Save the listing before you call the seller: a free extension for business buyers
By Grig Kochedykov · . Product facts reviewed against our live extension and pricing pages on 27 October 2026.
Before your first call to the seller, save what the listing says. After the call you will have your notes. With a saved copy you also have the seller's own words, with a date.
Why save it before the call
Listings are written to sell. A listing leads with the price and the photos. The rent, the lease, the papers behind the revenue and who is selling decide whether those figures hold, and the listing may leave them out.
Listings also change. A price can drop, a revenue line can be edited, a listing can come down. The PDF report from our free extension "keeps what the listing said, with its date and a link back. If the price or the revenue changes later, you have what was written."
That matters in a negotiation. If the seller later gives you a different revenue figure, you can ask which one is right and show the date of the first.
A real listing: seven of nine lines not stated
On our extension page we show a saved copy of a real restaurant listing in Canada and the PDF report the extension made from it. Here is the part of the report from the price down:
| Line in the report | What the listing said |
|---|---|
| Price | 295,000 CAD |
| Rent | not stated |
| Lease: term and right to transfer | not stated |
| Revenue and its period | not stated |
| Profit and its period | not stated |
| Documents behind the figures | not stated |
| Staff | not stated |
| Licences and permits | not stated |
| What is being sold | the premises and the equipment |
Seven of these nine lines were empty. The listing gave a price and said what is for sale. It gave no rent, no revenue and no profit, so nothing on the page lets you compare the price with what the business earns.
A short listing does not prove a problem. It tells you where your first call should go.
How to use it, step by step
- Add the extension to Chrome or Edge on a computer, from the official store.
- Open a business-for-sale listing. A small box appears in the corner of the page. Press “Download PDF”. No box? Press the extension icon, and the extension reads the page.
- Read the report. Each line shows what the listing says. Then come "the lines the page does not say, as one list: what to ask the seller about."
- Turn each missing line into one question for the seller. Examples are in the table below.
- Ask for the answers in writing. Note which answers come quickly and which keep being put off.
- Keep the listing. Press the round logo button or the extension icon. The first time, the panel asks you to link your My list account. After that, press “Save to my list”.
| Missing line | Question for the seller |
|---|---|
| Rent | What is the monthly rent, and what else does the tenant pay? |
| Lease | How many years are left on the lease, and has the landlord agreed in writing to pass it to a buyer? |
| Revenue and profit | What were revenue and profit for the last full year, and which document shows them? |
| Documents behind the figures | Can I see the tax returns or the filed accounts behind those figures? |
| Staff | How many people work here, on what contracts, and is anything owed to any of them? |
| Licences and permits | Which licences does the business run on, and in whose name are they? |
Weighing two businesses? "Put two businesses side by side and see at once which one leaves out the rent or the revenue."
For more ways to read a listing on your own, see how to check a business-for-sale listing yourself.
What the extension does not do
"The report says plainly that it reads only the listing page and no official records, so every figure in it comes from the listing page." And: "The extension does not guess: when the page is not clear, the line says “not stated”."
So the PDF shows what the seller claims and what the seller left out. It does not show who owns the business, which debts can follow it to you, or whether the lease and the permits pass to you. Those answers are in public records and in the rules of the place where the business is. For the lease, the lease contract and the landlord's consent often decide. Our due diligence guide lists what to look at.
Two facts about privacy, from the extension page: "No sign-up for the report." And: "The report is built in your browser: nothing is sent to make it."
Your next three steps
- The extension. Add to Chrome — free or Add to Edge — free.
- Your account. "Saving a listing takes a My list account. In it, the listings you save from different sites sit in one place." "Sign in to it on your phone, and the same list is there." "The checks you order with the same email sit in the same account, under My requests, with where each one stands." Create my account.
- The check. The last line of the PDF "shows what our €550 check would look up, with a link to order it." From our pricing page: "€550: from the public records, which debts can follow the business under the rules that apply where it is, and what decides whether the permit and lease pass to you". Start for €550. The €950 report reads the seller's own papers, tax returns or the accounts the company filed, and sets the seller's figures against them. You send the papers first and pay only after we have read them and they are enough for the report. Start for €950. We do not contact the seller. The €550 report works from the public records; the €950 report also reads the seller's papers that you send us. "You pay only if we take it on."
Sources
- Provenance Diligence, Free extension (page with the saved restaurant listing and its PDF report) (retrieved 27 October 2026)
- Provenance Diligence, Pricing (retrieved 27 October 2026)