Completed transactions prove it and agreements do not. The persuasive file contains wire confirmations, released escrow instructions, bills of sale, signed leases, paid invoices and receipts issued by the seller or by suppliers. A purchase agreement, however detailed, records an intention; the classification is interested in what has already left the investor's control.
Collect receipts, not undertakings
The distinction is easy to state and surprisingly hard to apply, because a well-prepared buyer naturally leads with the contract. The contract is worth including, but it should sit behind the documents that show performance of it. Each dollar should be traceable from a lawful origin, through an identifiable account, to a recipient who has issued something acknowledging receipt.
Hypothetical example: an investor from Sainte-Cécile-de-Milton comes to a first remote consultation holding a signed agreement of purchase and sale, a bank draft made out to the vendor's lawyer, and a business plan. The draft is in her handbag, which is precisely the difficulty: nothing has yet moved. Delivering it, obtaining a receipt, and instructing the escrow so that the funds cannot come back to her convert three documents about the future into three documents about the past, and only the second set answers the regulation.