Landa. Cityfunds. PeerStreet. Every platform that went dark had one thing in common: the SEC filings said so first — usually months before the app stopped paying.

The tell is never in the marketing. It's in the fine print almost nobody reads. Here are three of the eight red flags I now check before trusting any platform with a dollar.

1. The "going concern" note

Buried in the audited financials, an auditor sometimes writes that there is "substantial doubt about the company's ability to continue as a going concern." That is the most serious warning a filing can contain. Groundfloor's own 2024 audit carried a version of it. It doesn't guarantee failure — but it means the auditor, who has seen the books, is worried.

2. Distributions that are really your own money back

If a platform is paying an 8% "yield" while its cash flow from operations is negative, that distribution isn't income — it's return of capital. You're being paid with the money you (or newer investors) put in. It flatters the headline rate and quietly shrinks the asset base.

3. The redemption door that "temporarily" closes

Starwood's non-traded REIT suspended almost all redemptions in April 2026 at the exact moment investors wanted out. "Redeem up to 2% a month" is a sponsor privilege, revoked at the first debt-maturity wall — not a right. When you read the redemption terms, read what happens when everyone asks at once.

The other five flags — worsening cash burn, untested appraisal-NAV, rising loan defaults, sponsor self-dealing, and going quiet — plus exactly where in each filing to find them, are in the full checklist.

Get the 8-red-flags checklist →

The filings are public. Almost nobody reads them. That asymmetry is the whole edge.

— Jorge