Know if your deal survives underwriting before the lender decides.
You send the CIM, three years of financials, and your terms. We send back the structure in writing: the 7(a)/504 split under the July 2026 caps ($5.0M each, up to $10M combined), coverage in years one and two and after the standby ends, and the material flags an underwriter will raise from the documents you provide. Then we walk it together on a call.
Three business days from complete documents. Need it in 48 hours? Pick rush at checkout. The full fee is credited against a buy-side engagement signed within 60 days. See a worked example first: the $7.0M teardown, one page (PDF).
One page that frames the next ninety days
Four things, on your live deal, in writing. First, sources and uses: how the purchase splits across the 7(a), the 504, your equity injection, and any seller note, sized against each program's cap. Second, the coverage math committees actually run: DSCR in year one and year two, then again the month any seller note starts paying, scored against the 1.25x the SBA requires for a first-time purchase on loans numbered from October 1, 2026, which most lenders already held. Third, the deal-breaker list: the specific flags in your deal, from thin coverage once a seller note starts paying to a loan sequence that quietly rebuilds the old ceiling. Fourth, a verdict in plain English: the stack holds, the stack holds if these terms move, or walk.
Every number ties to your documents, not industry averages. And the write-up is yours: take it to your lender, your attorney, or your seller negotiation whether or not we ever speak again.
Words are cheap on a page like this, so here is the shape of the thing itself, on a deal that is not yours. The adjustments schedule is the page a seller’s broker hopes you never build.
The stack clears coverage, but two add-backs do not survive, and at this price that is 209 of value
The loan closes either way. What moves is what the buyer is paying for.
- Purchase price
- 2,4005.0x seller earnings
- Buyer equity
- 257.610.0% of uses
- DSCR, seller numbers
- 1.45floor 1.25
- DSCR, surviving
- 1.32still clears, on less
$ thousand unless stated · unaudited
$ thousand
| Line | Amount | % of uses |
|---|---|---|
| Purchase price | 2,400.0 | 93.1 |
| Working capital at close | 100.0 | 3.9 |
| Closing costs and guaranty fee | 78.0 | 3.0 |
| Total uses | 2,578.0 | 100.0 |
| SBA 7(a) term loan | 2,062.4 | 80.0 |
| Seller note, full standby | 258.0 | 10.0 |
| Buyer equity injection | 257.6 | 10.0 |
| Total sources | 2,578.0 | 100.0 |
Note: the seller note sits on full standby for the life of the loan, so it carries no service in the coverage below. Source: illustrative structure; on a live deal every line ties to your term sheet and the seller’s books.
$ thousand
| Adjustment | Claimed | Survives | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reported net income | 285.0 | 285.0 | Per the filed return |
| Owner compensation | 180.0 | 180.0 | Replaced by a market salary below |
| Owner health and auto | 36.0 | 36.0 | Personal, ends at close, documented |
| One-off legal settlement | 35.0 | 35.0 | Non-recurring, settlement letter on file |
| Discretionary travel and entertainment | 18.0 | nil | No support, and the pattern repeats every year |
| Spouse salary | 24.0 | nil | The role is real work someone must be paid to do |
| Market rate general manager | (95.0) | (95.0) | Required once the owner leaves |
| Adjusted earnings | 483.0 | 441.0 | Gap of 42.0 |
Note: at the 5.0 times the agreed price implies, 42.0 of earnings that do not survive is 209 of purchase price. That is the re-trade, and it is the number to take into the room. Source: illustrative; on a live deal each line cites the document that supports or fails it.
Basis of preparation. Illustrative specimen on a composite deal; the figures describe no client and no live transaction. Coverage is stated against a 1.25 times lender benchmark. ClarIQ Advisory is not a lender, law firm or CPA firm, and this is advisory work, not a credit decision.
The Leak Scan, included. Before you price the business, we read what its own systems admit: the calls that ring out, the no-shows, the failed payments nobody chased, the regulars nobody invited back. You get the three numbers that matter for that kind of business, what each one means for the price you offer, and the first-90-days fix list you keep after closing.
Free tells you if. The teardown tells you how.
Start free: the Stack Check takes sixty seconds and tells you whether your numbers can carry an SBA stack at all, and the sample PDF shows the work. When a real deal is on the table, the teardown does what a calculator cannot: it reads your actual financials, prices the addbacks a committee will strike, sequences the approvals, and puts a defensible structure in writing before you spend the diligence budget.
And if the deal moves forward, the teardown becomes the first chapter of the engagement: we run the same structure through underwriting to keys, with the full teardown fee already credited. The buy-side playbook explains the full run.
Buying every quarter? Put the teardown on retainer.
Platform builders screen more deals than they close, and the screen is where fortunes are kept. Standing coverage runs three teardowns a month at one flat monthly fee: every target read the same way, every structure scored against the same bar, a portfolio that underwrites consistently. It pairs with the BYOPE platform practice for everything after the read.
First 90 Days Guard
Closing day is when a business leaks the most: the seller walks out with the habits that held the front door together. The Guard keeps it working while you take over: every call answered, bookings confirmed, reminders and welcome-back messages running, a human reviewing before anything ships. One flat fee in US dollars, shown at checkout. Available to teardown and audit clients.
The honest answers
What do you need from me?
How fast is it?
Is this a loan approval or a lender commitment?
What if the teardown says the deal does not hold?
Is the fee credited if we keep working together?
The clock on your LOI is already running.
Checkout takes a minute, the documents take you ten, and in three business days you know whether the structure holds. Rather talk it through first? The 30-minute call is free either way.
Or talk through your deal on a free call. hello@clariqadvisory.com