There is a (legal) way to make tax-advantaged profits on your real estate investments. Equity University’s Wealthy Building Summit was created 6 years ago to reveal those strategies from the successful investors using them and to help investors connect.

Many real estate investors have been surprised to find out that they could pay fewer taxes – or defer tax payments – on profits from their real estate and other investments.

It may not seem possible, but it’s true – and legal. Government sponsored retirement plans such as IRAs and 401(k)s, as well as healthcare and education savings accounts, allow the plan holder to invest in almost anything – including real estate. In addition to all the benefits those plans provide—tax-deductions and tax-free profits—apply to nearly any investment the investor chooses, including real estate.

Reducing Taxes on Real Estate Profits Since 1974

Most investors don’t know this opportunity exists because most custodians of IRAs (and other savings accounts) do not offer truly self-directed IRAs that allow Americans to invest in real estate and other non-traditional investments.

According to industry estimates, only about 2 percent of Americans are currently taking advantage of self-directed IRAs. This is likely because most financial institutions don’t have the capability to offer this type of account, and financial advisors aren’t incentivized to set their clients up with this strategy.

It’s only through a self-directed investing account custodian that investors can use retirement funds to invest in real estate or any of the other asset options permitted by the Internal Revenue Service. Self-directed investing account custodians answer to the IRS just as any other IRA provider, it’s perfectly legal and it has been since the creation of the IRA in 1974.

Event Created to Help Investors Get Started

“Is it hard to do?” is a common question about investing in real estate with a self-directed IRA. It is very similar to the way you currently invest in real estate. There are just a few rules unique to self-directed IRAs that investors should be clear on before they get started.

The key to self-directed success is gaining the knowledge to confidently carry out that first deal. Realizing this fact, self-directed IRA custodian—Equity Trust—established an educational arm of the company—Equity University—to help self-directed investors become more successful.

Equity University furthered this mission six years ago with a three-day event that combines self-directed investing education from top industry experts and successful Equity Trust clients with opportunities to connect with hundreds of other investors across the country.

Based on the success of the first year, Wealth Building Summit has become an annual conference. It has grown each year, to the point that more than 500 attendees are expected for the 2014 conference, which will take place September 19-21, 2014 in Orlando. Many attendees return to the conference year after year because each conference produces a new slate of successful investors sharing their strategies.

In addition to providing the knowledge investors need to understand the unique aspects of self-directed real estate investing, the event offers a chance to discover strategies that they might never have considered or thought was possible.

Some of the topics that will be discussed during the weekend’s 30-plus hours of education include:

* An inside look at up-to-the-minute market trends from an industry authority at real estate data and insight provider RealtyTrac

* How to take advantage of opportunities in today’s real estate market, including foreclosures, rehabs and rentals

* Advanced real estate investing strategies that clients have used – and others can replicate – including LLCs, wraps, subject-tos, wholesaling and more

* Ways to invest in real estate with little money down

* Two bonus days (September 18 and 22) filled with half- or full-day workshops that provide a deeper look at specific investment strategies from the successful, seasoned veterans who are using them

Self-Directed Real Estate Deals: It’s About Who You Know

Education is just one component of successful self-directed investing; the other is getting in front of the right people. Getting to know those you might do business with and learning from the experience of seasoned investors is paramount.

The Equity University Wealth Building Summit draws more than 500 investors from across the country; some of them experienced veterans, others relatively new to the concept. Many of these investors either have an investment in mind and are short on capital, or have capital but are not yet sure where to invest it.

The Summit offers a place for both types of investors to connect. Throughout the course of the weekend, there are several opportunities to connect with as many investors as possible. A popular conference mainstay, Speed Networking offers a speed dating-like setting, giving attendees the opportunity to meet dozens of new contacts in one sitting. The potential for new connections is multiplied, as this session is offered a few times throughout the weekend.

The event also offers breaks in between education sessions and designated vendor display times to allow attendees to meet more investors and service providers to help them discover new opportunities and solutions for their investment needs.

Summit Wows Bestselling Author

Attendees have expressed that there is also a less tangible benefit of attending the conference. Once they leave the event, they’re motivated like never before to take the vast amount of knowledge and take-home strategies that they gained and actually apply them.

The conference’s 2013 keynote speaker echoes the attendees’ sentiment.

“Last year I had the absolute pleasure of working with Equity Trust to deliver a keynote presentation to their 500-plus attendees,” says financial expert and nine-time New York Times bestselling author David Bach. “The energy and enthusiasm of those that attended was simply incredible. You could really feel the sense of community at this event that Equity Trust has built over the years.”

David was so impressed with the energy and the quality of the content that was presented; he did something he had never done before as a keynote speaker: he stayed for the entire conference, participating in sessions with all the other attendees and absorbing as much information as he could.

Registration for the Wealth Building Summit is currently open, and spots generally fill up quickly.

For more details and to register, visit www.equity-university.com/summit.

MORE DETAILS:

Equity University Wealth Building Summit

The event provides 30-plus hours of real estate and other alternative investment education and provides access to 500 other investors.

September 19-21, 2014
Omni Resort at ChampionsGate
Orlando, Florida
www.equity-university.com/summit

Attendees See Real Profits from Wealth Building Summit

Here are just two examples of actual investors who gained valuable connections from attending the Equity University Wealth Building Summit. See what they were able to accomplish in the months following their first Summit.

Chris P., Strongsville, Ohio
Chris opened a self-directed IRA but was hesitant to make his first self-directed investment. He attended the Summit for the first time in 2012, where one of the speakers, a client with years of successful transactions under his belt, told the audience to make that first step and take action.

“Since that conference, I have closed on an REO home in my community, signed a two-year lease-to-own deal on it, participated in a private placement and I am in the process of signing off on my first loan,” Chris said at Equity University’s 2013 conference.

Chris credits the quality of the fellow attendees for all the productive networking he has accomplished at both conferences he attended. The deals he completed would not have been possible without all the education and connections he gained, he says.

Debbie V. and Tom F. Plymouth, Wisconsin
Like Chris, Debbie and Tom attended their first Equity University conference in 2012. That’s where they discovered the power of networking.

“We met an individual who had been here for the first time and didn’t know what to invest in,” Tom says. “He was able to become a private lender for one of our deals that became very successful for us in Wisconsin.”

If they hadn’t connected with the man at the conference, they never would have been able to make that lucrative deal, Tom says, adding it was a no-brainer to return to the conference in 2013.

“We were extremely excited to have met him, and the only way we could have done that is because we were here.”