There’s a good chance that if lender finds out of property transfer via title records, insurance policy beneficiary, bank account submitting mortgage payments, they’ll assume that John  Smith formed a trust to own title and will not flag the  file for any action.  

Warning: Schedules C claiming expenses without any income are not against the rules, but they are IRS audit flags. 

Yes, the contractors were bad people, but there were hundreds of red flags waving in your face and you ignored them all. 

I understand that sending them a message through the platform may flag me for solicitation.

@Akash GaurUnfortunately the chance of recourse is very little unless it’s found they were fraudulent.You are correct that they never submitted their 2022 audited reports or semi annual reports according to the sec website which is a major red flag.

I think most hosts give 5 stars unless there is a serious issue so even a 4 star is a red flag for me that I would check into. 

It would be a big red flag to me if they are doing a lot of volume in this market. https://www.biggerpockets.com/member-blogs/10145/83067-limited-partner-s-guide-to-investing-in-the-right-deal

The red flag here for me would be the willingness to overpay when they’re not bidding against anyone.

I definitely ended up passing on this "deal" based on the red flags.

Also, real builders/experienced developers will often have a true technician, i.e. a civil engineer, architect, real estate attorney et al at least glance at the property info to make sure there are no major red flags.