Shortlisting business-for-sale listings: four passes before you pay for a check

To shortlist business-for-sale listings, work in four passes, the cheapest first. Merge the repeats and drop the listings that are gone. Compare what each listing states on the same 12 lines. Do the arithmetic on the figures it gives. Then ask each remaining seller, in writing, for the legal name of the business, and keep the ones that answer.

Start with the name, because without it little else can be checked. In our small test of 20 listings taken in a row, 9 gave nothing to search for, and only 2 could be narrowed to exactly one business from the listing text and a public map, before the photos. That is one test, not a market statistic.

What 20 listings in a row showed

On 31 July 2026 we took 20 listings in the order two public listing sites showed them, without picking. For each one we tried to tie the listing to one real place, using what the listing text said (a name, an address, a telling detail) and a public map, before looking at the photos.

• 9 listings gave nothing to search for: no name, no address, no telling detail.
• 2 listings were online businesses, with no premises to look for.
• 7 listings gave some detail, but it fitted several possible businesses, not one.
• 2 listings could be narrowed to exactly one business from the text and the map, before the photos.

For those 2, here is what a public map showed on 31 July 2026. An industrial business was offered as a working company, with revenue of about a million euros a year and a price in the low tens of thousands. On the map, the business at that name and address was marked "closed permanently". For the other one, the map showed an open place with reviews and no closure mark; how recent those reviews were was not part of the test.

A public source can also test a claim without telling you which business it is. One listing built its price on being the only shop of its kind in the country. The map showed two such shops, next door to each other, both open. Which of the two was for sale, the listing did not let us tell, so it does not count as finding the business. The claim "the only one" fell all the same.

A map can be out of date, and a seller can have an ordinary explanation. Each of these is a question to put to the seller in writing, not a verdict. The figures are from our own test records of 31 July 2026.

What this means for a shortlist: registers, court records and licence records are searched by name or by number, so a business with no name is hard to check. Sellers often leave the name out of a listing, and that can be for a fair reason, such as keeping the sale quiet (how to check a listing yourself). Then the name has to come from the seller.

Pass 1: one business, one line

Long lists repeat themselves. The same premises can be posted twice under two advert numbers. Merge such listings into one line and write down both prices. If the prices differ, that is your first question.

Then drop the listings that are gone. The extension panel helps here: "When the site’s page says a listing has been taken down, the panel tells you so before you call."

Pass 2: the same 12 lines for every listing

Open each listing and press “Download PDF” in the extension's box. Every report has the same 12 lines, from the legal name and tax number to what exactly is for sale. Each line shows what the listing says, or "not stated". Because the lines are the same, you can "put two businesses side by side and see at once which one leaves out the rent or the revenue."

For a shortlist, read three lines first:

A listing that is silent on all three is not out. Send its seller one written question that covers the three lines. Keep the listing if a clear answer comes back.

Pass 3: do the arithmetic the listing invites

Where a listing gives figures, do three sums. Check the periods first, so you compare a year with a year.

1. Rent for a year against revenue for a year.
2. The price against the yearly profit. How many years of the stated profit would it take to pay back the price?
3. The price against the revenue. A price far below what the revenue suggests needs an explanation, like the industrial business above: about a million euros a year, offered for a price in the low tens of thousands.

There is no right number. Write the three results for every listing in one table. The listings that stand far from the rest are your first questions: ask each seller to explain the gap in writing. A good answer keeps the listing. No answer, or a vague one, moves it down.

Pass 4: ask for the name

Send each listing that is left one short written message:

Before we go further, could you send me the legal name of the business, its registration or tax number, and the address of the premises?

The registration or tax number is the number the business is recorded under; its name differs from country to country. Ask in writing, so the answer stays with you. A missing answer does not prove a problem. Keep such a listing only if the seller sends the name.

Before you send it, look at every photo in the listing, not only the first. In the same test, the photos named businesses the text did not: a sign over the front, or, in one restaurant, a name painted on the glass and seen only in photos taken from inside the room.

The name is also where a paid check starts. Our pricing page says the €550 report needs "enough to identify the business — its legal name, its registration or tax number, or its trade name and town."

What is left after the four passes is your shortlist: listings that name the business, state the figures that matter, and pass the arithmetic or explain it. In our test, the listing text and a public map, before the photos, narrowed the business down to one in only 2 of 20. Your own count will differ: answers from sellers can add to it, and the 12 lines and the sums will take some away.

What a shortlist does not tell you

All four passes work from what the seller says. They do not show who owns the business, which debts can follow it to you, or whether the lease and the permits pass to you. Public records and the rules of the place where the business is answer part of these questions: who is recorded as the owner, which debts are recorded, and which rules decide whether the lease and the permits pass. The rest, such as the terms of the lease, the landlord's consent and the seller's other contracts, is in the seller's papers. Our due diligence guide lists what to look at.

Your next three steps

1. The extension. "The extension works in Chrome or Edge on a computer." Add to Chrome — free or Add to Edge — free. Reading this on a phone? Open this page on your computer.
2. Your account. "Saving a listing takes a My list account. In it, the listings you save from different sites sit in one place." "No open tabs to keep track of, no bookmarks scattered across sites." Create my account.
3. A check for the one you would put a deposit on. You do not need one for every listing on your shortlist. 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 also reads the seller's own papers: you send them first and pay only after we have read them and they are enough for the report. Start for €950. Within 12 weeks of receiving the €550 report, pay the price difference for the €950 report: what you paid counts in full. "We do not contact the seller." "You pay only if we take it on."

Sources

1. Provenance Diligence, How to check a business-for-sale listing yourself (retrieved 29 October 2026)
2. Provenance Diligence, Free extension (retrieved 29 October 2026)
3. Provenance Diligence, Pricing (retrieved 29 October 2026)