Feasibility Study Consultant in Billings, MT: SBA and USDA

A feasibility study in Billings is read by a lender or a Certified Development Company before anyone else. In fiscal year 2025 this metro recorded 49 SBA 7(a) approvals for $28,810,300. One rule a lender meets here: Montana lodging facility sales and use tax on hotels, campgrounds and vacation rentals.

The Billings, MT metro is home to about 192,531 residents per the U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates, led by Yellowstone County at 171,583; Carbon County at 11,498; Stillwater County at 9,450.

A national template prices this metro on its 192,531 residents and stops there. The rules below come from the Montana Department of Revenue, and each one changes a line of the model before a lender reads it.

Montana lodging facility sales and use tax on hotels, campgrounds and vacation rentals. The Montana Department of Revenue states that Montana charges a combined 8% lodging facility sales and use tax. The page refers to a 4% lodging sales tax and a 4% lodging facility use tax. It lists the taxable lodging accommodations as hotels, motels, campgrounds, resorts, vacation rentals and similar facilities, and says the tax applies to the total amount paid by the purchaser for which the sales of accommodations are provided. Meals, transportation, entertainment and similar separately stated charges are not taxed. For a hotel, an RV park or a campground in Billings, the feasibility model should carry this 8% on room and site revenue as a state charge on the guest, and should keep separately stated meal and other charges outside the lodging tax base. This page does not describe any city or county lodging rate, so any local charge in addition to the 8% has to be checked with the city or county.

Montana lodging tax exemption for long-term rentals and the seller allowance. The Montana Department of Revenue lists exemptions from the Lodging Facility Sales and Use Tax, and one is units or spaces rented 30 continuous days or more to the same purchaser. It also states that a seller filing and paying on time is allowed a 5% vendor allowance against the 4% lodging sales tax, and that there is no vendor allowance for the 4% lodging facility use tax. For a feasibility study of extended-stay lodging, an RV park with long-term sites, or a hotel with a monthly-rate segment in Billings, the 30 continuous days line is the point where room revenue leaves the lodging tax base, so the model should split transient and long-stay revenue. The vendor allowance applies to the sales tax portion alone, so the cash cost of collecting the lodging tax is not the full amount of tax billed to guests. The department's lodging guide should be read for the full list of exemptions before rates are set.

Nationally, the U.S. Small Business Administration closed fiscal year 2025 having guaranteed 84,400 7(a) and 504 loans for $44.8 billion. This page computes the Billings share from the SBA's own 7(a) and 504 FOIA release, as of June 30, 2026, by member county rather than by district office: in fiscal year 2025 the metro's three counties recorded 49 SBA 7(a) approvals for $28,810,300 and 12 SBA 504 approvals for $11,931,000.

In fiscal year 2025 the 7(a) approvals here came from Glacier Bank (6 loans, $1,546,100), Readycap Lending, LLC (4 loans, $1,247,500), and First Interstate Bank (4 loans, $196,500), listed by approval count with the names as the SBA released them. The 504 approvals that year went through Big Sky Economic Development Corporation (5 loans), Capital Matrix, Inc. (4 loans), and Dakota Business Lending (3 loans). The SBA's district office field reads Montana District Office on 49 of the 49 fiscal year 2025 7(a) rows, 100.0%.

Across fiscal years 2010 to 2026 disbursed, the ten asset classes tracked here account for 115 7(a) loans for $52,695,200 and 27 504 loans for $29,071,000 in this metro. In fiscal year 2025 alone those classes took 9 7(a) and 504 approvals for $11,356,700. The table sets out each class; a cell under five loans is not shown, and a charge-off rate is printed where 30 or more loans have resolved and left blank below that.

USDA Business and Industry and USDA Community Facilities credit runs on a statutory geography rather than on a county line. Under 7 U.S.C. 1991(a)(13)(A) the terms rural and rural area mean any area other than a city or town that has a population of greater than 50,000 inhabitants and any urbanized area contiguous and adjacent to such a city or town. The test turns on the subject address and the urbanized-area boundary around it, not on the name of a county or a metro. For a project in Billings the address decides it. The metro spans three counties, from Yellowstone County at 171,583 residents to Stillwater County at 9,450, and an urbanized-area boundary follows the census map rather than any county line. MMCG checks the subject address against the USDA Rural Development eligibility map at intake, before work on the study begins, and this page names no town as eligible.

A restaurant feasibility study in Billings starts from the metro's own SBA record. Across fiscal years 2010 to 2026 disbursed, full and limited service restaurants account for 50 7(a) loans for $15,498,200 and 7 504 loans for $5,316,000 here, $20,814,200 in all. Car washes come to $20,436,800 over the same years. On the full and limited service restaurants 7(a) loans that have resolved, the charge-off rate is 11.8%.

These are the points an underwriter in Billings reads before the rest of the file. Each traces to a government publisher or to the SBA's own file.

MMCG starts from the project address, the asset class and the lender or Certified Development Company contact. The address settles the county and the rules set out above; the asset class sets which part of the SBA record applies.

The report names its sources the way this page does: the Montana Department of Revenue, the SBA FOIA release, and the Census Bureau's population estimates. The method is set out in full in MMCG's feasibility study methodology.

MMCG Invest, LLC is a feasibility study consultancy that specializes in SBA and USDA feasibility studies for lenders, Certified Development Companies, USDA Rural Development guaranteed lenders and the borrowers they serve, with Billings among the markets it covers. The practice is led by Michal Mohelsky, J.D., FMVA, Practicing Affiliate of the Appraisal Institute. Reports are prepared under SBA SOP 50 10 8.1 for 7(a) and 504 files and under 7 CFR Part 5001 for USDA files, and each one states which schedule, rate and boundary it relied on so a credit officer can check the work. Pricing starts at $4,900, standard delivery runs 9 to 16 business days, a rush track delivers in 5 business days, and every inquiry receives a response within 12 business hours.