Feasibility Study
A Property Becomes a Project When Someone Pays to Define It
For landowners and serious buyers deciding whether a site deserves the next dollar.
Most owners start with a simple question: could this property become something more valuable?
Feasibility turns that question into a go/no-go plan before you spend big on design, consultants, or entitlement work.
GIS is not looking to buy your property. We do not provide loans or funding as a standalone service. We help you define whether the site supports a real development path.
realistic development paths
zoning + entitlement direction
timeline reality
major cost drivers + red flags
next-step roadmap
Best Fit
- Owners who control land or teardown property
- Buyers under contract / preparing an offer
- Owners ready to fund enough feasibility to make a real decision
Not a Fit
- Looking for GIS to buy the property
- Looking for a loan, funding, or grants before the project is defined
- Wholesalers / assignment contracts
Start with the Free Checklist
Free Development Feasibility Checklist
Use this if you are early and want a quick reality check before hiring anyone.
It helps owners and serious buyers gather the basic facts that usually control the first development conversation: parcel, ownership status, target outcome, deadline, property type, and obvious constraints.
If you are not ready to fund a feasibility study yet, start here.
Built for owners and serious buyers evaluating a specific site. Not for loans, funding, or deal hunters.
Ready for a Decision?
Paid Feasibility Study (Go/No-Go)
Use this when you control the site and need a defensible answer before the next spend.
Nobody else can responsibly underwrite raw possibility for free. The first serious proof usually has to come from the person who controls the land.
You will get realistic options, timeline, major cost drivers, early red flags, and a next-step roadmap.
Free Checklist: What It Covers
Use this to gather the facts that make a first development conversation useful before you spend money on consultants.
- A step-by-step site screen you can run in under 30 minutes
- The 10 questions to answer before you talk to a broker or architect
- A simple ‘go / no-go / unknown’ scoring method
- The fastest way to spot deal-killers early
- A short list of what to gather next if the site passes
Best for owners and serious buyers who are still early. If the site and decision are specific, schedule the call.
Paid Feasibility Study: What You Receive
This is a paid, decision-grade study for owners and buyers who need to know whether a site can support a real project.
The point is not to decorate an idea. The point is to decide whether the next dollar should be spent, delayed, redirected, or stopped.
- 2-3 realistic development paths, with tradeoffs
- Likely entitlement path and timeline
- Major constraints and cost drivers, high level
- Yield range, without pretending certainty exists too early
- Order-of-magnitude budget range
- Next-step roadmap: what to do, in order
Pricing (Starting Points)
Pricing depends on complexity. We confirm scope on the strategy call.
Small Sites / Up to 3 Units
$10,000
Feasibility options + constraints review
Timeline + entitlement direction
Next-step roadmap
Middle Housing / Up to 6 Units
$15,000
- Yield range + site-fit review
- Entitlement strategy + timeline
- Next-step roadmap
Multifamily / Up to 50 Units
$25,000
- Multiple paths + yield range
- Entitlement strategy + timeline
- Cost-driver and risk review
Institutional / 50+ Units
Starting at $50,000
- Complex site + program evaluation
- Entitlement and phasing approach
- Decision-grade roadmap
Third-party studies (survey, geotech, wetlands, etc.) are separate.
The Owner Controls the First Serious Move
If you control the land, you control whether the opportunity becomes legible to lenders, investors, buyers, contractors, and development partners.
- Turn raw possibility into facts the market can evaluate
- Know whether to sell as-is, add entitlement clarity, or pursue development
- Avoid hiring the wrong team before the project is defined
A common pattern: the paper yield looks attractive until access, utilities, slope, title, or entitlement timing changes the real project.
Feasibility does not guarantee an outcome. It gives the owner a credible basis to decide what the site deserves next.
Feasibility FAQ
Do you provide financing?
GIS does not offer loans or funding as a standalone service.
Our first job is feasibility and a clear execution plan because capital only shows up for projects that pencil and are financeable.
After GIS is engaged as development manager, we can help pursue project financing and/or raise equity as part of the normal course of managing the development, if the project is credible and the assignment calls for it.
Capital raising is a dedicated workstream with real overhead and direct costs, so it is handled under an engagement with overhead reimbursement and pass-through expenses. It is not a free pre-engagement promise.
