Are you considering taking advantage of some of the opportunities that real estate in an IRA presents? You probably have a lot of questions if this is your first time investing in a real estate IRA. Actually, the term “real estate IRA” is really just jargon for a self-directed 401(k) or IRA that invests in real estate as its asset.
Main Differences of Real Estate for Personal Use or a Self-Directed IRA
There are four factors that make a distinction between personal real estate or real estate that goes towards yourself directed retirement plan. Here they are:
1. Your title must specifically state that it is a part of your IRA. Let’s say that the name of the IRA custodian is Your Custodial Company. The title on the purchase must read: “Your Custodial Company FBO [Your Name]”. Your custodian should not accept any documents that are not properly titled.
2. All funds used for making an investment must come out of yourself directed retirement plan. Your custodian should help assist you with sending the funds to the appropriate places such as the closing agent, an attorney, or a title company as per your instructions.
3. All documents that are a part of your IRA must be signed by your custodian on the behalf of your IRA.
4. All expenses and profits must be paid to and from the IRA account.
Some Very Important Prohibited Transactions for Real Estate in an IRA
Any property that is in the name of the benefactor may not be transferred over to the self-directed IRA. This also includes the purchase of any other disqualified member. You may not purchase a property or interest in a property if it was owned by you, your spouse, your children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, parents, grandparents, great grandparents, or anyone of lineal descent. The same thing goes for any real estate that you may own through a corporation, LLC, or any other type of partnership.
How Do I Make Sure that I Don’t Break the IRS Rules?
Every self-directed IRA is required to have a custodian or trustee. They will not advise you on any investments or tax information, but they will help ensure that all of your paperwork and administrative work is followed correctly. According to the IRS, all self-directed IRAs, including real estate in an IRA, must have a custodian to oversee the accounts.
The Rights of Real Estate Buyers In Utah
In buying process, you will need to hire some professionals to help you, including a real estate agent, a mortgage lender, and a home inspector. You have the right to carefully choose who you will get, since this can greatly affect the result of your plan to buy.
• When making an offer to purchase a property in Utah, you may make use of the Residential Purchase Agreement.
• When meeting with an agent for the first time, it is your right to know his/her relationship with the property’s seller and with other potential buyers. This isn’t just your right; it is the law.
• If you really want to make sure that your rights are protected during the purchase, it is your privilege to get a real estate lawyer and have all the important documents reviewed.
• If your offer has already been accepted, it is your right to approve or disapprove a property because of its physical condition or the environment in the neighborhood.
• It is your right to make negotiations about repairs or in place of repairs within a certain period of time stated in the contract; this includes resale or newly constructed residential properties.
• It is your right to carry out specialized inspections to further examine structural or environmental problems of the house, such as a mold inspection or slab testing. It must be within the approved time period.
• You have the privilege to own a copy of all documents you sign and to have them, together with standard disclosures, explained to you clearly by the proper professional. These include your real estate agent, home inspector, lender, mover, and the like.
• You have the privilege to immediately move in to your hew house once the recording of all the necessary documents occur and be coherent with the contract’s provisions. You may make negotiations for rent back or delayed closing situations, if needed. However, you should be aware of its consequences to the loan and purchase if you consider this option.
• You have the right to walk away from a purchase you’re in escrow with if it’s for your best interest, but you need to understand the consequences and financial risk. It’s best to have your situation reviewed by an expert real estate attorney. Knowing your rights as a buyer in Utah would help you a lot in planning on what you should do to be able to successfully purchase a home without encountering many problems.
The Most Important Tax Documents You Should Never Lose
In the business of health, the most important word might be assumed to be care; the financial sector also has its maxim, which is “details.” If you’ve been careful enough while making your year-end taxes, retirement plans, and charitable giving moves, well then, good for you. However, there still some financial knots and bolts to tighten. Most of us are guilty of slacking when it comes to organizing our financial documents; many of us leave it lying around until the time comes when we have urgent need for them. That means that when we have to pay our taxes, we begin to scramble around for our papers or we start probing through our email to look for specific mail relevant to our current needs. It is very much advisable to organize such papers as they come into our hands. Below is a list of documents we should keep and for how long:
• Tax Returns: It is very advisable to keep tax returns files and supporting documents for as long as six years. This is because the IRS can decide to audit a report up to three years after you have filed them. They are permitted under law to challenge your returns up to six years after you file them if they suspect you did not report your income properly by 25% or more.
• IRA Contributions Efforts: This should never be lost, as it is very important and should be kept for as long as possible, as they could someday help you avoid paying too much in taxes.
• Investment and Real Estate Records: This should be kept for a minimum of seven years after you sell. It can help you monitor your cost basis and taxes owed by you when you eventually sell a property. Monthly statements could be disposed of since the same information can be gotten from the yearly statements.
• Bank Statements: This should be carefully kept for up to seven months, except when you are sure your bank has a duplicate copy that is safely kept. You may need them in an IRS audit. It is advisable to have your bank send you these documents online.
• Credit Card Statement and Bills for Non-deductibles: This could be immediately disposed of after a new statement is sent to you. Keeping them is unnecessary when you have confirmation of the charges and proof of payment.
• Form W-2 Wage and Tax Statement: This should be kept until you begin to receive Social Security benefits; they are often times the best proof to collect Social Security.
