A Cardone Capital press release of December 19, 2023 states that the company raised $1.2 billion from 13,000 investors since its inception in 2017:

…The firm has successfully amassed over $1.2 billion in funding, catering primarily to “the everyday investor overlooked by Wall Street,” as CEO Grant Cardone puts it.

The Cardone Capital website states that the firm has $4 billion in Assets Under Management (AUM):

Individually or through Cardone Capital, he [Grant Cardone] manages a real estate portfolio comprised of 11,903 apartment units and over 500,000 square feet of commercial office space valued at approximately $4 billion.

These numbers suggest to us that Cardone Capital’s real estate portfolio is about 75% leveraged. In other words, Cardone Capital is carrying approximately $3 billion in debt. However, as Grant Cardone does not disclose his financials, there is no way of knowing what Cardone Capital’s monthly debt service is or how its loans are structured.

Likewise, no one knows the actual equity position of Cardone Capital. Grant Cardone told Patrick Bet-David in a December 2023 interview that Cardone Capital has $2 billion in debt. There is no way to prove this claims absent the publication of financials.

The problem of private equity is the utter lack of transparency.

The same Cardone Capital press release of December 19, 2023 states that the company paid investors $60 million in distributions in 2023.

The company has been distributing cash to its investors every month, with a notable $7.6 million in December alone, culminating in nearly $60 million for the year.

Cardone Capital’s public statement that it raised $1.2 billion from investors and paid $60 million in dividends shows that Cardone paid a 5% dividend in 2023.

At present, banks are offering a 4.5% interest rate on 3 month CD’s.

Apple is offering a 5% savings account.

Conversely, Cardone Capital is an illiquid investment that locks up investor money for 10 years and has the right to suspend distributions at any time and for any reasons.

Grant Cardone claimed in his December 2023 with Patrick Bet-David he and his brother and sister  personally own 6,000 of the 12,000 apartment units in the Cardone Capital portfolio.

Cardone told Bet-David that these 6,000 units were purchased during the first 20 years of his real estate investing and were purchased by himself and his brother and sister.

It seems to follow from this disclosure of family ownership, then, that Cardone is paying himself and his brother and sister ~50% of the $60 million in distributions paid to “investors” as he counts these 6,000 units as part of Cardone Capital.

Cardone’s disclosure of family ownership of 6,000 units would mean that Cardone Capital does not have $4 billion of assets under management unless the family-owned units were sold to Cardone Capital or are otherwise held by Cardone Capital in some sort of arrangement. We say this because Grant Cardone cannot simultaneously claim to personally own these 6,000 units while also counting them as part of Cardone Capital’s portfolio.

A statement to the SEC contained in the 2019 Form 1-K for Cardone Equity Fund V, LLC is found in Related Party Transactions informs the reader of the following:

When each Cardone Member entity purchases a multifamily property, Grant Cardone contributes his equity and loans the balance needed to purchase the property to each Cardone Member entity. The aggregate principle balance loaned by Grant Cardone on behalf of the Company to the Cardone Member entities to acquire the investments amounted to approximately $42,159,000. Each loan pays 6% interest rate, is unsecured and is payable on demand. As of December 31, 2019, all loans had been repaid and the Company’s proportional share of interest paid totaled $216,266.

The way in which Grant Cardone purchases properties with his own money and then sells them to Cardone Capital is known. Cardone’s practice of purchasing the properties and treating the use of his own cash as a 6% loan to Cardone Capital is also known.

What we are investigating is Cardone’s claim to Bet-David that he and his brother and sister own 6,000 of the 12,000 units. Our question is this: In what way do the Cardone siblings own the 6,000 units? Do they own them personally or as Class A or Class B shares?

The Bottom Line: In our opinion, Cardone Capital is a mediocre, debt-heavy, illiquid investment designed primarily to enrich Grant Cardone. For example, Cardone takes a whopping 35% when he sells a property after 10 years. Cardone also collects numerous acquisition and management fees as part of his self-dealing.

Given Cardone’s lack of financial transparency; Cardone Capital’s ~$3 billion debt load; and the paltry $60 million Cardone paid to 13,000 investors in 2023, the evidence argues that there is no way Grant Cardone is anywhere near to being a real billionaire based upon Cardone Capital. However, Cardone claims his other companies are worth $3-4 billion. However, like Robert Kiyosaki’s mysterious and unnamed “Rich Dad” we have absolutely no proof of Cardone’s claim that his other companies are worth $3-4 billion.

The Patrick Bet-David interview suggests Grant Cardone’s net worth is $7 billion. However, we see Grant Cardone operating on Church of Scientology Rules: A huge amount of hyper-inflated PR claims of billions of dollars mixed in with celebrity appearances. However, the actual performance of Cardone Capital was $60 million paid 2023 distributions — and 50% of that may have been paid to Grant Cardone and his brother and sister as owners of 6,000 units.

If we do the math and average, $60 million paid to 13,000 investors in 2023 means each investor was paid a staggering distribution of $4,615. This is a pathetic $88.75 per week.

Memo to Grant: Bitch, that kind of 10X chump change “cash flow” will not even pay for groceries.

Our opinion of Cardone Capital as a mediocre investment becomes particularly emphatic when we contrast Cardone Capital with Morning Star’s report on the 2023 US Stock Market:

U.S. Stocks rose 26.4% (including dividends), the biggest rally in the US Market Index since 2019. Stocks were up 12.1% in the fourth quarter, the index’s best quarterly performance since late 2020.

Amazon was selling in January 2023 at $103.13. As of today, Amazon is trading at $149.00. Amazon shares increased 50% in 12 months. Cardone’s 5% return in the same period is eminently mediocre.

As we have reported on previously, Grant Cardone wants to start and own his own bank. He told Patrick Bet David this same thing in the December 2023 interview.

Grant Cardone says he wants to get into financial services. His brother Gary Cardone is presently setting up Node40, a crypto accounting service:

NODE40 offers the industry’s most comprehensive data analysis, accounting and crypto tax platform to create an independent, verifiable audit trail. It tracks the lifecycle of each transaction — from cost basis origin to transfers to disposition — to deliver precise calculations, complete confidence and full compliance.

Grant Cardone wants to own a bank. Gary Cardone wants to create a crypto audit platform. There are distinct possible synergies. The thing we are watching are the ties to Dubai.

Grant Cardone is out on social media claiming that 2024 will see a massive correction in housing.

Cardone is not Nostradamus.

Cardone made a disastrous prediction on his YouTube channel in February 2022 in which he unequivocally declared that the Fed would not raise interest rates (emphasis ours):

“So to be clear ladies and gentlemen, I predict that a year from now interest rates will be at or below where we are today, National mortgage rate today is 4.24. Feds fed expects to hire to raise 25 bps [basis points], or a quarter of a point at the next nine meetings, I suggest somewhere between now and the next nine meetings they’re unable to raise interest rates as they want to.

August 2023: National interest rates shown below demonstrate show how badly Cardone was off in his prediction. If Cardone proceeded to purchase real estate based on his prediction then he could be in serious trouble on his variable rate loans.

The December 2023 interview of Grant Cardone by Patrick Bet-David. We found this interview well worth watching.