Rental Property Investing with IRAs

Retirement vehicles such as individual retirement accounts come with an common understanding regarding how they can be used. This understanding can sometimes be incorrect as it is with IRAs.

If you have an IRA, you need to invest the contributions in stocks, bonds or mutual funds, correct? Actually, this common perception is wrong. You can make far more money by actually investing in property such as homes, condos and so on.

Investing in the stock or bond market with your IRA is an in the box strategy. You can make a decent return, but is that really what you want? I doubt it. Leveraging your IRA account to buy homes and condos has much more potential.

Using your IRA to buy homes and such might sound like an aggressive idea that might raise the ire of the IRS. In truth, it is not and the IRS has said as much. The language allowing it is right in the tax code, to wit, this is not a loophole strategy.

Truth be told, you have the right to invest your retirement dollars in many more investment areas then you are led to believe. So, why haven’t you been told this? Well, most stock investment brokers don’t make money in real estate, so why would they promote it?

The nuts and bolts of the strategy are fairly simple, but the devil is in the details. In general, you open a self-directed IRA and use that vehicle to invest in property entities. Get it right and you can make a bundle. Get it wrong and it is a nightmare, so do this with professional help.

Regardless, a self-directed individual retirement account works a bit different than the ones most people use. The account has a custodian who acts much like a trustee for a trust. The custodian can be a bank or other advisor and the fees are low.

Once up and running, it is time to put money into the account. How you do this is entirely dependent upon your specific situation. You can roll money in from another account or perhaps just make contributions. Consult with your financial advisor for the best answer.

You cannot buy property from yourself or family members. That is it. Doing so would be considered self-dealing, which is a no-no in the tax world. The prohibition applies even if you buy the property at fair market value.

When the actual property is obtained, it will be signed off on by the IRA custodian. Self-directed IRAs have an independent custodian who oversees the account do to IRA rules. After that, you just collect earnings from the property tax free in your account.

While buying property with an IRA is a good strategy, doing so with a Roth IRA is a much better one. It works the same way, but the tax benefits are tremendous. All distributions made from the Roth with be tax free. It is a nice way to build your retirement nest egg.

You probably have a number of questions regarding this strategy. This article is admittedly a simplification of the strategy. To find out more and take advantage of it, speak with an advisor experienced in the field.

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Find out how using a self-directed Roth IRA can be used for wealth building at UFCAmerica.com.
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