The feasibility process, phase by phase

Eleven phases from “is this parcel worth a phone call” to long-term compliance. Choose your state within each guide to see available jurisdiction-specific guidance. Each guide covers what actually happens, how long it takes, which clocks are running, and what specifically goes wrong — with the governing regulation cited.

Phase 1Covered in EZFeasi

Site sourcing and screening

"Is this a parcel worth a phone call?"

Screening is the one part of an affordable housing deal where the data is genuinely open, REST-queryable, and fast — which is exactly why the errors made here are quiet ones. The layers that most often kill a deal are the layers you cannot query.

Days to two weeks per site11 citations

Phase 2Not yet covered

Site control, title, and the diligence clocks

"We like the parcel. How do we tie it up long enough to win an award, and what do we have to buy — and re-buy — to prove it?"

In LIHTC the equity that pays for the land is the tax credit itself, so site control has to survive a funding calendar rather than an escrow. Almost everything that kills a deal in this phase is date and version bookkeeping across three regulators who each impose different freshness rules on the same documents.

2–12 months30 citations

Phase 3Not yet covered

Electing the entitlement pathway

"Ministerial or discretionary, and under which statute?"

The pathway election is the highest-leverage decision in the whole process, and it has to be made before anything is submitted — most streamlining statutes freeze the applicable rules as of the submittal or preliminary-application date. Every major pathway changed in the last 24 months.

3–36 months21 citations

Phase 4Partly covered

Picking a credit program and competition bucket

"Which competition are we entering — and once we file, can we change our mind?"

9% and 4% are not two financing structures sharing an application — they are two competitions with different applicants, different calendars, and tiebreaker formulas that reward opposite behavior. The bucket you elect inside each one is worth more than almost any underwriting decision, and several of those elections are one-way doors.

Weeks to decide, revisited until the application is filed18 citations

Phase 5Not yet covered

Restricted rents and the operating pro forma

"What can we legally charge, and does it support debt?"

The maximum rent is not a market question — it is a computation dictated by federal statute off an annually published HUD table, minus a utility allowance chosen from a strict five-branch hierarchy. Everything downstream, from NOI to supportable debt to the credit request, inherits whatever error you make here.

Day one for the rent math; 3–9 months for the pro forma to firm up15 citations

Phase 6Not yet covered

Cost, construction type and the labor package

"What does it cost, and does it clear CTCAC's disqualifying cost gate?"

Cost in a California LIHTC deal is produced in four escalating passes, and the legally binding number is locked at the second one. This phase is where the threshold basis limit, the 30% high-cost gate, the 4-to-5 story cliff and the prevailing wage decision all collide.

Weeks to months22 citations

Phase 7Not yet covered

Building the capital stack and closing the gap

"Does the gap close, and in what order do I chase the money?"

Capital stack construction runs from about 60 days after site control through construction loan closing, and it is the longest phase in the process. In 2026 the binding constraint in California is state credit and soft money, not bond cap — and the calendar, not the arithmetic, is what usually kills the deal.

24–48 months23 citations

Phase 8Not yet covered

Assembling and filing the application

"Can we get 200 facts into eight forms without an error, and will the package survive staff verification?"

Nothing new is decided in this phase. It is document assembly and certification against a fixed date, with freshness clocks that run backward from the deadline and a self-score that staff will re-derive from scratch.

4–10 weeks of assembly per round; sources put realistic pre-deadline lead time at 3–6 months27 citations

Phase 9Not yet covered

The post-award clock: reservation to carryover

"We got the award. What has to be true, and by exactly when, before this thing falls apart?"

The award starts a codified countdown: 20 days to accept and post a deposit, 180 to 222 days to be construction-ready, 12 months to satisfy the 10 percent test and own the land. Missing the readiness date is carved out of the Executive Director's ordinary discretion.

20 days to 12 months from award18 citations

Phase 10Not yet covered

Construction, the 10% test, and getting to 8609

"I have the allocation and I'm building. What has to be true, and by when, before CTCAC will issue the 8609?"

Once readiness is behind you, every remaining deadline is a pure function of the allocation date — and the relief provisions are a short enumerated list. This is where allocations are lost outright rather than delayed.

18–30 months (construction + lease-up), inside a fixed statutory placed-in-service deadline28 citations

Phase 11Not yet covered

Compliance monitoring through the 55-year tail

"The deal closed. What am I on the hook for, for how long, and what can I actually do at Year 15?"

Fifteen years of federal compliance sit inside a 55-year California regulatory agreement, and the exit other states use — the qualified contract — is statutorily unavailable here. Most of what binds this phase was elected years earlier, at underwriting.

15 years of federal compliance inside a 55-year California term25 citations

HUD
LIHTC
State QAPs
IRS § 42
Housing Finance Agencies

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