• Pay Stubs: They should be kept until the end of the year; they become irrelevant once you have your W-2.
• Insurance policies: They should be safely kept until the policy expires. In the case of a liability policy, the documents should be kept longer just in case you may want to claim occurrence coverage, which you would be able to claim even after the expiry of your coverage.
• Receipts: This can be categorized into several groups. For everyday receipts, they can be discarded when you confirm the amount charged is correct. Big ticket items should have their receipt kept for as long as the product last, in case of theft or damage. For charitable donations, they should be kept safely for tax-filling purposes. Depending on the type, price, and reason of purchase, they may be necessarily kept for insurance purposes and tax filing.
Create a Financial Database
After organizing all your financial documents, what you need to do next would be put together an overview of all the documents. This is a precise single page document explaining you and your family’s critical fiscal data. It comprises of birth dates, Social Security numbers, employment info, contact information for relatives, driver’s license numbers, credit account numbers, etc.
Also to be included are:
• Location of wills, trusts, compilation dates, lawyers, executors, birth certificates documents and location
• Bank accounts and other account information
• Brokerage accounts
• Vehicle registration and licensing data
• Creditor’s data
• All insurance policy information
• Annuities, dividends, interest, jobs and businesses, etc.
Safety Deposit Box Information
Title deeds to your house and other properties and necessary information relating to them. Be sure to make copies of these documents when finished with them and distribute to only necessary and trusted authorities
Passwords
This is also very important: do not forget passwords to your accounts, especially when you are the breadwinner of the family. Other passwords too, should be carefully written down and saved. It could also be written on your cheat sheet.
Tend to your Estate
Federal estate tax has been decided till 2021, but the legislators can decide to review it at anytime. Anyone with real estate assets should best be ready for any inquiry; consultation with a tax lawyer is advisable in case of future qualms. Tax documents should also be up to date.
Budgeting
It is advisable to make and adhere strictly to a budget that fits your needs and necessities and not enter the year only to end it with debt. A budget doesn’t constrict your spending; rather, it helps you provide for the essential things that you have decided you need. Purchasing a home can be a complicated and confusing process, especially for first-time buyers. Throughout the process, first-time home buyers will encounter a variety of unfamiliar real state terms. There are several key terms associates with purchasing real estate that are helpful to learn.
For example, many buyers confuse the terms broker and salesperson. A broker is a properly licensed individual, or corporation, who serves as a special agent in the purchase and sale of real estate, a salesperson is an individual employed or associated by written agreement by the broker as an independent contractor. The salesperson facilitates the purchase or sale of real estate.
Once you decide to purchase, a salesperson will prepare a sales contract to present to the seller along with your earnest money deposit. The sales contract is the document through which the seller agrees to give possession and title of property to the buyer upon full payment of the purchase price and performance of agreed-upon conditions. The earnest money is a buyer’s partial payment, as a show of good faith, to make the contract binding. Often, the earnest money is held in an escrow account. Escrow is the process by which money is held by a disinterested party until the terms of the escrow instructions are fulfilled.
After the buyer and seller have signed the contract, the buyer must obtain a mortgage note by presenting the contract to a mortgage lender. The note is the buyer’s promise to pay the purchase price of the real estate in addition to a stated interest rate over a specified period of time. A mortgage lender places a lien on the property, or mortgage, and this secures the mortgage note.
The buyer pays interest money to the lender exchange for the use of money borrowed. Interest is usually referred to as APR or annual percentage rate. Interest is paid on the principle, the capital sum the buyer owes. Interest payments may be disguised in the form of points. Points are an up-front cost which may be paid by either the buyer or seller or both in conventional loans.
In general, there are two types of conventional loans that a buyer can obtain. A fixed rate loan has the same rate of interest for the life of the loan, usually 14 to 30 years. An adjustable rate loan or adjustable rate mortgage (ARM) provides a discounted initial rate, which changes after a set period of time. The rate can’t exceed the interest rate cap or ceiling allowed on such loans for any one adjustment period. Some ARMs have a lifetime cap on interest. The buyer makes the loan and interest payments to the lender through amortization, the systematic payment and retirement of debt over a set period of time. Once the contract has been signed and a mortgage note obtained, the buyer and seller must legally close the real estate transaction. The closing is a meeting where the buyer, seller and their attorneys review, sign and exchange the final documents. At the closing, the buyer receives the appraisal report, an estimate of the property’s value with the appraiser’s signature, certification and sporting documents. The buyer also receives the title and the deed. The title shows evidence of the buyer’s ownership of the property while the deed legally transfers the title from the seller to the buyer. The final document the buyer receives at closing is a title insurance policy, insurance against the loss of the title if it’s found to be imperfect. Buyers should plan on at least four to twelve weeks for a typical real estate transaction. The process is difficult and at times, intimidating. A general understanding of real estate terminology and chronology of the transaction, however, will help any real estate novice to confidently buy his or her first home.
Legal Assistance
Individuals who are considering drafting a trust or a will may wish to consult with an estate planning lawyer. He or she can explain the advantages of using a trust as well as a will. He or she can make recommendations based on the specific considerations of the client. He or she may even recommend using both documents, such as by using a pour-over will that places any property owned at the time of the testator’s death into the trust.
