Real Estate in an IRA, Part 2: Managing Assets in a Self-Directed Retirement Plan

August 18, 2014 by Bernadette Trafton Leave a Comment

Last week’s blog discussed setting up a self-directed plan that allows real estate in your IRA. As promised, this week’s topic covers how to properly manage those assets. There are specific rules you must adhere to in order to comply with IRS regulations so your self-directed IRA works for you instead of against you.

Now that you have set up your self-directed IRA, have it properly funded, and are ready to begin looking for property there are several things to keep in mind. While self-directed retirement plans allow many different alternative investment options, there are strict guidelines relevant to prohibited transactions and disqualified persons you must be aware of. Failure to comply could cause your IRA to suffer heavy penalties or even disqualification.

When exploring real estate options, know that your IRA is not allowed to purchase property from you or from another disqualified person. Your IRA is also not allowed to sell property to you or a disqualified person. Disqualified persons include:

The IRA holder and his or her spouse
The IRA holder’s lineal descendants (children, grandparents, etc.) and their spouses
The IRA holders lineal ascendants (parents, grandparents, etc.)
Investment advisers, managers and fiduciaries
Any corporation, partnership, trust, or estate in which disqualified persons have a 50 percent or greater interest
Anyone providing services to the IRA

Another important thing you need to understand is all property your IRA acquires is owned by your IRA and not by you. Any earnings gained, whether through resale or rental income, flow directly into the account. Expenses relative to the property must be paid directly from the IRA. When purchasing real estate in your self-directed IRA, it’s critical to plan for anticipated expenses in advance, so your IRA is prepared to cover them. If you have partnered on a purchase with other parties, your IRA only pays for its percentage of repairs and also must receive only its share of income.

Additionally, you are unable to use the property for personal purposes. For example, if you own a vacation rental you or other disqualified persons may not vacation there. The real estate was purchased to build wealth for your retirement. Using the property for personal purposes before you hit retirement age would be considered a current benefit and your IRA will be penalized, if not disqualified.

You are personally not allowed to perform repairs or maintenance on real estate in your IRA. Doing so constitutes “sweat-equity” and is considered a contribution to your account. The IRS only permits contributions to an IRA to be made in cash—and sweat equity cannot be measured in value. Repairs and maintenance must be performed by a third party—who is not a disqualified person—and paid at current market rates.

On the flip side, you do not have to hire a third party to manage the property in your IRA. The IRA owner is able to manage the property as long as you don’t perform sweat equity or pay for expenses out of your own pocket. Again, all income and expenses flow directly into and out of your self-directed IRA. Rent checks and other income must be written to the IRA and deposited directly into the IRA account. Income or expenses are not allowed to flow through the IRA owner for any reason.

Hopefully it goes without saying that it is crucial you perform due diligence when looking for real estate to acquire in your IRA. You want to find a decent property in a location suited for the purpose you desire. If you want a quick rehab-and-flip, the goal would be that the cost of the property plus the money it costs your IRA to renovate is low enough for your IRA to make a profit at resale. Location is key whether conducting a rehab or acquiring rental property—you want to be as sure as you can there is a market for resale or good potential for acquiring tenants for rentals.

If you have any questions regarding real estate in your IRA, please contact Kevin Collins at AdvantaIRA Trust by calling (617) 830-1070 or emailing Kevin@AdvantaIRATrust.com.

Thur 4/17 was a ROCKIN' meeting about funding!

April 19, 2014 by bostonareia Leave a Comment

Thursday’s meeting was absolutely ROCKIN’! Standing Room Only!

These are just some of the comments we got:

Anya wrote, “A can-do approach to real estate investing!”

Ann wrote, “There was a lot of great information!”

Karen Lee wrote, “This was my first meeting with BostonAreia and it was full of invaluable info on raising capital. I initially went to get more info on the IRA funding for real estate but left with a bunch of new ideas. Many thanks to Bernadette for arranging this meet up. I’ll be back.”

Kathryn Acciari wrote, “Good morning Bernadette,It took me a few years, but I finally made it to a meeting and I am very happy to have done so. Last night was quite informative, and I am excited to be looking at next steps. What a friendly and professional group of people you have at BostonAREIA. I hope to be a regular attendee at the meetings and to also be able to provide folks with some connections and leads in Worcester County. There are deals out here. Thank you!”

