The fix-and-flip real estate strategy is a popular one among investors. But many people aren’t sure how to get started because most of their available investment capital happens to be in retirement accounts. But this shouldn’t dissuade you. If you happen to have a strong interest in fixing and flipping houses, and you have the capital available in retirement accounts, you can easily get started flipping homes using a self-directed IRA, also called a Real Estate IRA.

The concept is simple: The law doesn’t restrict IRA investments to Wall Street investment products like stocks, bonds and mutual funds. Your IRA money doesn’t belong to Wall Street. It belongs to you. And you are free to invest your Real Estate IRA funds and other tax-advantaged retirement account funds as you see fit, with just a few small exceptions.

Advantages of Real Estate Investing Within A Self-Directed IRA

• All gains are tax-deferred until retirement (or tax-free, if you use Roth accounts and hold the assets within a Roth account for at least five years.

• All positive cash flow (income and non-income) is tax deferred or tax-free.

• There is no requirement to hold property for 1 year to qualify for better tax rates.

• Assets in retirement accounts enjoy substantial creditor and bankruptcy protection.

• Expense ratio/AUM fees can be minimized, compared to the fees charged by most Wall Street firms. Because real estate transactions are relatively large but relatively infrequent, you can pay a fee-per transaction for much less than a company charging you 1 or 2 percent per year in AUM fees would cost.

How to get started

1.) First, open an IRA with American IRA, LLC. This is no more difficult than establishing an account with any other investment company.

2.) Transfer money from another IRA, old 401(k), SEP or other qualified source of funds to the IRA, or contribute up to your annually allowable maximum contribution. Most of our clients us a trustee-to-trustee transfer, meaning they authorize a direct rollover of funds from an existing IRA or 401(k) to the new self-directed account at American IRA.

3.) Then, with your IRA funded, find a deal. That’s your job. That’s the beauty of the self-directed IRA or Real Estate IRA. You are fully in control. No one else is picking out deals for you. Your success is totally up to your own hard work and savvy in selecting the most promising available real estate deals for your self-directed IRA. You aren’t limited to investments in your state or even the United States. You can go anywhere in the world. You can also invest your Real Estate IRA account in anything from raw land to apartment buildings, duplexes, condominiums, mobile homes and trailer parks, commercial property, private notes, hard money lending, construction lending, new construction, and anything else you like.

4.) Tell us where to send the check or wire the money, and how much. You should also tell us exactly what we’re buying on your behalf.

5.) Collect your statement.

As your Real Estate IRA administer, we will collect contributions from you, collect rent and other payments from tenants and customers, and reinvest them in your self-directed IRA in accordance with your instructions. When you want to make a distribution, just let us know and we’ll disburse your funds. American IRA, LLC, will handle all the record keeping and IRS reporting on your IRA’s behalf.

If you are a house flipper or you are interested in becoming one, and you want to leverage the tax advantages of your IRA to invest in real estate, we want to work with you. Contact us at AmericanIRA.com, or call us at 866-7500-472(IRA).