Five small businesses worth buying. Underwritten.
1,000 listings screened. Seven researched to the end. Five published, each with a verdict. The numbers are free; the name and the conditions are in the file.
Five businesses, underwritten.
Descriptor and metro, the four figures, the verdict. The seller's figure carries its label.
Also researched this week, in short form: 2 more in the annex, 2 of them with a do-not-offer verdict. Previous editions: No. 7, No. 6, No. 5.
The edition indexWhat things cost: laundromats, restaurants, HVAC contractors, auto repair shops… → the market index
1,000 in. Five out.
Every week the desk reads the brokers' listings under $325k, cuts the ones that cannot be checked, researches the survivors to the end and publishes five with a verdict. We take no fee from a seller or a broker.
- 01An operating business, not a concept, a lease or a pile of equipment.
- 02A profit figure we can rebuild from more than one source.
- 03An owner's week we can price: what a manager would cost to replace it.
- 04A price we can compare with similar businesses for sale.
- 05A verdict we would defend, with the conditions written down.
- →What we killed this week, and why
Two ways to own it.
Every deal is priced twice: if you run it, and if someone else does. A manager is priced at market for the owner's seat. Shown here for No. 04: Peruvian rotisserie restaurant, Lee County, FL, asking $300k.
Ranges are our reconstruction, not the seller's figure. The seller's figure is the starting point, not the answer.
Read the free fileOne record. Three depths.
The five covers, the method, the verdict.
- Descriptor, metro, the four figures
- Both ways to own it, as ranges
- Two things the listing doesn't say
- The Saturday email
Email only. No card.
The file a buyer takes to the broker.
- The business named, the original listing
- The conditions, and what would close each
- Five questions to ask the broker
- The annex and four editions of archive
Checkout opens soon; access codes work on the account page.
Everything the desk produced.
- The model and the Excel workbook
- The scorecard and the research trail
- The full archive and the deals we killed
- One underwriting of your listing a month
Checkout opens soon; access codes work on the account page.
Cancel any time. Billed in euros. Compare the three on one deal
Is Underwritten for you?
- You want to own a small business, and would rather start with five checked ones than a thousand unchecked.
- You will call a broker within the month.
- You want to know what the owner's week costs before you pay for it.
- You want every listing on the market. We publish five.
- You want a broker. We are not one, and take no fee from either side.
- You are buying above $1m. Our band ends near $325k.
The five covers, every Saturday.
One email a week. The covers only. Unsubscribe in one click.
What readers ask first.
Why no names in the free edition?
The name is the one thing that lets a reader act without paying for the work, so it is the one thing the free edition withholds. Everything that shows the method stays open: the four figures, both ways to own it, the verdict and the count of conditions. Members get the name, the address, the original listing and the conditions themselves. The method.
What does “with a manager” mean?
What is left after you pay someone at market rate to do the owner's actual job. We list what the owner does (sales, scheduling, the books, the counter), price each role, and subtract. It is shown as a range, because our rebuilt cost structure is a band, not a point. If the band crosses zero, we say the business does not pay a manager.
Where do the listings come from?
From business brokers' own public listings in the United States, read every week. The desk considers operating businesses asking under $325k with a stated financial figure. We take no submissions from sellers and no fee to feature anything.
What is Underwritten not?
Not a broker, not an adviser, not a marketplace. We hold no stake in any deal, we earn nothing when one closes, and we are paid by readers only. That is the whole edge: we can call an attractive deal attractive and publish its weakness in the same breath. Nothing here is investment advice.
When does an edition come out?
Every Saturday: five businesses with a verdict, an annex of the others researched to the end, and the list of what we killed and why. The Saturday email carries the five covers.