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Podcast Transcription
Dave Dubeau [00:00:09] Hey, there, everyone, this Dave Dubeau here with another episode of the property Profits Real Estate podcast. Today, my special guest is Mr. Carl Fisher, and I’m very excited about talking with Carl because he is an expert on something that’s very, very important. If you want to be raising capital and that is using other people’s retirement registered funds, retirement funds for real estate. So Carl, how are you doing today?
Carl Fischer [00:00:36] Doing really good. Thanks for asking, Dave. I just actually flew in last night, did you?
Dave Dubeau [00:00:41] Where are you zooming in from this find? It looks like you’re in your boardroom.
Carl Fischer [00:00:44] I am in Ambler, Pennsylvania, at the headquarters of Champ Plan flew in last night about six hours late. Got into three o’clock in the morning, so I slept into that.
Dave Dubeau [00:00:54] Well, we’ll give you a break today there, but no problem.
Carl Fischer [00:00:58] I’m looking forward to it. I’m ready, ready to rock and roll.
Dave Dubeau [00:01:00] All right, so tell us a little bit, what is your plan? What do you guys do and why is this so important, especially for real estate investors?
Carl Fischer [00:01:08] Well, a plan is self-directed IRA 401 J Company that my sister and I started almost 20 years ago at this point, and we did it because we were real estate investors and we figured out that we could utilize retirement funds to buy real estate, thus having all of the tax benefits, tax free or tax deferred earnings from rent and any other income scheme.
Dave Dubeau [00:01:38] So, so, Karl, back in the day, this wasn’t a very well-known strategy, was it? I mean, when you guys first started, was it pretty popular or did you kind of stumble across this?
Carl Fischer [00:01:48] I stumbled across it when my dad died and I borrowed some money from a person. And when I read who it was, it was from an IRA and I said, Well, how does this work? And you know, it was back in the early 90s, the internet was just coming out, and it seemed like it was a well-kept secret among the very wealthy. And I later found out what kind of 70s
Dave Dubeau [00:02:14] it started back in the 1930s. And it’s still kind of a well-known secret, isn’t it? It’s getting the word out more, but it’s still not widely known now.
Carl Fischer [00:02:22] You know, I would say maybe five six percent of the people actually utilize it. You know, from our findings and the industry and working with the government’s registered for self-directed IRA. But it gets confusing because other companies like Fidelity and Vanguard will call them self-directed IRAs. But they won’t let you invest in real estate that only let you invest in what they sell. So really understanding those numbers
Dave Dubeau [00:02:50] self-directed as long as you buy their stuff, right?
Carl Fischer [00:02:53] Yeah, exactly. As long as it’s on the menu, you know.
Dave Dubeau [00:02:57] All right. So, Carl, this is back. Forgive me for a second. But just if you don’t mind, let’s back up because you’re involved in this, you know, knee-deep every single day. But for folks that aren’t super familiar with the whole concept of, you know, taking control of their retirement funds kind of walk us through, what’s your understanding of how this came to be? And what’s the big light bulb moment that that people have when they start using your service?
Carl Fischer [00:03:28] Well, the idea of the self-directed IRA for me, at least, was I would put money away and I would put it in mutual funds, you know, CDs or bonds, you know, or some individual stocks. But I was no good at it. I never got any training. I read some books. I bought some software programs that they sell on the middle of the night, you know, and I tried it and I didn’t like it, right? I thought I did better with blackjack in Atlantic City or Vegas. So I kind of went away from that and I wanted to figure out how to make money. And my mom and dad and their mom and dad weren’t real estate, so I started investing in real estate. But it was so it was an obvious transition. You know, do I want to take my hard earned money, put it in an account and buy stocks and bonds, which I know nothing about? Or do I want to go over and buy a piece of land, a condominium on the beach or a warehouse, you know, and an industrial center with that same IRA money that I would put in and get a deduction for every year when it was the traditional IRA? Or have the earnings come out tax free with the Roth IRA? So it was a logical step and nobody knew about it and they didn’t understand it. There weren’t any books on it. I went to Cornell University, I went back to the university, tried to find information on it. I mean, now you can Google self-directed IRA and it pops up and you know, at least, you know, two or three times a week and an article in Bloomberg or MSNBC or something like that. So it’s the word is getting out there, but it is. It’s sex and sizzle. You know, IRA eggs are boring.
Dave Dubeau [00:05:14] Wow. That’s another fantastic idea. Hold on to that thought for a sec. We’ll be right back. Now, are you a real estate investor? We ran out of cash or credit to grow your portfolio. Are you looking to grow your portfolio using other people’s money and raising capital? Well, I want to show you how to raise six figures or more in six weeks or less at my upcoming Investor Attraction workshop. You can get your ticket and find out all about it at Investor Attraction Workshop dot com. We’re going to spend a full day taking a deep dove into this roadmap that I’ve used to raise millions for my deals, and I tell other people, just like you cumulatively raise hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars for their deals as well. So again, you can check that out at Investor Attraction Workshop dot com. And as a loyal listener to the podcast, you’ll get 50 percent off your ticket when you use the Discount Code podcast. That’s right, discount code podcast at Investor Attraction Workshop dot com. See you at the next workshop. Yeah, I guess, right? And then I don’t know. I mean, I’m up here in Canada. We’ve got our own equivalent. It’s called RRSP, and we’ve got self-directed ability as well. But again, it’s best kept secret because nobody really wants to think about this stuff. And I don’t know about you, but a lot of Canadians really just like to give their money to a financial planner and let them create their wealth for them, which isn’t working out very well. Do you find the same thing in your neck of the woods or are people just sure I’m in America?
