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HOW TO USE YOUR IRA/401K TO BUY REAL ESTATE
Many of our clients have planned for retirement by investing in traditional IRA's. 401K's or SEP IRAs.Most of these vehicles are composed of mutual funds, stocks or bonds that are recommended by your custodian (stock broker or financial advisor). Some of our clients have expressed dissatisfaction with the rate of growth of their retirement accounts or for different reasons wished they could diversify into other wealth building vehicles.
You may be surprised to know that you can diversify your retirement accounts and buy real estate or even a business using a perfectly legal tool called a
Self
Directed IRA. Self directed signifies that you, and not some
third party stock broker, choose your IRA investments. Most investors are unaware of this opportunity because their IRA custodians do not offer anything other than traditional investments. Most of these custodians do not want you to know you have an option to buy real estate or businesses for your IRA and enjoy all the benefits those asset types have to offer.
Now I know that some of you are going to say that real estate has not been such a great investment over the years during certain periods. Like the stock market, the real estate market took a hit for a few years starting in about 2008 (as did the whole economy!) However, right now, there are some extraordinary opportunities in commercial real estate because interest rates are so low.
There is also a big price discrepancy between existing buildings and the cost to build new, rendering many existing buildings good investments at decent cap rates (8,9,10%). These can become part of your retirement portfolio using a self-directed program.
If you are so inclined, you can look up Section 408 of the Internal Revenue Code, which permits individuals to purchase land, commercial property, condos, residential property (you can't personally live in it) and a few other things with funds currently held in many common forms of IRA, including traditional IRAs, ROTH IRA's and SEP IRAs. You cannot, however, use IRA funds for your personal residence or vacation home.
We have seen clients who are not happy with their traditional IRAs or 401Ks find a specialized custodian and rollover their accounts to allow for direct purchases of commercial real estate such as income producing office, retail and industrial properties. One such client bought a foreclosed multi-tenant office building in Cary. The income and appreciation accumulate tax deferred until it is taken out. If the real estate is held in a ROTH IRA, all proceeds are tax free when taken out at retirement.
If you don't have enough cash in your self directed IRA to buy an entire property by yourself, you can co-invest with friends and relatives as tenants in common. The property deed would specify what percentage of ownership your IRA held in the property. In addition, if the group doesn't have enough cash to buy the property outright, your group, usually operating under an LLC, can obtain a loan. You are not permitted to personally guarantee that loan, however. It must be what they call a non recourse loan. Or that loan can be personally guaranteed by one of the others in the group who is not buying it as a part of his retirement plan.
Depending on the self directed IRA plan you choose, there is an initial out of pocket fee of $495, and the total set up fees range from $1200-1700. You can set up a checking account at a local bank of your choice and have complete control over that account.
More and more people are taking advantage of this self directed retirement plan. You owe it to yourself to take a closer look.
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