Self-funded searchers // What does your pre-LOI research process actually look like?

professional profile

March 07, 2026

by a professional from Georgetown University in Los Angeles, CA, USA

We are researching how self-funded searchers evaluate deals before submitting an LOI. Specifically, the manual research phase (pulling public records, checking liens, verifying licenses, looking for red flags) before you've committed money to attorneys or a QoE. We're curious how much time this takes, what your process looks like, and what (if anything) you wish worked differently. We're in the early stages of exploring whether there's a better way to handle this part of the search, and we'd love to learn from people who are actively looking at deals or have recently closed. If you'd be willing to hop on a###-###-#### minute call, we'd really appreciate it. As a thank-you, once we're further along, we'd love to give you something useful in return. Reach out at redacted
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Reply by a searcher
from Grand Canyon University in Boise, ID, USA
Mine is strictly market and financial reviews. I have an extensive excel spreadsheet I bought that I run numbers through. I then confirm those with a high level DD review, market and SWOT analysis with ai. The ai model I use does not use the confidential info I enter to train the system. All this usually provides a solid list of questions I can then get clarification on, such as Top10 customer concentration, licenses, contracts, etc. Again, these aren't deep level DD questions, just basic possible red flags I want to answers to before moving to LOI.
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