First, I want to thank the members that took the time to walk up to me to thank me for such a great meeting and thank you to those who took the time to send a quick note! I love the members of Boston AREIA!!! Kathryn is absolutely right about what a friendly and professional group of people we have.

A quick recap…So, we started our 5pm coaching session which focused on building and developing your connections through networking. I hope that everyone got a lot out of it and if you are a member of Boston AREIA and you want a copy of the powerpoint, make sure that you contact me at dette101@gmail.com. Remember folks, it’s important to contact the people you met at the meeting no later than Tue and plan to get together for coffee.

We began the meeting and of course, everyone knows that ENERGY IS EVERYTHING! The energy you put into something is what you will get out of it. So, first 5 lucky investors had their business cards pulled out of the proverbial hat and were given the opportunity to stand up and promote themselves to the group. We followed this with forced networking…which gave folks the opportunity to exchange business cards fast and furious with rehabbers, wholesalers, investor savvy Realtors and more…I think that section is a favorite among our investors!

We followed the networking section with Dickens Pierre-Louis putting together a market update…we actually sped through this section because we had so much jam packed into the meeting…I will be posting this soon. Thank you soooo much Dickens! Our mentee, Mike Fitzpatrick got up and talked about how he and Jacqui are progressing and asked if folks could please vote on their logo – check out the blog post! Then, Peg Graveline and Lisa West of JEM Property Group and Dan McKenna of Mckenna Family Homes walked through the numbers of the Walpole deal! They made it real and dispelled some of those beliefs people get from the flipping houses shows on tv. After that, we introduced our phenomenal panel of funding experts. Peter McLoughlin talked about hard money, how it’s used, what a lender will expect from the borrower, one of the hottest topics based on questions asked by the group, was Investing through your IRA with Kevin Collins of Advanta IRA, then Ric Beaudoin of Sage Bank went over traditional lending, Kim Harrington covered how to develop your funding partners and Peg Graveline covered JVing with other investors to get your deals done. What a great night! I have to tell you, I had more people walk up to me at the end of the meeting to tell me how much they appreciated the programming and the speakers! Thank you so much to Peter, Kevin, Ric, Kim and Peg!

Next month, we are doing a special coaching session from 5pm – 5:30pm for members. Ric Beaudoin is going to come back and he’s going to go over becoming credit worthy for those with credit problems and maximizing your credit score with those who don’t have issues, but would love tips to get your score as high as possible. After that, it’s all about exit strategies….so, the contract is signed, NOW WHAT?

See you next month! And, remember, if you need something or if I can help with anything between meetings, feel free to reach out to me. Happy Investing!

Yours in success,

Bernadette Trafton, Boston AREIA Chief Connector

Boston AREIA Diary of a Newbie Real Estate Investor

March 31, 2014 by bostonareia 1 Comment

Diary of a Newbie Real Estate Investor

with Mike Fitzpatrick and Jacqui Pietrzak

Since our last post Jacqui and I have been working closely with Peg and Bernadette to put together a plan for accomplishing our $50k profit rehab goal. Our focus right now is finding a property to buy. Recently we have been spending our time driving for dollars and meeting with local realtors to explain our goals.

If you have never tried driving for dollars, I think it’s fair to say your first time is going to feel awkward. It is hard to look normal when you are circling a neighborhood, slowing traffic and wondering if you look like kidnappers. Essentially our plan was to pull up to a distressed looking property, run out with our “we want to buy your house” flyer, wedge it in the door, then run back to the car as quickly as possible and drive off avoiding any human contact.

Realizing it is less creepy if we actually get out and speak to people, our second attempt went much better. Now that the weather is getting nice, something we are more comfortable with is “running for dollars”. We take our dog with us on the run as this makes us feel more “normal” and offsets the fact that we have a pocket full of flyers and a notepad to write down addresses. People are willing to give you more information when you look like another neighbor walking around.

Time will tell if we end up with any leads, but it certainly was a good way to become more familiar with the neighborhoods in our area. Through some of these conversations we learned about other houses that were already being rehabbed. At first the thought of another rehabber in my target neighborhood was a bummer to us because we felt someone else beat us to the deal. But we are currently trying to get in touch with these other investors so we can learn from them and see if we could work together in the future.

