⚡ TL;DR:

Your lender can finance 90% of a business while treating most of what you bought as worthless collateral.

Goodwill counts for $0. Receivables get cut. Used equipment may count at half its book value. The resulting shortfall is what pulls your home into the deal—and most buyers do not calculate it until the commitment letter arrives.

This week’s deep dive gives you the four-number test to estimate that shortfall before you sign, plus the collateral terms buyers can actually negotiate.

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A portfolio of roughly 240 installed ATMs concentrated in the Myrtle Beach, South Carolina market, run by two full-time employees with cash loading and servicing handled by third-party providers, making the operation largely remote-manageable. The seller is retiring, with the listing noting the sale is about personal timing rather than business performance, and will provide 90 days of transition assistance and training.

Why this deal stands out: $790K of SDE managed by two people and a vendor network is about as operationally light as cash flow gets, and the listing states performance does not depend on any single machine, merchant, or placement. Modeled coverage at 2.02x leaves roughly $400K after debt with a 90-day handoff built in.

💡 EBIT Take: Underwrite the surcharge economics per machine and the merchant agreement terms: placement contracts, exclusivity, and remaining term determine whether 240 units stay 240 units. Ask how surcharge and interchange trends have moved over the last three years in tourist-heavy Myrtle Beach, and model vault-cash financing costs at current rates. No owner financing is offered, so plan a full SBA or conventional structure.

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That is the ceiling, not necessarily the loss.

If the business fails, its equipment, receivables, inventory, and other recoveries are applied first. What remains—the shortfall—is the amount that can reach your personal balance sheet.

Ink is building personal guarantee insurance for SBA acquisition buyers, designed to cover a portion of that residual exposure.

Estimate the shortfall on your deal in about two minutes.

A Cincinnati healthcare-adjacent specialty service business with more than 30 years of operating history, generating about $2.4M of revenue and near $1M of seller's discretionary earnings with a tenured 10-person team. More than 30% of revenue comes from membership arrangements, supported by established medical referral relationships and roughly 300 Google reviews averaging 4.9 stars. The listing is confidential (the specific service line is disclosed after NDA), and the seller is retiring with meaningful post-closing support offered.

Why this deal stands out: A 42% margin with 30%+ membership revenue and three decades of history is a rare combination at 3.4x SDE, and modeled coverage of 2.08x leaves about $520K after debt. The listing explicitly requires no industry-specific or clinical experience, which widens the buyer pool without weakening the moat.

💡 EBIT Take: The teaser is blind, so the first move is the NDA to learn what the business actually is, then pressure-test whether membership revenue is contractual or habitual. The broker states this is not a passive or portfolio acquisition: budget yourself into the org chart full-time. At 1,300+ listing views, expect competition and move quickly if the CIM holds up.

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A three-unit Orangetheory Fitness portfolio in Nassau County, New York, running with 26 employees including studio managers, head coaches, coaching staff, and sales associates. The membership model produces $3.3M of annual revenue and $748K of EBITDA, and $350K of FF&E is included. The listing states the opportunity is SBA eligible; the franchisor provides four days of HQ training plus ongoing support, and buyers are expected to be local to the area.

Why this deal stands out: Three units at a blended 3.0x EBITDA sits on the low end for a national fitness brand, and modeled coverage of 2.35x leaves about $430K of cushion after a full note. Membership revenue recurs monthly, staff and managers are in place across all three studios, and the stated SBA eligibility gives first-time buyers a concrete financing path.

💡 EBIT Take: Franchise resales rise and fall on unit-level economics, so get per-studio P&Ls rather than the blended number, plus membership counts, churn, and attendance trends by location. Confirm franchisor transfer terms, remodel obligations, and royalty structure before the LOI. The local-buyer requirement is real: Orangetheory approves operators, not just checks.

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Many listings never reach the big marketplaces. They sit on regional broker websites and one-off seller pages that most searchers will never think to check—which often means fewer buyers competing for them.

Searcher OS scans nearly 300 sources every day and brings roughly 60,000 active listings into one deduplicated feed. No checking dozens of sites. No scrolling past the same deal five times.

The obscure sources are the point.

EBIT members get one month free. Search with filters that let you go directly to the smaller, off-the-path sites where competition is often thinnest.

A Martin County, Florida disaster recovery company operating since 2010, supporting hurricane, flood, fire, and tornado response across the Eastern and Gulf seaboards through a network of roughly 400 contract members who handle product delivery, base-camp setup, food service, hospitality, security, and personnel transport. The business is home-based and relocatable, and the seller owns another company and remains available to support recovery operations when needed.

Why this deal stands out: At 1.5x discretionary earnings, this is the value anchor of the issue: a full 7(a) note covers at 4.8x, the strongest coverage this week, leaving about $427K after debt. The contractor-network model keeps fixed costs near zero, and it is the smallest check in the issue at $795K all-in.

💡 EBIT Take: Revenue is storm-driven, so underwrite it as episodic rather than annuity income: pull results by year since 2010 and see what a quiet hurricane season looks like before leaning on the average. The asset being bought is the 400-member roster and the client relationships that activate it, so diligence how both are contracted and retained. Priced at 1.5x, even a conservative view of storm frequency leaves real room.

