Before making an actual investment, here are a few things I tend to do:
1) GF will show you if a borrower has borrowed through GF before. Obviously having a good pay back track record is more favorable for me.
2) I like to pop the address into Google Map and use Street View to look around the neighborhood and the surrounding houses. ***CAUTION*** --> Street View data might not be most recent. But look at the fine print ... if the data was from 2017, 2018, that's good enough for me. Sometimes you can tell other properties have been renovated. Other times, you will notice the house you are interested in is the WORST in the neighborhood. That's actually a good sign for me.
3) I also like to use Google Earth view to zoom out and see how far the house is from city center or schools or shops, etc. I tend to avoid places too far from a city. [Tip: You are going to see a lot of Atlanta area houses.]
4) Sometimes it is obvious the borrower just needs a short bridge loan - even though the term of the loan is for 12 months. You can check when a house was bought originally by the borrower. I've invested in houses where the pictures on Zillow are already updated and they are already listed for sale again. For me, that's a good sign.
5) I tend to avoid really large sizable loans because I find those to take a lot of people and time to fill. And then as you are waiting for them to fill (right now I'm waiting for two to fill), GF might release another batch of loans that are more interesting and you regret committing to the big ones. Having said that, you can cancel your commitment before the loan is filled. But I've never done it.
Good luck to you. Would love hear your experience or tips you observe as well.