We have also started setting up meetings with brokers in the metro-west area that are interested in working with us to find rehab and multi-family buy and hold deals. Anything within a 20-30 minute radius of Framingham is what we are looking at. If you are interested in working with us please drop us a message at mike@fitzproperty.com or jacqui@fitzproperty.com and we can set up some time to talk.

In the next couple weeks we are planning on launching our company website and first direct mail campaign. We are trying to narrow down our favorite logos for our company, stay tuned for a voting poll in our next blog post!

Mike & Jacqui

What to expect on March 20th at Boston AREIA

March 19, 2014 by bostonareia Leave a Comment

We are having a blast mentoring Mike Fitzpatrick. He’s working with his partner Jacqui Pietrzak, look for their next blog post. They’ve been driving for dollars, working on their website, putting together their first direct mail marketing campaign and presenting potential deals to Peg and I. Super proud of them! I’m watching a power couple develop! WOHOO!

It’s the LAST day to get eligible for this month’s workshop at 5pm. I will be downloading real estate leads from a few lead sources and giving them to the folks who come to the session. I need to know now who is coming at 5pm. If you don’t qualify by midnight tonight, you won’t be able to join us at 5pm before the monthly meeting! Find out if you are eligible!

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Most of you have said that you are interested in saving money on your electric bill and going green. Some of you have switched to Viridian, many of you have not. All of you raise your hand when I ask if you recycle, most of you agree if you had the ability to make 10 times the carbon impact without it costing you, you would. I know time gets away from you and you forget. I get it. We have invited Reps to help you with the 3 minute process it takes to make the switch on Thursday night – BRING YOUR N-Star or National Grid bills with you. It costs you nothing, takes 3 minutes, can save you money over time and you choose green. All who take action will get a special opportunity during our “forced networking” segment.

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Thursday, March 20, 2014 – Is fear of making an offer holding you back?

***Special opportuniy to for MEMBERS of Boston AREIA, we are shaking up our forced networking section…those who get there early will be rewarded!

Monthly Meeting – The question I get most from investors is, “Ok…so, I find a property…how do I make sure all the bases are covering when making an offer and putting together a P&S?” Well this meeting will dispel the fears that are holding you back from making offers! For all details visit – http://bostonareia.com/resources/upcoming-events/

Become a member today – http://bostonareia.com/about-us/membership-plans/

MENTORSHIP CONTEST sponsored by Boston AREIA and JEM Property Group!

January 22, 2014 by bostonareia 2 Comments

We are excited to present this mentorship opportunity to the members of Boston AREIA!

We’ve had folks already reach out to us and ask…

“How do I submit my entry????!!!!”

The winning entry will work directly with both Peg Graveline of JEM Property Group and Bernadette Trafton of Boston AREIA who will be focused on success! Topics being tackled (On the job training, not reading about) will cover: finding the deal, analyzing the deal, putting the property under contract, funding, working with lenders, exit strategies (rehab and sell, wholesaling, buy and hold), really all the ins and outs of flipping properties and more.

In order for people to submit an entry for the Mentorship contest, you must be a member of Boston AREIA and complete and agree to the following by Feb 14th as the winner will announced at the Feb 20th meeting :

1. Submit an essay to Bernadette@BostonAREIA.com by Feb 14th, describing the following:

a. What is your WHY? What is your driving force? What is going to self-motivate you to follow through with your schedule. For example, My WHY is a desire to provide the best lifestyle I can for my family and be able to do what I want, when I want. Because of this, I’m pretty self and money motivated to reach my goals. I am accountable to those goals as well. Perhaps you are sick of working for someone else or you are looking for time freedom. If we know your WHY it will be easier for us to hold you accountable to your goals.

b. Why real estate? There are multiple ways that people have the ability to create income and residual income. Why are you choosing real estate?

c. What are your short term goals over the next 3 months, 6 months and a year?

d. What are you long term goals? Where do you see yourself in 1yr, 3yrs, 5 years?

e. What are your resources? What kind of funds do you have for the purposes of marketing? What kind of funds do you have to get a deal done, do you have funds for deposits on properties? Do you have access to funds to invest in deals (savings, available credit, family or friend interested in investing, etc…?)

f. How much time are you going to devote to your business every week? Set yourself a schedule to work your real estate business and outline that schedule.

g. What do you think is the biggest reason why we should choose you for the mentorship program?

