A CPA couple who invest in real estate on the side shares the investment mistake that cost them about six-figures worth of 401(k) money

Business Insider

3 hours ago

CPAs Amanda Han and Matthew MacFarland worked alongside real estate investors for years, helping them save on taxes.
However, working with investors and actually investing are very different, as the accountants learned the hard way.
The California-based couple has built an impressive real estate portfolio that includes rentals and syndication deals outside their CPA day jobs. But, early in their real estate investment careers, a mistake cost them about $100,000 worth of retirement savings.
"I think each of us lost like $50,000 in our 401(k)," MacFarland told Business Insider of the failed deal they invested in back in 2008.
"We were very prevalent in the industry of people talking about self-directed IRAs and using your retirement accounts, and so we happened to use our retirement accounts to invest in a syndicated real estate deal," he explained. "In retrospect, the timing was horrible."
It wasn't just bad timing. Han and MacFarland forewent a critical step: due diligence.
Real-estate syndication is a way for a group of investors to pool their capital together and purchase a single property managed by a "syndicator." Once the investor contributes capital, their role in the deal becomes completely passive, as the syndicator is responsible for finding the deal, executing the transaction, and, ultimately, delivering returns to the investors.
The hands-off nature of these deals is great for investors with more money than time, but you're putting a lot of trust in the syndicator and depending on their competence. You're investing in both the deal and the person running it. And while a good syndicator can turn a mediocre property into a success, a bad one can ruin a great opportunity — or, drain your retirement savings, in the case of Han and MacFarland.
They met the syndicator through a colleague and, "we trusted that he knew what he was doing," said MacFarland. Looking back, they would have spent a lot more time on the vetting process.
An easy first step when vetting syndicators is to type their first and last names into Google along with keywords like "fraud," "complaints," or "SEC." You can also talk to investors who have worked with them in the past and ask about their experience.
"You might find a lot of things that you didn't know about someone," said Han.
Using syndication deals to build wealth passively
Han and MacFarland are invested in multiple syndications, which allow them to own a portion of larger properties they wouldn't be able to purchase individually. Between their 16 passive syndication deals, they own condos, apartments, and mobile home parks.
Another perk is the distributions, which are payments that investors receive from the income generated by the property. Investors typically get paid quarterly or monthly during the life of the deal, but it all depends on how the deal is structured.
"It kind of runs the gamut. You see a lot of different things," explained MacFarland. "But, a typical cash flow deal, you'd expect to start getting quarterly distributions probably after the first year. But some are set up in such a way that they're value-adds, and that it's going to take two to three years to stabilize the property."
Having experience with both active and passive real estate investments, "I don't think there's one that's necessarily better than the other," said Han. "It just comes down to your resources: Do you have more time, or do you have more money?"
It also depends on your strengths and weaknesses.
"We have clients who do their own rentals, and they do super well. They generate much higher returns than any syndication could provide," she said.
At Han and MacFarland's current phase in life, passive real estate investments make more sense.
"When we first started out, we were cash poor and really looked for properties where we could add forced appreciation by doing things to rehab and improve them," said Han. "But now, we're at a phase where we have young kids and it's just more time-consuming."
If the right deal on a rental property came around, they'd still jump on it, but "more of our resources are now for passive investments in larger deals," she added. "Because now, for us, the limitation is not as much funding. It's more so just the time."
Plus, they recognize that their main strength is still tax strategy.
"We're really good at being tax strategists — that's our specialty — and we know there are people who do real estate investing that are a lot better at it than we are, so it makes sense to leverage their expertise," said MacFarland, adding: "We do our due diligence now."