Seven ways a deal can die. I check all seven.
Every screen runs the same fixed discipline — I call it the Provenance Protocol. This page details the seven areas it examines and what you get at the end. The internal working steps and decision rules remain proprietary — partly because they're the asset experience built, and partly so sellers can't rehearse against them. You're engaging judgment and accountability, not a checklist.
The trap is rarely in the listing.
So I don't start from the listing.
A small-business purchase in Spain or Portugal fails in predictable places. The protocol walks the same seven layers on every deal — whatever the sector — so the one that kills your deal doesn't depend on luck.
What actually transfers
A traspaso or trespasse hands over far less than buyers assume. Which rights, contracts and permissions genuinely move to you — and which quietly don't.
The seller's story vs the record
What company registries, insolvency registers and court databases say about the business and the people behind it — checked against what you've been told.
What the price rests on
What evidence actually supports the asking price. With the seller's documents (Reality Check), whether the claimed earnings survive contact with the paperwork.
Obligations that follow the business
Debts, employees and liabilities that transfer to the new owner by law in Spain and Portugal — the ones that arrive after you've paid.
The premises and the licences
Whether the activity licence, the lease and the use of the space (down to the terrace) will exist for you the way they existed for the seller.
The market around the door
Competition density and demand signals around the location — whether the trade you're buying is still there to be had.
The blind spots — named
Some things can't be verified from a desk at any price: private debts, withheld documents, what a walk-through would show. No review covers every risk — so every memo names what was not checked, and silence is never mistaken for clearance.
The method is private.
The output is not.
You can judge the discipline by its product. Every Decision Memo carries the same named parts — that's also what the money-back guarantee is pinned to.
One of four, in plain words — never "buy" or "don't buy":
The single most likely reason this deal dies — named, with the evidence behind it, on a confidence ladder (verified / inferred / weak signal).
Exactly which documents and proofs to require from the seller before any deposit — written so you can forward it as-is.
Per-area status — and green means "no flag found in the checked sources", never "safe".
What was not checkable and why — the part most reports leave out.
Every source cited with its retrieval date. Registers change; the memo says exactly when it looked.
Who does what — honestly.
A screen doesn't replace anyone. It decides whether the deal deserves the rest of the team — before you pay for the rest of the team.
| Your situation | What you need | What I add |
|---|---|---|
| Looking at listings, nothing signed | A cheap, fast filter before you commit time or money | Quick Scan or Deal Screen: the deal-defining risk and the demand checklist, from the public record |
| Serious about one deal, seller sends documents | Someone to test whether the numbers and the price hold | Reality Check: earnings read against the paperwork — and the questions your lawyer should start from |
| Ready to sign | A licensed local lawyer — always, no exceptions | A memo your lawyer can act on immediately, instead of billable hours spent discovering the basics |
| Running the business after purchase | A gestor / accountant on the ground | The screen ends at the purchase decision — I'll have told you what to hand them |
For scale: an hour with a Spanish abogado or Portuguese advogado runs €150–300, and the deposit at stake on a typical deal is €30,000–150,000. The screen exists so that money is only spent on deals that deserve it.
No audit relationships, no broker commission, no seller contact — ever. I'm paid a flat fee by one side only: you. Nothing in this engagement gets better for me if you buy, so the verdict has nothing to protect except its own accuracy. And every screen sharpens the next one: the ways ES & PT small-business transfers fail accumulate into an anonymised library of failure modes — the discipline compounds, deal after deal.
The protocol is grounded in the professional due-diligence, forensic-accounting and deal-negotiation literature, adapted to Spanish and Portuguese small-business transfers, and informed by the recurring failure patterns visible in public ES & PT court records. The working checklists and decision rules stay internal — that's the part experience built. The sources themselves are official, open registries: every memo cites them, with retrieval dates.
Put your deal through it.
Send the listing. I reply personally — and you pay nothing until I've confirmed your deal is a fit.