2. It will be required that the winning participant submits a blog entry once a month which will be featured in our “Diary of a Newbie real estate investor” segment. Do you agree to submit a blog entry once per month to Bernadette@BostonAREIA.com?

3. Boston AREIA and Peg Graveline of JEM Property Group reserve the right to outline any deals resulting in this mentorship program for the purposes of presentation and training purposes.

We look forward to receiving and reading essays from all who enter the contest and we are excited to work with you!

All the best and GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!

Bernadette Trafton, Boston AREIA

Peg Graveline, JEM Property Group

How to Set and Achieve Your Goals in Real Estate

August 21, 2013 by bostonareia 2 Comments

How to Set and Achieve Your Goals in Real Estate

Ask yourself two questions. Do you have a Will? And do you have written goals for the next one, three, five and ten years? If you answered yes to the first question but no to the second, you are planning more for your death than your life. I challenge you to start setting some goals but remember if a goal isn’t in writing, it’s simply a conversation. It must be in writing and it must have a deadline. You must also have a commitment to your real estate investing. You can’t expect to do this for a few months and then give up. Make sure you are willing to give it at least 5 years before you walk away. Here are a few guidelines …

Be Specific

Be specific and include details but start rough. This means you want a Mercedes. You don’t have to get into color, options, etc.… just write it down. Make your list huge. Come back and prioritize and determine what you want in one, three, six and twelve months, then three, five, ten and twenty years. The more goals you have, the happier you will be, the longer you will live, and the more prosperous you will be.

Goals Must be Believable

Your goals must be believable or you will not pay the price. They must be just out of your reach, but know you can reach them, if you really strive to do it.

Goals Must be Measurable

Don’t set a goal to be financially independent. You can’t measure that. Break it down to the ridiculous. I have learned that successful people set their goals quickly and make adjustments as they go along. Successful people don’t vacillate in indecision.

Goals Must be Congruent

Goals must be congruent with your actions. You cannot set a goal to work harder, longer hours AND a goal to spend more time with your family. Those are not congruent.

Visualize What You Want

If you see yourself as already having achieved the goal, you will fake out your mind and it sees the goal as having been achieved. It’s called “fake it till you make it”. Take a moment each day and visualize life as it is would be with your goals already accomplished.

Number Your Goals

Number your goals in the order of importance. Not only is the goal important but so is the reason. Sure your want more money, but why do you want money? Whatever it is, the reason must be there. The reason is more important than the goal itself.

Review, Monitor and Make Adjustments

Review, monitor and make adjustments to your goals. You have to be flexible. Some things are not going to happen, you have to face that but you need to continuously strive to get better every day.

Goals Must Have a Deadline

Your goals must have a deadline. A goal without a deadline is just a conversation. Set your goals in these four basic areas:

Financial

Set goals based on income, equity or net worth and cash flow. All of these are financial goals.

Fitness

This is your health. If you don’t feel good, you are not working at your maximum capacity. I want you to set some fitness goals to stay healthy. Start small and don’t try to tackle all of them at.

Family

Set family goals. What is an example of a family goal? Maybe you want to take four vacations a year. Maybe you want to visit a new state, three times a year or five times a year. You get the point.

Friends

Think about the people you associate with. Your ten closest friend’s annual salary and divide by ten…that is pretty close to your income. Who you associate with, is who you are like, so keep that in mind. Don’t get rid of your friends, just get more that are where YOU want to be financially.

Remember, real estate investing is a great way to help you achieve your goals, you have to have desire and commitment. The time for action is now and its never to late to DO SOMETHING!

Time is of the essence Real estate deal in Winthrop, MA

August 19, 2013 by bostonareia Leave a Comment

1, 2, 3 Washington Terrace (WT), Winthrop, MA 02152 – View the property – 1-3 WT-2; Check out the numbers – 1,2,3 WT to send081413-1

This is an opportunity to purchase three houses and one vacant lot right on the water. The

property was recently listed on the MLS (non-exclusive) but I still have the authority to go

directly to the owner.

