Real Estate Investment FAQs

This process is fairly similar to a real estate purchase outside of your IRA.

• You will make an offer and work out the terms of the contract with the seller. Please make sure that your IRA can withstand the life of the investment - including but not limited to, repairs, taxes, utilities, etc.
• Once this is ironed out you will want to make sure the buyer is listed as your IRA and not you personally.
• Next, you will forward this contract on to Equity Trust and fill out a Purchase Authorization Form which will be provided by your Equity Trust  representative. We will countersign the contract and work with you to get earnest money sent out if necessary.
• We will work directly with the closer (title company or attorney) to make sure closing documents are prepared correctly and completed in time for closing. Equity Trust will sign all closing documents on behalf of the IRA. We will get written and verbal consent from you prior to executing documents and sending funds.

This process is fairly similar to a real estate sale outside of your IRA.

• You will list the property how you see fit and sort through offers until you find one that you are ready to accept.
• You and the buyer will work out the terms of the contract and forward to Equity Trust to begin processing.
• Your Equity Trust representative will send you a Sale Authorization Form for completion and then Equity Trust will countersign the documents. We will work directly with the closer (title company or attorney) to make sure closing documents are prepared correctly and completed in time for closing. Equity Trust will sign all closing documents on behalf of the IRA.
• Once the sale has closed, funds will come back to the IRA directly and would then be available for your next investment.

Equity Trust will sign all documents on behalf of the IRA.

You - the client - pays all property taxes and related bills on the property using IRA funds. To request a bill payment go to your Client Portal and click “Submit a Bill”.

Equity Trust does not prepare these types of documents.

The quickest and easiest way to have your tenants make rental payments is to use our payment portal

Unfortunately, no. The IRS considers this a prohibited transaction. All payments and income must come from the IRA directly.

This can get a little tricky since most vendors will want payment up front for appliances or services. You will need to work with these vendors to obtain an invoice amount due and initiate a bill pay request from your portal. Another alternative is to have a non disqualified party (sister, cousin, business partner, tenant, etc) cover the cost and reimburse them using the bill pay feature from your Equity Trust portal. When in doubt, give one of our dedicated reps a call so we can help troubleshoot the problem.

Unfortunately no, you can not buy a property from yourself.