How Self Directed IRA's Can Triple Your Real Estate Sales This Year

Think quick:  Where can you find over $2.5 trillion of wealth that must be used to purchase investment assets, like real estate?

Answer:  America's IRA accounts...

...And all you have to do to tap that incredible source of capital - and double (or better) your business this year - is to understand how a special version of the IRA, known as the self-directed IRA, can help your clients to direct their capital towards your properties.

What Is A Self-Directed IRA?

Typically, IRA's are used only to invest in Wall Street assets like stocks, bonds and mutual funds.  But by establishing (or transferring) an IRA with a special type of custodian, investors are empowered to invest in the full range of assets allowed under the law...

...Fortunately for me and you, real estate is 100% compatible with IRA's.  In fact, real estate has a larger share of asset allocation than any other asset class for most self-directed IRA custodians.

How Self-Directed IRA's Create A Captive Client Base For You

The good news and the bad news about Self-Directed IRA's is that they're not widely known.

That's bad news because it means you may have to educate your clients about this extraordinary tool.

But it's good news - very good news - because your fellow agents and brokers quite certainly have little or no knowledge of self-directed IRA's.  This enables you to create something that every business craves:

A captive client base.

You see, it is not complex to establish a self-directed IRA, and it is only slightly more complex to operate a fully self-directed IRA than to operate a conventional IRA...

...and by overcoming this minimal level of complexity, you can easily establish an "expert positioning" for yourself in the eyes of your clients who want to use their IRA funds to invest in real estate, because none of your competitors have any expertise in this area whatsoever!

How To Be Perceived As A Self-Directed IRA Expert Without Being One Immediately

It would be misleading for me to tell you that self-directed IRA's aren't legally complex.  They are.  But those complexities are completely hidden and irrelevant for most transactions.

Remember:  To be an "expert" in a topic, you only need know more than your audience.  Here's how to do that with self-directed IRA's:

1. Familiarize yourself with the basic concept of self-directed IRA's.  The best free training for the topic is available at https://SelfDirected.org/ira.
2. Introduce yourself to a few Self-Directed IRA custodians so that you can refer your clients to them.  A few of the bigger ones are Equity Trust, PENSCO and Quest IRA.  (An excellent larger list of self-directed IRA custodians is here.)
3. Learn the basics about the only big "danger zone" for self-directed IRA's called "prohibited transactions".  There's a great free ebook about prohibited transactions here.

Now that you know how to establish yourself as an expert in the use of Self-Directed IRA's, the next step is to learn:

3 Ways To Find Clients Who Will Buy Through A Self-Directed IRA

Some clients who will buy real estate through a self-directed IRA simply need to be identified.  Others need to be developed.

1.  Public Records

The simplest way to find people who are inclined to funding real estate purchases through their IRA is to perform a public records search at your local courthouse to find people who already own real estate in their IRA.

This can be done rather easily, as nearly all self-directed IRA custodians place their own names on the deed and mark it as "for the benefit of" a particular client.  So by searching for the names of IRA custodians on real estate deeds, you can easily identify people who are already comfortable with this approach to transaction funding.

Remember to go outside of your own local area for this type of search.  It's important to realize that it is very common for IRA owners to purchase properties located far from their own homes, so geography is not a substantial restriction.

2.  Meetup Events

Another excellent approach to finding and developing more self-directed IRA buyers for your properties is to host a regular meetup group that targets Self Directed IRA owners.  There's such a huge lack of reliable information about this topic that it's not difficult to attract a crowd simply by using Meetup.com along with Facebook event announcements.

3.  Real Estate Investor Trade Show Exhibits

Trade Show exhibits can be an excellent want to get in front of real estate investors with the "self directed IRA" message.  A great approach is to focus on "Tax Free Real Estate Investments" and have several example investment properties available for consideration by investors.  Shockingly, it's not uncommon to sell properties on the spot at events like this.

Whichever path you take to finding self-directed IRA investors, don't ignore this market segment if you want a largely untapped market with multiple billions in liquid capital just waiting for deployment!