Vetting corporate private lenders and brokers

[Maribel Manibo]

There's a ton of FB groups where people claim to be a lender but turns out they are not individual private lenders or are part of a "network", which is fine. Would like to know how you tell if they are legit, especially the brokers. What steps do you take to check them out? What are red flags? Are there ones to stay away from... etc? Has anyone had any bad/non ideal experiences and what lessons did you learn and what would you have done differently?

[Robin Simon]

I think the best tried and true strategy is look and evaluate their website and overall digital reputation.  In this day and age, the top lenders and brokers will have quality websites, a strong track record with reviews (such as on here or google) and are listed/vetted on sites like BiggerPockets as well