Real estate friendly Financial Planner

[Jay Kaltenbach]

Is there such a thing as a Financial Planner that understands real estate investing and is in favor of investing in rental properties? I have talked to two financial planners over the past few months and both of them are more interested in having "diversification" in my accounts and say that I should not "put all of my eggs in one basket" with real estate alone. I get the diversification argument and I understand they won't make any money (fees) if I don't invest in the market but I would like to hear from someone that is more real estate "friendly" and could help with estate planning as well.

Thanks in advance for any opinions   

[Jassen Bowman]

I provide business coaching and teach continuing education to CPAs and other tax/financial professionals. There are quite a few of them that offer financial planning services, but it's quite rate for them to  understand real estate as an asset class (beyond the tax compliance function). This is something I plan to help change within the industry, and will soon be adding such training to my CPE offerings for them, because their is a need (as you're demonstrating by your post).

If you're the DIY type at all, there is a web-based software tool that runs some very detailed analysis for you about different real estate scenarios, particularly for retirement planning.  The site is RealEstateFinancialPlanner.com, and I use it myself for modeling my own rental portfolio.

Hope that helps!