Networking with IRA Holders

Mike: Welcome back to the FlipNerd.com REI Classroom, where experts from across the real estate investing industry teach you quick lessons to take your business to the next level. And now, let’s meet today’s expert host.

Leo: Hey, everyone. Leo Clark here with Crest Investment Group. I am your host for the REI Classroom today. And we’re going to talk about a couple of things. One of them is how to network and get established with the IRA holders for your business.

Mike: This REI Classroom real estate lesson is sponsored by UglyOpportunities.com.

Leo: On one of our last episodes we talked about how I take the IRA holder who has whatever it is, a 401, a SEP, whatever it is, and take that IRA and invest it into my projects. Show them how to do that, show them how to secure real estate and go forward with their IRA to fund the project. So one of the big things I always get asked is, “Where are they? How do you find them? How do you network with them? What do you tell them?” Stuff like that.

One of the big things for me is the people out there like, uDirect, Accuplan, IRA Services, the custodial people out there that have per se, the book of IRA holders, they’re not able to make a recommendation to that IRA holder on what they should invest their IRA in. But what they can do is put you and them in a room or in a location together. So what I like to do is with the custodial people out there that are with these companies like Accuplan, uDirect, IRA Services, is do an event, wine and cheese, networking, whatever you want to do.

Do an event, a meeting. They invite them, you’re the host, you go forward with talking to everyone you can that comes to that meeting. As they come to the meeting, they’re wanting to know what it is they can do with their IRA and how to go forward making money with their IRA. One of the big taglines is, and I put this out there a lot is, the one question I ask is, “Are you happy with how your retirement fund is performing for you?” Most of the time it’s, “No” sometimes it’s, “I don’t know.” But most of the time when they say no, you can turn around, and say, “Well, I can have an impact on that. I’d like to show you how.” Or, “I can have an impact on that. Would you like to have a meeting?” Or, “How can we get to a sit-down, a lunch, a coffee and you and I talk about my opportunity?”

Because it’s about the opportunity and the IRA holder, let’s just say for round figures, it’s $100,000.00 in the IRA, let’s just say it’s a 401(k), they can take that. And the 401(k) becomes the funding piece to that property, whatever you’re going to buy. So now they’re kind of involved with you and you put in place a borrower/lender agreement, and a promissory note and you make that IRA the piece that is going forward funding the project.

Now, most custodial people understand this. They understand how investing works with IRAs. So it isn’t really a big thing where you have to go explain to them what you do. They know what you do. I would suggest if anyone’s out there considering how to go network with IRA holders, meet the custodial people first. Network with them, find out what it is they are wanting from you, and where it is you can network with them because they do events everywhere. And then, have that custodial person and you set up a date where they would go and advertise to their list of people about how to invest with their IRA in real estate.

Whatever you do, though, the first thing is to always keep in mind it’s about the relationship because their money has been secure, and they’ve been building that IRA fund for quite awhile. They’re not going to want to lose anything or put it out there to possibly lose any money in it. So you really got to build a relationship so that the trust is there. Once you’ve got the custodial people trusting you and the IRA people trusting you, more than likely you’ll be able to have a lot of them wanting to know how they can invest with you.

Right now, I have about 21, 22 IRA holders that invest with me at any given time because it’s always about the availability of their funds. Because if they are very smart and they know how to invest with their IRA, if there’s not an opportunity with you, they’re going to find somebody where is an opportunity and they’re going to go invest with that individual as well.

My suggestion for you with these IRA holders: networking, networking, networking. Establish a contact with the custodial people and truly learn how to get in with that custodial person and know how to go forward putting a meeting together where they bring the people, you bring the opportunities, and then put the two together in one room. I hope that helps. Talk to you soon.

Mike: HomeVestors, the “We Buy Ugly Houses” folks. is a franchise system of hundreds of real estate investors that have purchased over 65,000 houses. If you’d like to learn more about the most powerful real estate investing system in existence, whether you’re a pro looking to take your business to the next level or whether you have no experience at all but a burning passion to be successful in real estate investing, please visit FlipNerd.com/ugly to learn more.

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