Illustrations · not client files

Three ways a deal fails in public.

A leased bakery, a car wash, and a bookstore. The numbers were written for this page. They are not a paid file, a real listing, or a business the desk was hired to read.

Download an illustration (PDF)

One page. Marked illustration. The bakery, in the form a pack takes. The car wash and the bookstore are on this page. None of it is a client file.

Illustration · leased bakery

A counter with two asking prices

An illustration. The town, the street, and every dollar figure on this page were written for the example. This is not a client file.

File label

Open questions

Suppose a brochure asks $240,000 for a leased bakery and cites $310,000 of sales and $61,000 to the owner. An older public ad for the same description still says $275,000. The ovens are described as financed. None of that is a fact about a real business. It is the shape of a file: two prices, and equipment that may not be owned.

What the public page actually says

Ask: Illustration only: $240,000 on the brochure, $275,000 on an older ad.
Claimed earnings: Illustration only: $61,000, against $310,000 of claimed sales. No tax return in the example.
Real estate: A claimed lease at $3,100 a month. No street address in the example.
Equipment: The sample listing says the ovens are under a finance contract.
SBA: A lender would ask whether the buyer is purchasing ovens or a payment.

Five conditions to check

The street address is still missing after the listing is opened.
The lease has fewer than five years left, or the landlord’s consent to an assignment is not in writing.
Tax returns do not support the $61,000, or the $3,100 rent is not the real occupancy cost.
The live asking price is $275,000 and the brochure is stale.
The ovens are financed, leased, or excluded, so the equipment line is not equity.

Illustration · car wash

A wash sold on four bays

An illustration. No wash was copied. The bay count, the price, and the water line are made up.

File label

Open questions

Suppose a listing asks $890,000, says the site has four self-serve bays, and calls the pumps new. The public pages name no profit. A permit card in the example lists two bays. The listing says four. The remarks mention a reclaim system. The utility page in the example shows a city water account and no reclaim permit.

What the public page actually says

Ask: Illustration only: $890,000. No earnings figure on the public pages.
Bays: Illustration only: four bays in the listing, two on the permit card.
Reclaim: In this example the remarks claim one. The permit page does not.
Last trade: Illustration only: a vendor shows $510,000 eight years ago. That is not a deed.
Not found: A water-use permit. The sewer line in the example was never opened.

Five conditions to check

No tax return supports a profit, because no profit was published.
The permit card does not support the marketed bay count, or two bays are not in the sale.
The reclaim system in the remarks is not on the permit.
A sewer map puts the pit on a line the city has not accepted, and the price was not cut for it.
No water-use permit is produced, and the jump from $510,000 is not explained with invoices.

Illustration · bookstore

A shop the regulars like, and a flyer with no books

An illustration. The shelf count, the square footage, and the price are invented. No shop’s books were used.

File label

Open questions

Suppose a flyer asks $410,000 for a shop marketed as 6,000 square feet of shelves. Reviews in the example are warm: 4.8 from 40 readers. The flyer has no gross, no net, and no inventory line. It says the building is owned. A parcel page in the example says the seller is a tenant. A line about a café next door has no lease.

What the public page actually says

Ask: Illustration only: $410,000. No second price in the example.
Earnings: None on the flyer. The example does not invent a profit and then hide it.
The room: A shop of 6,000 square feet, on a retail zoning line, in the example only.
Building: Illustration only: the flyer says owned. The parcel page says tenant.
Reviews: 4.8 from 40 readers. Made up. Readers can love a shop that has no spreadsheet.
Not found: Owner of record. A lease for the café the flyer says is part of the sale.

Five conditions to check

There is still no tax return, because the flyer never stated a profit.
Inventory for the shelves is not in the sale, or it is not counted.
The parcel page says tenant, or the reading room is not on the parcel.
The owner of record is not the name on the flyer.
The café next door has no lease in the example.

Illustrations, not client files. The dollar figures were written for this page. They are not a statement about any real business, and they are not an instruction to break a contract. Not an appraisal, legal opinion, engineering report, tax opinion, or investment advice. A heading organizes an example. It is not a directive. If you believe a page identifies your business, write packs@beforeyouwire.co.

Run one on your target