Before you spend a fortune on Environmental Due Diligence, First Search an Environmental Database to see what you are getting into.
Working at A3E Consultants for as long as I have, I have come to realize that not every problem needs the most expensive solution to solve it. You can take a more nuanced approach. For the longest time there was only one solution to getting answers about possible environmental contamination on a commercial property, the Phase I ESA. A decade ago the Small Business Administration (SBA) worked with environmental consultants to find a less expensive way to illuminate environmental risks.
The result was the Record Search with Risk Assessment (RSRA). It was roughly 60% less expensive than a full Phase I ESA. It was a giant leap in decreasing the transaction costs to SBA loans. But there was still a hole in the due diligence landscape. What if you had a pretty good idea that a property was clean but you wanted to be extra sure before you closed on a loan? What if there were many previous Phase I ESAs which came back clean but you still needed to check the right boxes on the lending form?
First Search an Environmental Database Report (EDR)
Together with our data vendor, ERIS, we created a product which is a lite version of a RSRA. For a fraction of the cost of an RSRA and 10% the cost of a Phase I ESA, the environmental database report (EDR) is useful and fast for all types of properties which are known to have low risk. Some of our client profiles are; lenders who are subdividing vacant land and while they know the environmental risk of the overall property, they want to provide the buyers of the subdivision their own report.
Buyers of farmland frequently use our environmental risk products, specifically our $200 environmental screen. Commercial lenders use our EDR reports when they are renewing or rolling over a loan to make sure nothing has happened between when the original loan was made (and a Phase I ESA was performed) and now.
Commercial property sellers use our environmental data resources to provide buyers with a level of comfort. They include these EDR Reports with their marketing packages as a show of good faith. We’ve found it can reduce some hesitation in the purchasing process.
First Search an Environmental Database Report (EDR)
If you want to First Search an Environmental Database, research or testing done on your property or one you are interested in purchasing, give A3 Environmental Consultants a call. Our Assessments meet the requirements of all commercial lenders and government agencies such as the SBA, Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). A3 Environmental Consultants can be reached at (888) 405-1742 or by email at Info@A3E.com.