MLS Listings MLS Asking Price

1 WT (Lot A) & Vacant Lot (Lot D) $449,000

2 WT (Lot B) and 3 WT (Lot E) $345,000

Total $794,000 (3 houses and one lot)

Alternative:

3 WT (Lot E) and Vacant Lot (Lot D) $129,900

Winthrop is a family area close to Boston that was not previously noticed by a lot of young

adults. This has begun to change this year as rents in the surrounding communities are higher

and increasing steadily.

2WT (5 BR/2 Bath) rents to four adults. On July 1, 2013 I raised the rent from $2,025/mo. (plus

utilities) to $2,550/mo.

1WT (6BR/2 Bath) needs the oil heat replaced with gas, and you could immediately raise the

rent from $2,000/mo. (plus utilities) to $2,500/mo.

3WT currently rents for $800/mo. (plus utilities) Rent could be raised to $900 a month with a

modest investment to reduce electrical utility costs.

Initially this is a buy and hold/raising rents. Then you would go through the zoning appeal

process to build on the vacant lot (Lot D) and boathouse (Lot E), total 4,550 sq. ft.

The Winthrop head inspector came out to the property and, when asked, stated that he would

build a single family house on Lots D and E. It would require a variance, but he felt confident

that it would be approved by the Zoning Board of Appeals. You would need to pave the 12 ft.

right of way to the edge of the property to allow emergency vehicle access plus provide two

parking spaces.

Per deed, Lot E (boathouse) has “beach, flats, and riparian rights, appurtenant of said premises”.

The new house should have one bathroom per bedroom to maximize rental income.

Exit strategy after building: Sell all or some of the three buildings, individually.

The realtors for this Winthrop, MA real estate deal are walking through on Monday, August 19, 2013 at 10 am. Time is of the essence.

For more information and appointment to see building interiors, contact:

Dave Julier, 1-617-233-9633, djulier2@gmail.com

My favorite direct mail marketing campaign

July 24, 2013 by bostonareia 4 Comments

Good afternoon everyone,

I wanted to share my favorite direct mail marketing campaign. It’s my favorite because it doesn’t cost that much and typically you get great results. First, you need to determine the area that you want to market in and know the zip codes.

I prefer to work with out of area owners, because depending on their situation, they are more likely to want out of the property. So, I go to my favorite list place, www.Melissadata.com. There are other list places, this is just the one that I’ve grown accustomed to using. Wherever you get your list, choose out of area owners in the location that you are looking to buy in.

Now, many folks will tell you to send a postcard campaign and make the postcard yellow or orange. I’m not all that fond of this method because the call rate is less than 1%. I like to use Send Out Cards. Yes, I send a card! Think about it, are you more likely to open a card or look at a postcard? If you are like me the postcards get thrown in the trash and the cards I open. It’s pretty simple. The call rate is higher and worth the little extra money you pay to send the card. It depends on the card, but, usually it costs 2 points plus the cost of postage. 1 point costs .31, plus the cost of postage, so around $1.00 per card, unless you create a card using your own photos, then it is 3 points, plus postage, so around $1.40. They also have postcards, but, I really like the cards better, higher open and respond rate.

Once you set up your Send out Cards account, it’s as easy as upload the leads to a specific group, then choose or create a card, enter your text, choose the recipients, hit send and within a week you should be getting calls. Now, mind you, I do this consistently so the phone rings consistently. Make sure you set your marketing budget ahead of time. If you are doing things right and consistently, in the beginning, your marketing budget is similar to a car payment every month…and not a Yugo car payment…are they around anymore?

Cheers to a great summer and happy investing!

DESIRE. COMMIT. SUCCEED!

Bernadette Trafton, Chief Connector

Boston AREIA

Boston AREIA Real Estate Club present deals and more deals

July 9, 2013 by bostonareia Leave a Comment

Good morning everyone! So, I’ve had some deals come in over the last few days. I will also be posting these deals on the deals page as well. Make sure you bring your deals next week at our Christmas in July meeting on July 18th! See all upcoming events for Boston AREIA real estate club on our events page.

Ok so, let’s go through the deals that came across my desk:

70 School Street, JP 2 family, 3/4 beds and 1 bath each. 2 parking spots, laundry hookups in each unit. 2,620 sq ft. $535,000. Good rental income property cash-flowing $3,600-$4,000 a month.

