A viable project requires the right team skills, market and municipality, plus adequate financing to cover all costs. Whether it’s a specific building or vacant lot, a need for rental housing downtown or a building you already own and are trying to stabilize, the first step is the same: determining project feasibility.

This phase is for information gathering, including a feasibility study, and almost always requires you to revisit your initial assumptions. Moving from an idea to reality is an evolutionary process, so you should expect that elements of your project may change and, depending on what you discover, your timeline could be longer than you anticipated.

Questions to consider:

• What are the skills and expertise you need for your project to succeed? Do you need to bring in expertise to round out your own?
• Where is the property or site? Is it in a strong or weak market? What is its condition and the associated costs?
• What are the income and expenses for the property, including development costs if construction is needed? Do the numbers make economic sense? Do you have the required equity?