I’m under contract—can you move fast?
Yes, if you can share the address (or parcel), your deadline, and what you’re trying to confirm.
We’ll tell you on the first call whether we can meet your timeline and what level of analysis is realistic before your contingency date.
Can you tell me exactly what I can build?
We can tell you what’s realistically supportable and what the permitting path looks like.
Exact answers sometimes require third-party work (survey, geotech, wetlands, or a formal pre-submittal), so we give you ranges plus the steps needed to confirm.
Do I need survey, geotech, or wetlands work first?
Not always.
We typically start with a first-pass feasibility using available records and obvious constraints.
If the site passes, we’ll recommend the minimum third-party work needed to remove the biggest unknowns—only when it’s worth it.
Are you trying to buy my property?
No. GIS is not looking to buy your property through the feasibility process.
The work is owner-side. We help you understand whether the property supports a realistic development path and what decision makes sense from there.
Sometimes the right decision is to sell as-is. Sometimes it is to add entitlement clarity before selling. Sometimes it is to pursue development. Feasibility helps you compare those paths with facts.
How long does feasibility take?
It depends on the site’s complexity and the number of unknowns.
On the strategy call, we’ll set expectations on the timeline and what’s realistic for your situation.
If you’re under contract, we can prioritize the highest-impact questions first.
What areas do you serve?
Our roots and core experience are in the Pacific Northwest and the Greater Seattle area.”
Starting in 2025, we also began working on projects nationwide.
Outside our home market, we’re most efficient when the scope is meaningful (typically 15+ units or comparable complexity), and we can scale up for larger multifamily and commercial residential projects as well.
Send the city and property type, and we’ll tell you quickly if it’s a fit.
What should I prepare before the call?
If you have it, bring the property address or parcel number, a listing link, and any known constraints (slope, access, utilities, wetlands, easements).
Also tell us your goal (sell vs entitle vs develop), your timeline, and whether there’s debt on the property.
Feasibility Study: Go/No-Go for Development Sites
A development feasibility study is a structured go/no-go process for land, teardown properties, infill sites, middle-housing sites, townhomes, subdivisions, build-to-rent, and multifamily development.
It answers one practical question: does this site support a realistic project under real-world constraints, including rules, utilities, access, cost, title, and time?
For landowners, feasibility is often the first serious investment in making a property legible to the market. If the owner will not fund enough work to define the opportunity, outside parties usually have little reason to treat the site as more than raw possibility.
For buyers under contract, feasibility helps validate the deal before deadlines and avoid paying for development-ready assumptions that do not survive permitting reality.
The goal is not to make every site work. The goal is to surface deal-killers early, define the likely path forward, and make the decision with facts instead of optimism.
Start with the free checklist if you are early
The free Development Feasibility Checklist helps you gather the basic facts needed for a useful first conversation: property address, parcel number, ownership or contract status, deadline, target outcome, property type, and known constraints.
Use the checklist if you are still deciding whether the site is worth a serious feasibility conversation.
Schedule a strategy call when the decision is specific
Schedule a Development Strategy Call if you own the site, are under contract, or need to decide whether the next spend is justified. We will talk through the property, your objective, the likely questions that need to be answered, and whether a paid feasibility study is the right first step.
The 5 issues that usually decide the deal
In our experience, most sites do not fail because of the idea. They fail because one or more practical constraints change the real project.
- Access and circulation: legal access, fire requirements, and site layout constraints
- Utilities and infrastructure: availability, upgrade cost, long runs, and capacity
- Site physics: slope, drainage, retaining, and buildable area versus paper area
- Title constraints: easements, encroachments, covenants, and deed restrictions
- Entitlement timeline risk: what approvals are likely, and what slows them down
Feasibility does not replace survey, geotech, wetlands, or engineering. It tells you what is worth confirming next and what is not worth spending money on yet.
What GIS is and is not
GIS is not looking to buy your property through the feasibility process. GIS does not provide loans or funding as a standalone service.
GIS helps owners and serious buyers define whether a development path is real enough to justify the next spend. After GIS is engaged as development manager, financing and capital work can become part of the broader assignment if the project is credible and the scope calls for it.