That sounds obvious, but a lot of SMB acquisition buyers still treat the listing price like it is the starting point. It is not. A business can be listed at $2.2M and only support $1.6M of senior debt. Or it can look “financeable” on paper until you actually look at DSCR, equity injection, seller note assumptions, add-backs, working capital, and how much cash flow is left after debt service. That matters before LOI. Because once a buyer gets emotionally attached to a deal, they start explaining away the same things they should have questioned at the beginning. This is one of the reasons I built ADE. Not to tell buyers what a business is “worth.” To help pressure-test whether the deal survives basic lender and buyer reality before the buyer wastes time, lender credibility, or money chasing it. The financing ceiling is not the target price. It is the reality check. I put together a short guide on this here: redacted