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Public data, read properly.
Method articles on measuring commercial real estate demand from the public record. Every figure names the agency that published it and the period it covers, and every article lists its sources. They are written by the feasibility study consultants at MMCG Invest, out of the same data work behind the studies.
SBA Underwriting Under SOP 50 10 8.1: The Regulatory Spine for Credit, Appraisal and Feasibility
How 13 CFR Part 120, SOP 50 10 8.1 and the banking appraisal rules actually treat a 7(a) or 504 file: credit, appraisal, feasibility and guaranty purchase.
USDA OneRD Guaranteed Lending Under 7 CFR Part 5001: The Regulatory Spine for Eligibility, the Study, the Appraisal and the Guarantee
What 7 CFR Part 5001 requires of a B&I, Community Facilities, Water and Waste or REAP file: eligibility, the feasibility study, the appraisal and the guarantee.
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Demand Analysis by Asset Class: Public-Data Models for 30+ Property Types
Public-data demand models for 30-plus commercial property types: the federal driver series, the supply counts and the ratios lenders read, with sources.
Self-Storage Demand: Per-Capita Saturation and the Three-Mile Logic
Self-storage demand from public data: household transitions, an honest per-capita metric, and the three-mile trade area as a drive time rather than a circle.
Car Wash Demand: Traffic Capture and Membership Market Sizing
Car wash demand from public data: vehicles per household, AADT traffic capture, the commuting shift, state density, and the revenue line behind memberships.
Small-Bay Flex Industrial: Measuring Tenant Demand
How to measure small-bay flex industrial demand from public data: the under-20-employee tenant base, record business formation, and the big-box cycle it is not.
RV Parks and Campgrounds: Finding Seasonality in Public Data
How to measure campground and RV park seasonality from public data: monthly payrolls, park visitation, seasonal-home maps and the summer road.
Travel Centers: AADT and Fuel Demand Models
Travel center demand from public data: truck-classified AADT, the federal parking survey, flat freight, the 2026 diesel shock and the station census.
Wedding Venues: Marriage Data as the Demand Signal
Wedding venue demand from marriage records: occurrence against residence, the 2024 refined-rate map, the caterer season and the demographic pipeline.
Mapping Childcare Deserts with Public Data
Childcare desert mapping from public data: child counts, the working-parent base, state licensing rolls, the CPI price layer and the 2026 reference findings.
Medical and Dental Office Demand: Provider and Payor Data
Medical and dental office demand from public data: provider registries, the payor gradient, two density maps and the site-against-provider correction.
Cold Storage: Reading Food-System Data for Demand
Cold storage demand from food-system data: the federal capacity census, the private-boom composition shift, monthly stocks and the power line.
Marina Demand: Registration Data and Water Access
Marina demand from boat registration data: the fleet by length band, the lake-state per-capita map, the measured season and the permit-frozen supply.
Census ACS for Trade-Area Demographics: Rings, Block Groups, and Where Apportionment Breaks
How to read ACS rings, block groups and margins of error for a trade area, and why a coarse ring reports a tighter margin than a careful one.
FEMA NFHL: Reading Flood Zones for CRE Underwriting
Reading the FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer for commercial underwriting: the mandatory purchase zones, the $500,000 cap, and the quarter of claims outside.
NWI Wetlands Data in Early Site Diligence
The USFWS National Wetlands Inventory in early site diligence: decoding a wetland code, dating a polygon, and the line between mapping and jurisdiction.
Wind and Hail Risk from Public Storm Records
Reading NOAA and SPC storm records for wind and hail risk: what the databases cover, why most gust speeds are estimates, and where a screen stops.
The SBA FOIA Loan Datasets: Structure and Suppression
The SBA FOIA loan files explained: structure, the EXEMPT status that hides live loans, the denominator that decides a default rate, and the suppression floor.
Zoning Data in the U.S.: Sources, Coverage, and Reading Codes for Development Screening
Zoning polygons are published almost everywhere. The rules that decide what a parcel can hold are not. Where U.S. zoning data comes from, and how to read it.
From Parcel to Buildable: Setbacks, Coverage, FAR, and What Public Records Reveal
A buildable envelope is a subtraction. Which constraint binds depends on lot size. What public records supply against each input, and where it breaks.
Small-Balance Loan Performance by Property Type: Reading the Public SBA Tape
The public SBA tape has no property-type field. How to read it from industry, term and program, and why term separates credit better than industry does.
Parcel-Derived Land Metrics: Lot Size, Coverage, and Assembly Patterns
Lot size, coverage, FAR, land share and assembly, defined and computed from public parcel records, with the failure mode that breaks each metric.
Where Data Enters the SBA File: The Evidence SOP 50 10 8 Actually Asks For
SOP 50 10 8 never names a market analysis, yet no 7(a) or 504 file can be built without market data. Where it enters, and the rule that enforces it.
The 30-Minute Pre-Term-Sheet Site Screen
How lenders screen a commercial site from public records in thirty minutes before the term sheet, and why All Appropriate Inquiries protects less than assumed.
Environmental and Hazard Screens Before the Phase I
What a lender can read from public records before ordering a Phase I: the SBA NAICS trigger, the AAI search distances, tank records and NFIP claim data.
Commercial Property Due Diligence: The Public-Records Stack
What a lender can verify from public records before commissioning a Phase I, appraisal, survey or title work, and how each check scopes the paid engagement.
Parcel Data Options: County-Direct, Aggregators, and Platforms
How lenders should buy parcel data: county-direct, aggregators and platforms, with a ten test checklist and the licence terms that decide the answer.
Analytics for CDCs: Data in the 504 Workflow
What data work the SBA 504 workflow actually contains, stage by stage, and what an analytics stack must cover to support a CDC inside its Area of Operations.
The State of U.S. Parcel Records: Openness, Quality, and Gaps
Digital parcel coverage is nearly universal across the states. Public access is not. What the 2025 national survey shows, and how to evaluate a parcel source.
Terrain and Slope at National Scale: Screening Buildable Land
How to build a national slope screen from USGS 3DEP data: which product to query, thresholds with named sources, the parcel join, and six failure modes.