A full quality-of-earnings engagement and a pre-LOI document read answer different questions. Price comparisons are useful only when scope, provider, source access, timing, and intended reliance are visible beside the number.
What ranges do providers publish?
ProjectionHub's small-business buyer guide says providers it found commonly charge $10,000 to $35,000 for a full report on acquisitions from $100,000 to $10 million. A March 2026 Bedrock guide gives a broader $5,000 to $50,000-plus market range and says many lower-middle-market engagements fall between $5,000 and $20,000. These are provider-published ranges, not universal fees.
What does a narrower first pass cost?
ProjectionHub describes its own sniff test as under $1,000. Reality Contact charges $149 for a CIM-only first look and $495 for a pre-LOI brief using the CIM, three years of returns, and the P&L. Those lower prices reflect narrower access, no seller interview, no confirmation work, and no attest or CPA-firm scope.
What does the lower-cost brief not replace?
Reality Contact's deliverable is not a quality-of-earnings report, audit, assurance engagement, valuation, or opinion. A lender, investor, or buyer may still require a CPA firm or other third party after an LOI. The brief is an earlier document read intended to expose claims, tie-outs, coverage assumptions, and the next questions before the buyer orders deeper work.
What can the Reality Contact check provide?
The free card calculates coverage at the asking price, 10% under, and 20% under with every loan assumption printed. The $149 CIM first look identifies claims, omissions, stated add-backs, coverage, and ten broker questions. The $495 pre-LOI brief adds the tax-return and P&L tie-out, deeper add-back reconstruction, concentration and owner-dependence read, working-capital estimate, and thirty questions. The buyer sends every question.
Where does the operator boundary sit?
This is not financial advice. Reality Contact, LLC writes an analysis memo from buyer-supplied documents. It is not a quality-of-earnings report, audit, assurance engagement, valuation, or opinion. Reality Contact is not a CPA firm or broker, takes no closing-linked fee, contacts no seller, broker, or lender, and gives no recommendation. The coverage card is a real calculation on printed assumptions. Reality Contact is sampling whether buyers want the deeper document read. We reply by email with the ask, 10% under, and 20% under cases so the arithmetic can be rerun. The current source check starts with this published record.