We looked at and made offers on 3 businesses before we decided to do our own. Each of the 3 had the same problems. Bad financial management, removing cash sales from the books and adding personal expenses to the books. We also found out one didn't pay his rent or complete customer jobs that he had collected for.
All three, while stating they were selling and exiting the business, we discovered still wanted to stay in the business, one wanted to remain in the company, the other two wanted the money to buy new equipment and start again.
All of our offers had a non-compete and all were rejected by the owner.