer is no, in writing.

Resources

Market research, program analysis, and lending data briefs from the Loan Analytics desk.

Feasibility Study Company FAQ

What is a feasibility study company?

A firm that prepares independent, third-party feasibility studies for lenders and sponsors. On SBA and USDA loans the study establishes market demand, cost basis, projected cash flow and debt coverage, and is relied upon by the credit committee and the agency reviewer.

Does the SBA require a feasibility study?

No program-wide requirement exists in SOP 50 10 8. The SOP permits the lender to require one, and lenders do so on start-ups, special-purpose properties and files where repayment depends on unproven demand.

What does SOP 50 10 8.1 change for feasibility studies?

Nothing in the trigger and everything in the routing. Effective 1 October 2026 by loan-number date, 8.1 requires acquisitions to show 1.25x coverage on historical earnings and bars projections from the coverage test. Deals that depended on a projection now reach lenders as start-up, construction or expansion files, which are the files where an independent feasibility study is expected.

Does USDA require a feasibility study?

7 CFR 5001 requires an independent feasibility study by a qualified consultant for start-up businesses under Business and Industry, and for any project where the Agency or the lender determines one is needed. Community Facilities and REAP carry their own study expectations.

Who prepares a Loan Analytics feasibility study?

Analysts working from our published lending, demographic and market datasets, with every study signed by Daniel Smith, MAI, who is independent of the project and available to the lender and reviewer for questions.

Is Loan Analytics a feasibility study consultant or a company?

Both. The named signatory is the consultant the program's independence rules attach to; the firm supplies the analysts, data and quality control behind the report.

How much does a feasibility study cost?

Fees are quoted as a fixed number by asset class and program. The useful comparison is the fee as basis points of the loan: a $9,000 study is 180 basis points of a $500,000 loan and 26 basis points of a $3.5 million one.

Is this the same as the lending data on this site?

No. The data pages are the public layer. A feasibility study is the engagement that turns that data into an agency-conforming report for a specific project, lender and loan.