Using Your IRA to Invest in Real Estate

One very large misconception in the investment world is the purchase of real estate in an investment account such as your IRA, (traditional or Roth), SEP, Keogh, 401K, etc).  These accounts are not investments they are simply accounts that hold your investments.  They can hold many types of investments such as stocks, bonds, mutual funds AND real estate.

I have heard of people asking their investment specialist if they can purchase real estate with their IRA and they were told no.  The truth is you can but most companies that hold retirement accounts are not set up to handle such transactions.  Therefore, they have no incentive to inform their customers that real estate is an alternative investment choice.  This story happened to me and after searching I discovered the process was quite easy.  Now I own several properties in my IRA and plan to purchase many more.

The fact is you CAN invest in real estate with your investment account.

First establish a self-directed retirement account with a company/custodian that specializes in real estate IRA's.  This is a relatively easy process and can be done by either rolling over your assets of an existing account or establishing a new account.

In your self-directed IRA you can purchase land, rental properties, condos, commercial property, etc, etc.  The property can be rented and provide income back to your IRA, you can buy and sell and generate income for your IRA or you can buy and hold for a while.  All the expenses as well as the income flows in and out of your IRA.  You can even buy property that cost more than the assets in your IRA and finance the balance.

The process is really quite simply and but you need to follow the rules.  Feel free to give me a call or e-mail me for more information.