78 Pine Street, Fall River, MA 02720 Commercial Building Uses: Sober House or similar, office building Adjacent to Route 195, 79, 138, near 24 No 21E on File Handicap Accessible, 1st and 2nd Floor Lot 8,599 SF includes 20 space parking lot across the street Built 1917 Location within 1 mile of new courthouse Top floor office has view of River Close to Fall River Heritage State Park 12,228 SF The building is full business zoned. That allows for hotels / rooming house. The City of Fall River does not require a special Sober House license, just a rooming house license. No special permit or variance required. Information from others in the business says they use 200 sq ft per room, including hallways, common kitchen(s) and baths. That would allow for 52 rooms / beds without disturbing the 3rd floor auditorium. If the room charge is $500.00 per month, that’s $26,000 gross income per month. Purchase cost is only $7,692.00 per room.

Westwood/dover line great opportunity for builders. The existing home it has 5 bedroom beautiful well maintain sitting on 7 acres. The land has been approved to build two other properties on it so with one price they get the home and two other buildable home. Bernadette@BostonAREIA.com

Rare beachfront land and real estate on the north shore of Boston, Ma – bernadette@bostonareia.com

Existing now is a parking lot along with a few older buildings to be torn down and rebuilt. Retail is now renting the street floor space in the existing buildings. This will be a five-phase project consisting of five buildings with 40 units in each building for a total of about 200 units based on the current permitted zoning.

The current property owners have owned the property for 100 years and are in good standing with the town. The assessed value of the property currently is over 3 million and it’s owned free and clear. The owners will sell for 8 million and will get paid on a per unit sold basis. Each of the 5 buildings sold out will generate over $20,000,000. Interested parties, email Bernadette@Bostonareia.com

Make sure you check back at your real estate club deals page

Happy Investing!

DESIRE. COMMIT. SUCCEED!

Bernadette Trafton, Chief Connector

Bernadette@Bostonareia.com

Independence day special for your Boston AREIA real estate club

July 1, 2013 by bostonareia Leave a Comment

Good afternoon everyone. I hope you are all getting ready to have a fantastic 4th of July, Independence Day Celebration with your friends and your families. I have been working on some great things for the folks at Boston AREIA. First, we are offering and Independence Day Special to everyone! For those who join Boston AREIA by July 4th, you will get $25 off of Individual memberships and $50 off of Joint memberships! Great Independence Day Deal for everyone. Click here to view the membership plans (the options for the Independence Day is the last step before entering payment info).

Now, I’ve been talking to someone about how to get your deals funded WITHOUT hard money. I know that hard money serves it’s purpose. Chris Roche is one of our vendors. But, I think I’ve got the answer for many folks. There are of course ways to fund deals if you have bad credit, we have programs that can help with that. But, what if you have a good credit history and you don’t want to pay 12-15% for hard money? There has to be a innovative solution. One would think. Well, I met a team of folks the other day who are providing business loans up to $150k or more. You qualify personally, but, the loan goes in your business name and is treated like a line of credit. So, need some money to partner with folks and fund that deal? You can take a draw. Flip a property, collect your ROI, pay off the loan and have the money available for the next property. At your real estate club – Boston AREIA , we are always looking for ways to make it easier for you to do deals and reach your goals.

Keep your eyes on the emails because we will be doing a webinar with this team next week. I’ve been having some fun preparing for our Christmas in July event on July 18th. Presents for everyone! It is Christmas, afterall! Desire. Commit. Succeed! Bernadette Trafton, Chief Connector, Bernadette@BostonAREIA.com

Christmas in July! ‘Tis the season to invest in real estate!

Join us for a Networking Extravaganza!

• Network to your heart’s content

• Build your Power Team

• Introduce yourself in front of the room

• Gifts for all! (It is Christmas afterall)

• Win prizes: real estate education, coaching and more!!!

• Share your deals and have a blast!

Bring you deals, your energy and LOTS of business cards!
Monthly Meeting 5:30 pm Networking—6:30 pm Meeting Thursday, July 18, 2012 Crowne Plaza Boston, 320 Washington Street, Newton, MA Free for members; $25 for non-members Validated parking