An outside read on the deal — before you commit.
You send the listing. I red-team it from the buyer's side the way you never can alone, and hand you one clear verdict in two pages. No call required, no jargon, no one paying me but you.
A Decision Memo — two pages, one verdict.
Not a 40-page report you'll never read. Two pages of plain English: the deal-defining risk the record can show for this deal, the exact conditions that must be satisfied before you consider proceeding, the checks that could not be made from a desk, and the documents to demand before any deposit.
It's a commercial risk screen — an independent, buyer-side opinion on what to verify. It is not legal or tax advice, and it doesn't replace your lawyer or accountant; it tells you what to take to them.
Forty seconds, one real deal. The price — you see. The rent — you see. Who's selling — you don't. A published court case shows where that ends, and what a verdict looks like before the deposit.
Real case from the public record (Tribunal da Relação do Porto, proc. 0150272) — not our client. Not legal advice.
Send it. I dig. You decide.
Send me the listing
The link, plus anything the seller or broker already gave you. A short form — no account, no call.
I red-team it in 48h
I work the deal from the outside — what transfers, what's hidden, what the price really rests on — pulling the public records a remote buyer can't reach.
You get the verdict
A two-page Decision Memo: the deal-defining risk, the Only-If conditions, and exactly what to demand — before any deposit.
What I stand behind — and who does the rest.
What I am accountable for
- Names the deal-defining risk the record can show, with the evidence behind it — and what could not be checked
- Pulls what's reachable from public records (registries, court records, licences)
- Gives the Only-If conditions and the documents to demand before you sign
- Flags where the seller's story and the records don't line up
- Traces every fact to a named source and a date — anything not retrieved is printed as "not retrieved", never guessed
- Delivers the four named parts of the memo, or your fee back
What no desk report can do — and who does it
- Certify that a licence or lease will transfer → the town hall, in writing, and your lawyer
- Establish what only the premises can show — stock, footfall, equipment → your on-site visit
- Authenticate the seller's documents → your accountant, against the bank and the tax office
- Give legal, tax or financial advice, or value the business → your local professionals, briefed by this memo
- Tell you to buy → that decision is yours, and it should be
I stand behind the search, the sources, the reasoning and the checklist. The seller's honesty, the future of the business and the decision are not mine to carry — which is exactly why the memo names what to demand, and from whom, before your money moves. A report that pretended otherwise would be worth less to you, not more.
Machine-scale scanning. A human signs the verdict.
The method — I call it the Provenance Protocol — draws on professional diligence, quality-of-earnings and valuation practice, and on real Spanish and Portuguese court records: a repeatable screen that hunts the specific traps that sink foreign buyers of small businesses. More about it, and about me →
Software helps me scan and cross-reference at a scale no person could by hand. But no number in your memo is left to a machine: I retrieve the records, I check every figure, and I sign the verdict. The judgment — and the responsibility — is mine.
This is what lands
in your inbox.
An anonymised Decision Memo for a live €600,000 listing — the deal-defining risk, the survival path, the demand list, and one verdict.
Deal-defining risk · Inferred
The €600,000 trespasse premium rests almost entirely on an undisclosed lease. Rent ≈€700/mo points to an older protected lease; under the NRAU, the remaining term and renewal rights decide whether the premium is value or vapour. Not in the ad → unpriceable as listed.
Survival path · Only-If
Survives only if, on documents: a long protected renewable lease near this rent; licences transfer without a re-inspection the premises would fail; 2–3 years of accounts that evidence the trade.
Have a listing in mind?
€550 · 48 hours · No payment until I confirm it's a fit.
An hour of a local lawyer's time runs €150–300; the deposit at stake is usually €30,000–150,000. The screen is priced to be the cheap step before either.