Carl Fischer [00:06:39] Has it, but you can’t blame them. I mean, let’s face it, what is their first job and who’s their first responsibility to it? Some cells in their family right now, and it’s kind of like, What can I just send your money or do we really have to do this? You know, can I just send you a car payment? You know, I know your kids go on to college so people are in it for themselves. And do they bring value to you? Some do. Some don’t, just like just like any other industry. So yeah, it’s when you can take control yourself and your best and what you know and understand and get the tax benefits. It’s good for you. I think I think you should spend your time on your finances and on your health, right? You’re not going to operate on yourself. Right. So, you know, have your doctors, have your health specialists, nutritionists as part of your team, but you got to make those decisions. Have a financial advisor, a life insurance guy, right? And ask the due diligence person on your financial team. But those are the two things that you should really look at, you know, and take control over. Yeah, because they affect your life a lot.
Dave Dubeau [00:07:48] They do. They do. Both are very important. So Karl, I heard you saying that you took your fun and used them to invest in real estate deals. Are you able to invest your own funds in your own deals or do they have to be arm’s length?
Carl Fischer [00:08:03] Why can’t buy from myself? Right? I mean, everybody asks me that question, Well, I’ve got these 20 properties that I bought, you know, back in the 80s and 90s. Can I buy those now? You can’t. You still have to keep those yourself. That’s what’s called self-dealing. But, you know, once I got into this anything after 2000 that I bought, I tried to use the IRAs and the Roth IRAs, and I did some. Conversions from traditional to Roth IRAs in that time frame. I don’t know. Two thousand eight through 10 was bad in Canada, but it devastated the real estate market in the US and especially Florida, where I was. People lost a lot of value and I converted some of my traditional houses to Roth houses.
Dave Dubeau [00:08:50] So at this point, Karl, you’ve got a company that helps other people set these up, correct?
Carl Fischer [00:08:57] Yes.
Dave Dubeau [00:08:59] Yeah. Tell us a little bit about how that works. Obviously can’t go into great depth, but generally speaking, just broad strokes. How does it work if somebody wants to create their own self-directed?
Carl Fischer [00:09:09] It’s pretty simple. It works just like any other fidelity Vanguard Merrill Lynch out there, you fill out an application, you transfer your money to jam a plan that comes in as cash and then you decide what you’re going to buy with it. Are you going to buy a piece of land? Are you going to buy a condominium or are you going to buy another piece of real estate? Are you going to lend somebody money on another piece of real estate that they’re on? And can you buy gold or silver, whatever people are good at? We even had some people buy llamas. So you come in and you put your money there, you come out with the contract and the contracts going to say a plan for the benefit of Dave’s IRA and that’s to the title is going to be in. And just like if you bought a stock or a mutual fund, you’d see that show up on your statement. And once you see it on your statement, it’s, you know, the rent start coming in or the interest payments start coming in and then you’ll see that some monthly, just like you’d see a dividend or value go up or down.
Dave Dubeau [00:10:18] The beautiful thing is here; you’ve got full control of what you’re investing in and you’ve got control of your assets instead of hoping for the best. You’re focusing on something that you’ve already got experience with.
Carl Fischer [00:10:28] Yeah, something that you feel comfortable with and you’re using your expertise and knowledge. Now, is it more work than calling up your broker and saying, I’m buying, you know, IBM or Tesla or whatever space? Yes, it is. It’s more work, but you know, that comes with the control aspect that you want. You know, some people don’t want it, but my experience is people who take control of their own money. Watch it better than anybody else.
Dave Dubeau [00:10:56] Yeah, definitely. Definitely. Very, very interesting. So, Carl, if people want to find out more about you and your company, what should they do?
Carl Fischer [00:11:06] Can I play e-commerce? Best way to get it, go right to our website. It’s got our phone number, our email, our address, and you can set up appointments right on the website, etc. A Plan C A plan. Dot com.
Dave Dubeau [00:11:25] Very good. Mr. Fisher. Thank you very much for your insights and glad you figured this out. Way back, Brandon. So it’s not so much a well-kept secret anymore.
Carl Fischer [00:11:33] Yeah. Now we’ve been trying to educate people and we do continue ED for attorneys, accountants, real estate agents, et cetera. And we still can’t get the word out there.
Dave Dubeau [00:11:43] Not very good. Thank you very much, sir.
Carl Fischer [00:11:46] Thank you, Dave.
Dave Dubeau [00:11:47] Howard already take care and we’ll see you on the next episode. Bye. Well, hey there. Thanks for tuning into the property Profits podcast if you like this episode. That’s great. Please go ahead and subscribe on iTunes. Give us a good review. That’d be awesome. I appreciate that. And if you’re looking to attract investors and raise capital for your deals, that may invite you to get a complimentary copy of my newest book Right Back There. There it is the money partner formula. You’ve got a PDF version, an investor attraction book dot com again investor attraction, book dot com. Take care.