401k Funds For Real Estate Investment

I would like to use 150, 000 of my 401k plan as a down payment on a 6 flat apartment building. Is there any way to do this without taking the tax and penalty hit?

Thanks

Comments(5)

  • JohnMerchant9th February, 2004

    Yes, if it can be rolled over into your own self directed IRA...IRA can be used for buying RE, notes, etc.

  • JohnMerchant9th February, 2004

    As my report on How to Use IRA states, a Self Directed IRA sum like yours might be, could be used to buy a partial interest in a property.

    Since an IRA cannot be pledged, and cannot sign a note, if the RE is a lot higher in price than the $150k, the IRA could be used in a partnership deal (as in shares of an LLC) and could be the cash partner.

    While YOU could NOT be a partner, yourself, with your own IRA, it sure wouldn't be hard to find some other investors who'd sign the purchase note since your IRA would put up the down payment.

    So it might look something like this:
    $ 800,000 sales price of multiplex.
    $150,000 cash down pmt - IRA Partner
    $650,000 seller carryback note, 3 other partners sign this note and agree to make the payments.

  • TMC10th February, 2004

    If I cannot personally participate, could I incorporate or form an LLC and have my company participate with the IRA cash partner?

  • JohnMerchant10th February, 2004

    While you might get away with it, I think the IRS would take the position that it's an illegal self dealing relationship and would disallow it.

    And unless your co. were a C corp, which is getting rarer in RE deals, and since LLC is just tax pass-through, the IRS would probably catch the deal in a year or two.

    My advice therefore would be don't chance it...unless you're really willing to pay income tax right now on the whole IRA value, plus penalty for early distribution if you're not old enough to take your IRA distributions legally.

  • KyleGatton10th February, 2004

    There are some good charts that will graphically explain how you are allowed to do a self directed IRA here
    http://www.trustetc.com/links/procedures.html#re

    As the last post stated, dont risk losing your retirement moneys to the IRS though. There are legal ways to do it you just have to play the game right.

    Good Luck,
    Kyle

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