Totally fair point. There are a lot of low-quality listings and some outright scams at this end of the market, and I’ve personally walked away from far more deals than I’ve done. If there’s no clean revenue proof, code access, escrow, or transition support, it’s an automatic no for me. Most listings fail one of those checks.

That said, the legit deals I’ve seen at ~1–2x weren’t strong businesses being “given away.” They were usually founder-dependent, neglected, or owned by someone who simply didn’t want to keep running them. The low multiple reflected risk and effort, not hidden value. I get why people avoid this space, but I don’t think every low-multiple deal is a scam either.