Most price pages are arranged as though the choice were about how much you care. Bronze, silver, gold; the middle one highlighted; the top one for the serious buyer. That is not how this works, and reading it that way will cost you either money or an answer.
Here the level is decided by one thing you either have or do not have, and it is nearly always outside your control on the day you decide. This note sets out what each level needs before it can begin, what it produces, and — the part that matters most — where the whole ladder stops.
Read this the way you would read any comparison written by the seller
We are comparing our own four prices. That is not an independent review and we are not going to dress it up as one — we earn more when you choose a higher line, and you have no reason to take our word for which line that should be.
Two things make it worth reading anyway. The first is that it names the ceilings, including the ones that make a higher tier pointless, and a page written purely to sell would leave those out. The second is that every level has a published sample, so you can look at what each one produces before paying for it rather than trusting a description.
What this note does not do is compare us to anyone else. There is a short section further down on what the alternatives cost, and beyond that you should check other providers yourself — we have no way to be neutral about that and would not ask you to believe we were.
The rule in one sentence
Each level is unlocked by the piece of information you can hand over, not by the fee you are willing to pay.
The reason is mechanical rather than commercial. Public registers worldwide are searched by name. Until you know the registered name or the address of the business, there is nothing to type into them — so no amount of money produces a company search, because the search box is empty. Equally, nobody can test whether the takings are real without the bank statements, at any price. So:
| What you are holding | What becomes possible | Level |
|---|---|---|
| A business name, or an address | The public record read by a person around that named business — registers are searched by name, so this is the piece that unlocks everything | €550 |
| The seller's accounts, bank statements and till data | Those numbers tested against one another | €950 |
Read that column on the left and you will usually know which line you are on before you have looked at a single price.
€550 — a person reads the public record
What it needs from you: the listing plus, ideally, the business name or the address. If the target cannot be identified even with that, we tell you before the clock starts, not after.
What you get: a two-page memo in 48 working hours with one conclusion at the top, the single risk large enough to decide the deal with the evidence behind it, a checklist of exactly what to demand before any deposit, a compulsory look at the competition around the premises, the blind spots named, and a source list with the date each one was read. The founder signs it.
There are four possible conclusions, and they have short names in the memo. In plain words they mean: Walk — do not buy this. Only-If — buy only if these specific conditions are met first. Resolve-first — something must be settled before this can even be judged. And no public-record blocker found, which needs care: it means the sources we read showed nothing that kills the deal. It does not mean the business is fine. It is a statement about which sources were read on which date, and it arrives with the list of what those sources could not see.
The honest part: this tier reads no financial documents at all. It tells you which ones to demand so that the next tier can. It is also the level most buyers actually need, which is worth saying plainly on a page that would earn more by pointing you upward. The full explanation is here.
€950 — the seller's own numbers, tested
What it needs from you: the seller's documents, which you obtain and forward — two to three years of filed accounts or tax declarations, twelve to twenty-four months of bank statements, the till export if it is a cash business, the lease, the licences, and a staff list with the personal details removed.
What you get: in three to five working days, the whole Screen layer refreshed, plus the earnings rebuilt from the documents with every adjustment sourced to a page, the check that each month of bank statements adds up and that till card sales actually arrive in the account, three stress scenarios priced in euros, a negotiation plan with a walk-away line, and the verdict re-issued on the fuller evidence.
The honest part: without the documents this tier does not start. The order is delivered as a €550 Screen plus a bilingual list of exactly what to demand, and it upgrades for the €400 difference when the papers arrive. The full explanation is here.
Where the ladder stops — the part worth reading twice
Four things stay out of reach at every level, and we would rather you learned that here than after paying €950 to find out:
- Who really owns a company, behind the names written on paper. There are official lists of true owners in both countries, and they are not open to someone working from a desk.
- Lawsuits that have been filed but not yet decided. A court case usually becomes visible only once it produces a published judgment. One that started last year and is still being argued generally leaves no public trace at all.
- Private credit records — what a business owes its banks and its suppliers — unless the debt has already reached a public register.
- Anything the seller chooses not to hand over. No tier can compel a document out of anybody.
Paying more does not open any of these. What a higher tier buys is a deeper reading of what can be seen. Every memo names them explicitly, so that they are never quietly mistaken for "checked" — and if you need them, the route is a lawyer with registry access in that country, not a bigger fee here.
