Real Estate Investments in Your Self Directed Retirement Plan: A Guide

Rating:
Summary: You can set up an IRA to buy real estate rather than stock.
Review: This is a very methodical, thorough step by step manual for investing your IRA or retirement funds in real estate. This book was very helpful to me for a number of reasons. A year ago or so I asked three different advisers at Fidelity Mutual Funds whether I could use my IRA money there to purchase and renovate a piece of real estate. They each said no. But this book says the answer should have been yes. That I can set up my own IRA, even a rollover IRA or Keough, and purchase and improve real estate with the money from the IRA. And the book is very methodical about how to do it, including forms and steps in the procedure. I would think the book would also be helpful to estate planners and lawyers who are helping people plan their estates. One thing I wish the authors would address is why should you put your retirement funds in real estate rather in the stock market or mutual funds. Are there tax advantages? Is the income sheltered? Is it easier (ie fewer estate taxes on heirs) to pass real estate on to heirs--is the value of real estate discounted somehow? I wish I had had this book when I was talking to Fidelity so I could have rolled over those IRA funds into this building I bought rather than borrowing money from a bank.