Gator Method Review: What Gator Lending Really Is

By Mike Calloway · Last Updated: November 12, 2026 (Price & Content Verified)

The Gator Method has the best name in Pace Morby’s whole lineup.

It sounds like a swamp-based workout program. Or a fishing lure your uncle swears by.

It’s neither. It’s Pace’s pitch for getting paid in real estate without owning real estate.

And honestly, that pitch is the most interesting thing about it. Because once you read how gator lending reportedly works, you realize “without owning anything” also means “without controlling anything.”

Here’s my Gator Method review.

Why Most Real Estate Courses Suck

What is the Gator Method?

The front door is a free webinar at pacejmorby.com/live.

The page pitches a strategy that “Gets You Paid Without Owning Anything” by becoming “a connector for deals.”

No price on the page. Just registration.

So the webinar is the funnel, and whatever course comes after it is the product. Standard playbook. I wrote about why that playbook exists in why most real estate courses suck.

How does gator lending work?

The webinar page doesn’t spell out the mechanics. But outside sources describe it consistently.

According to an OfferMarket explainer, the Gator Method reportedly means making small, short-term private loans to wholesalers or flippers. Often the money funds earnest money, or keeps a deal alive long enough to close. In exchange, you get a fixed return or a cut of the deal.

So picture this.

A wholesaler has a house under contract. They need earnest money, fast, and they don’t have it. You front the cash. The deal closes, and you get your money back plus a return.

That’s the dream version.

You’re not a landlord. You’re not on title. You’re not chasing distressed sellers. You’re the friend with the checkbook.

It’s a bit like being the person in the group chat who always fronts the Airbnb deposit. Very generous. Very popular. And very dependent on everybody actually Venmoing you back.

How much does the Gator Method cost?

The official webinar page doesn’t list a price.

According to a 2023 BiggerPockets post, the course reportedly costs about $3,000.

A second BiggerPockets thread mentions a range of $2K to $5K.

So it’s cheaper than SubTo. That’s genuinely a point in its favor. Full SubTo pricing is on my SubTo cost page.

What do people say about the Gator Method?

The same second BiggerPockets thread says the webinar claimed $1,500 to $3,000 earned per $1K lent.

Sit with that number for a second.

That’s not a return. That’s a magic trick. If lending $1,000 reliably turned into $2,500 or $4,000, banks would be lining up outside every wholesaler’s office with folding chairs.

And the BiggerPockets replies noticed. Most of them were skeptical.

In a separate thread reviewing SubTo and Gator, one poster’s take was basically that nothing Pace sells is worth the price. That’s one person’s opinion, and I’d weigh it as one person’s opinion. But it fits the general mood.

I couldn’t find any verified data on typical Gator returns. So I won’t give you one.

The disclaimer on the Gator Method page

Here’s my favorite part, and I mean that sincerely.

The webinar page carries a disclaimer telling people “DO NOT PURCHASE ANY GATOR METHOD COURSES” if they won’t accept the risk.

Credit where it’s due. That’s a clearer warning than most guru pages give you.

It’s also the page telling you, in all caps, that the risk is real. When the sales page itself is shouting, I’d listen.

The real risk: you’re the lender on someone else’s deal

Let’s get specific about what “connector for deals” means for your money.

You don’t control the deal

The wholesaler controls the contract. The seller controls whether they actually sell. The end buyer controls whether they actually close.

You control… your wire transfer. That’s it.

Short-term deals can fall apart fast

Wholesale deals die all the time. A seller backs out, an inspection goes sideways, a buyer disappears.

When that happens, what happens to your money depends on the paperwork and the person you lent to. If the paperwork is thin, or the borrower is stretched, “short-term loan” can quietly become “long-term conversation.”

Your borrower is, by definition, short on cash

Think about who needs a gator loan. Someone who needs money right now to keep a deal alive.

That’s not a knock on wholesalers. It’s just the math of who’s on the other side of the table.

I’m not a lawyer, and this isn’t legal advice. Talk to a real estate attorney in your state before you sign anything, especially before you lend money against someone else’s contract.

Questions I’d ask before lending a dime

If you go ahead anyway, at least walk in with a list. These aren’t legal rules. They’re just the questions I’d want answered before money leaves my account:

• What exactly am I funding? Earnest money, a deposit, a rehab cost? Get the property address and the contract.
• What’s my paper? Is there a signed note? Is anything securing it, or is it a handshake with a Venmo memo?
• What happens if the deal dies? Not “it won’t.” What does the agreement say, in writing?
• When do I get paid, and by whom? A date and a name, not “at closing, probably.”
• Who else is owed money on this deal? If three people fronted cash, you want to know where you stand in line.
• Could I lose this whole amount and be fine? If the answer is no, the answer is no.

If someone gets annoyed by those questions, that’s useful information too.

It’s like lending your brother-in-law your truck. You can do it. You just want to know where it’s going, when it’s coming back, and who’s paying if it comes back with a new dent.

Gator Method pros and cons

Show Me Real Estate Without a Mortgage

Gator Method vs subject-to

Funny enough, the Gator Method avoids the biggest problem with subject-to.

With subject-to, you hold a house on a loan in a stranger’s name, and the bank may call it under the due-on-sale clause. I broke that down on the subject-to risks page.

With Gator, there’s no mortgage in your life at all.

But it swaps that for a different problem: you need cash up front, and your return depends entirely on other people’s deals closing.

Neither one is “no money, no risk.” They just put the risk in different pockets. For Pace’s third big strategy, see my Morby Method review. For the whole picture, here’s my full Pace Morby review.

My verdict on the Gator Method

Is gator lending a real thing? Yes. Private lending to investors is a real business.

Is the Gator Method a scam? No. It’s a course about a real strategy, with a page that warns you about the risk in capital letters.

Would I do it? No.

I don’t love paying a reported few grand to learn how to hand my money to someone else’s deal, based on return claims that made BiggerPockets raise an eyebrow.

I’d rather own the asset. And the asset I like owns no house at all.

I build simple websites for local services, get them ranking on Google, and rent them to local businesses that want the calls. No borrower. No wholesaler. No deal that falls apart on Friday. You found this page through a website that ranked. Same idea.

What I'd Do Instead of SubTo