A quandary about path to retirement

[Mark C.]

Hi,

I have read some stories on the subject for retirement with real estate and from what I can tell it is an individual perception or choice on how.

I have ~6 years to 65. My wife 13 years to 65. We both have low end 6 figure incomes in non-real estate careers.

We have 10 rentals 9 of which are still financed, net cash of about ~$4200 per month. We both have decent savings in our 401k's. Also have some multi-family investments with partners that we expect to be sold over the next 3-5 years. 1031's would be used for dispurse of equity.

I expect to roll out my 401k to a self-directed at the end of this year and populate it with rentals also. I anticipate using withdrawals after 59-1/2 to also help pay down rentals.

We are at the real estate level where Fannie/Freddie will only finance up to 75% ARV.

I have no problem with access to hard money 10% no points/1yr term.

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I am in income preparation mode for retirement and in a bit of a quandary about how best to reach our cash flow goals. Finally the question posed.

Does it make sense to pay off each of the current properties or save that same amount and pay cash for a new one as we reach a purchase amount. Due to FNMA rules we could purchase more with larger down payments creating a larger cash flow. At best(saving) we could only purchase or pay off 1 every 18 months. After retirement I would become qualified under IRS rules as full time investor.

Our goal 20 properties paid in full at retirement.

Have I thought this out correctly? Just not sure we can get to 20 paid off unless we change our strategy.

[Bob Hines]

Since your goal is to start investing in real estate around age 59 1/2 in a Self Directed IRA, don't forget you're going to have to start taking Required Minimum Distributions (RMD) at age 70 1/2 on the Total Value of the SDIRA every year. Others have more experience with that than I do, but it sounds like a nightmare to value and distribute annually to me. Especially if your plan is to fully invest in rentals. I think you would want to be out of physical properties and into more liquid & easily valued assets by 70 1/2. Or at least have plenty of other assets in IRAs to fund the RMDs if rentals are a minority of your qualified assets.