⚠️ A BDO brought us in to review a $1.9M acquisition. Everything looked solid… until it didn’t.

The seller’s addbacks included:
🚗 $26K in personal car leases
💼 $15K salary to the seller’s spouse
📣 $48K in critical marketing (not actually discretionary)
🐾 And… $2,400 in “pet care” 🐕

Once we normalized earnings correctly, the value dropped by over $300K.

✅ The lender avoided overexposure.
✅ The buyer still closed—at a much safer valuation.

Red flags don’t just kill deals. Sometimes they save them—if you catch them early.

Have you ever seen something buried in a seller’s P&L like this?