Unpaid management fees in Grant Cardone's real estate funds don't appear to match what the funds' own books show, which is a warning sign for investors in them.

• Fund 5 paperwork says over $1.3 million in fees were owed to Cardone but not yet paid.
• That same fund's balance sheet lists almost no liabilities at all, so the money owed does not show up as debt.
• Two years later the fees paid out had grown to about $3 million, with another $1.6 million still owed.
• All of these fees flow to Cardone himself, not back to investors.

Outlook: Expect more scrutiny of how these funds report what they owe their own manager.