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A Little Rock, Arkansas engineering and architecture firm founded in 1978, providing municipal planning, aquatic and recreation facility design, and construction administration for public-sector clients. Seven employees run the practice, and the listing states a high percentage of revenue comes from master service agreements and recurring municipal engagements. The sale is a planned succession: the seller commits to staying actively involved for three to five years after closing.

Why this deal stands out: Municipal MSA revenue is the closest thing services businesses have to contracted annuities, and a 55% margin on $1.8M of revenue reflects a senior, low-overhead practice. The seller staying three to five years is the strongest transition commitment in this issue, and it de-risks the client relationships that justify the premium multiple.

💡 EBIT Take: The 4.0x multiple prices in the recurring base, so validate it: request the MSA list with terms, renewal history, and revenue by municipality. Confirm PE licensure requirements and whether the seller holds the stamping authority, because that shapes who can buy this. A seller note tied to the multi-year commitment aligns incentives better than cash at close, and the listing signals openness to structure.

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A Southern California lifestyle media company founded in 2010 as a print magazine and fully digital since 2021, now reaching roughly 12 million people monthly across Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, and five additional platforms. Trailing-twelve-month revenue is $2.12M with $967K of SDE, and the broker reports the SDE margin expanded from about 32% to 46%. A seasoned sales lead drives most new business, and the founder, stepping back after 15 years, ran a 150-day sabbatical with no impact on operations.

Why this deal stands out: SBA pre-qualification on a digital media business is unusual, and it signals the books survived lender scrutiny. The 4.24x multiple buys a decade-plus of brand relationships, a tested semi-absentee operating model, and an audience most regional advertisers cannot reach on their own.

💡 EBIT Take: Audience businesses live on platform algorithms, so diligence the reach mix and how concentrated it is by platform before underwriting growth. The subscription product is built but unlaunched, which is either free upside or a sign sales bandwidth is tight; ask which. Confirm what the sales lead earns and whether they stay, because they are the revenue engine.

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A Bay County, Florida operation combining a flooring showroom and a dedicated granite fabrication shop, serving residential remodeling and new construction for 12 years with 17 employees. The listing reports $6.1M of revenue and $957K of SDE based on 4.5-year averages, with the current year running 41% ahead of the prior year, and $650K of FF&E included. The sellers are retiring.

Why this deal stands out: At 3.1x average SDE with 2.26x modeled coverage and about $533K after debt, the financing math works on conservative numbers, and the fabrication shop plus showroom pairing captures both retail and contractor demand in a hurricane-rebuild market. Momentum helps too: the listing cites 41% growth over the prior year.

💡 EBIT Take: Averages smooth cycles, so get year-by-year P&Ls and see whether the 4.5-year window includes both the boom and the trough; the trailing twelve months matter more than the average when you set price. Ask for the revenue split between showroom retail and fabrication contract work, since margin and durability differ sharply. Panhandle construction is storm-cyclical, so backlog and builder relationships are the real assets to verify.

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A full-service auto repair shop in Newport News, Virginia, running 17 bays across an 18,000 sq ft facility on 1.5 acres, with the real estate valued at $1.6M included in the asking price. A full-time manager runs day-to-day operations with five full-time technicians, and the listing states staff are expected to stay after the sale. The owner is retiring and will provide support and training following closing.

Why this deal stands out: Nearly half the price is hard collateral: $1.6M of real estate plus $200K of FF&E convey with the deal, which prices the operating business near 2.6x SDE. Both seller financing and SBA financing are on the table per the listing, and a manager-led crew of five gives a new owner a running operation from day one.

💡 EBIT Take: The split-amortization math is the deal: ask your lender to underwrite the real-estate portion on a 25-year schedule, since coverage moves from 1.3x to roughly 1.5x when they do. With a manager in place, diligence centers on bay utilization and car count, then confirm the staff-retention claim with the techs themselves. Order the real-estate appraisal early because both the price and the loan structure ride on it.

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A commercial and industrial plumbing company serving the Phoenix East Valley since 2007, running with a team of 28 employees under semi-absentee ownership. The $3.15M price includes FF&E and inventory, and the owners, who are selling to focus on other business interests, will provide two weeks of training.

Why this deal stands out: A 28-person commercial plumbing operation that already runs semi-absentee is the rare trades deal that does not buy the new owner a job, and Phoenix commercial construction demand gives the top line structural support. Modeled coverage at 1.80x leaves about $355K after debt at a 3.9x multiple.

💡 EBIT Take: Arizona requires an ROC license with a qualifying party, so confirm whether a key employee holds it or you need to install one before close. Two weeks of training is thin for a business this size: negotiate a longer consulting tail and meet the field superintendents early. Ask for the commercial-versus-industrial revenue split and the top GC relationships, which is where concentration hides in this trade.

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Disclaimer: Educational content only, not investment advice. Listings are from third-party sources and accuracy is not guaranteed. Do your own due diligence. Consult with legal, accounting, and financing professionals before making any acquisition decisions.