There is a second stopping point worth naming. No level of this produces the word "safe". The best available outcome is "no public-record blocker found", which means exactly what it says: the sources that were read showed nothing that kills the deal. It is not a clean bill of health, it is a statement about a specific set of sources on a specific date, and it comes with the list of what those sources could not see.
The mistakes buyers actually make when choosing
Four of them, in the order we see them.
Buying the top tier before the documents exist. This is the most common, and it is caught rather than taken: the order runs as a Screen with the document request pack, and the difference is credited. But you will have waited for something you could have started sooner.
Buying the €550 Screen on a listing that names nobody. Roughly six listings in seven are anonymous, and if the business behind it cannot be identified there is nothing to type into a register. That is why, from €550 up, the founder looks at the deal and tells you whether anything useful can be done with it before you pay. If not, the founder says so and nothing is owed. That check is about whether the work is possible, not about whether the business suits you — that judgement is yours, and the founder does not make it.
Treating the ladder as a substitute for a lawyer. It is a filter placed before legal spend, so that you know which deal deserves it. Signing, transferring, tax structuring and the visit to the premises stay with local professionals, and the memo is written to be handed to them.
What the alternatives cost
Since a comparison of four of our own prices tells you nothing about whether to use us at all, here are the things a buyer actually chooses between, with what they cost.
- A company data report, €5–50. These print what a database holds about a company you name. Two limits, and the first is decisive: most transfer listings never name the company, so until the seller gives you the name and tax number there is nothing to run a report on. The second is that a data report stops where your decision starts — it will not weigh what it found against your particular deal, name what the records cannot show, or give you a point at which to walk away.
- A local lawyer, roughly €150–300 an hour. Indispensable, and rightly engaged after you have decided a deal deserves the spend. Two or three hours costs what a Screen costs. The difference is sequence, not quality: a screen is the step that decides which deal is worth a lawyer's hours.
- An accountant reading the seller's documents. Often comparable in price to the €950 level, and they carry professional standards and insurance that we do not. If you have one already engaged on the deal, that is a real alternative and we would not argue with it.
- Doing it yourself, €0. Genuinely possible if you read Spanish or Portuguese, know which registers apply to this activity and this town, and will keep a dated record of what you searched and what came back empty. That last habit is most of the value, and it is free.
How the money moves between levels
- A Screen becomes a Reality Check for the €400 difference, within 30 days of delivery.
- Documents that arrive after your report is delivered do not get folded into it. They start the upgrade. That is not a sales rule — it is what makes it possible for the memo to state exactly what it was based on, and for you to know which evidence produced which sentence.
- From €550 you pay nothing until the founder has confirmed your deal is a fit. If it is not, the founder says so and nothing is owed.
- All prices are final — no VAT is added.
One asymmetry we should state rather than let you discover. The written guarantee — four named elements present in the memo, or fixed within two working days, or your choice of refund or credit — is set out for the Screen. At the Reality Check level the protection is a different mechanism: the entry gate, which downgrades the order and credits the difference when the documents do not arrive. Credits never expire and can be used at any level; refunds go back to the card within 10 business days.
What is the same at every level
- We never contact the seller or the broker. Documents travel from the seller, to you, to us.
- No commission and no side. The fee is the same whether you buy or walk away, and nothing comes from the other party.
- Everything that could not be retrieved is printed as not retrieved, rather than guessed or quietly dropped.
- None of it is legal, tax or financial advice, an audit, or a valuation — and none of it is a recommendation to buy or not to buy.
- Liability is capped at the fee you paid, and there is no professional indemnity insurance behind the work. That is written in the terms and it belongs in a comparison too.
When you need none of this
- You read Spanish or Portuguese comfortably, know which registers apply to this activity and this town, and will keep a dated record of what you searched. Then do it yourself and keep the money. The method is not a secret; the discipline is the work.
- You already have an adviser doing buyer-side work on the deal. A regulated accountant or lawyer carries professional standards and insurance that we do not. If they are already reading the documents, a second reading is duplication.
- You have decided to buy and want the contract drawn. That is a lawyer's job, and it is the wrong moment for an analysis.
- The seller has refused to name the business or produce any document. Nothing on this ladder fixes that, and it is itself the answer.
The short version. One listing you are serious about, with a name or address — €550, and that is the level most buyers need. The seller's accounts already in your hands — €950.
Check my deal →This note describes our own published tiers, terms and prices as they stand on 3 August 2026. Prices, turnaround times and credit windows are commercial terms, not measurements. General information and commercial opinion, not legal, tax or financial advice.