REALTORS® should start planning for retirement as early as possible.
By Michael Chazin
When it comes to planning for their future retirement, real estate agents are notoriously negligent. ”Everybody in the real estate business thinks their next year is going to make them more money than their last year,” says Gary Gray, CRS, a retired real estate agent living in Montrose, Colorado.
“Real estate agents all think,” Gray continues, “that there will be a point in time when the house is paid off, the kids are out of college and my expenses will generally be lower. Then I will really be able to sock away money for my retirement.”
Kevin Reardon, principal with Shakespeare Wealth Management, Pewaukee, Wisconsin, says he meets a lot of real estate agents without financial plans. “They are busy people who are not necessarily tax-minded, which means they pay Uncle Sam more than they need to,” he says. He bemoans the fact that they frequently don’t take full advantage of every opportunity to provide for their retirement. ”These folks make high incomes and have the capacity to save a lot. Making sure they have the right kind of retirement plan is something we do regularly,” he says.
The Basics
A good first step is to set up your real estate operations like an actual business, suggests Scott Wendl, CRS, RE/MAX Real Estate Group, Des Moines, Iowa. “I have my business set up as an S-Corp,” he says. “I have budgets set up for personal and business expenses, and pay myself a salary.” Wendl, who plans on retiring in about 10 years, puts money into a Simplified Employee Pension (SEP) account and a Roth 401(k), and he buys rental properties.
Wendl got started saving early on. He used money he earned as a teenager to buy his first piece of real estate—a five-bedroom house. ”I rented out four of the bedrooms to friends and lived there and made money,” he says. A few years after that he started selling real estate full time. Early on, an older agent told him that she regretted not buying rental properties every year she was in business.
”Because nobody is watching out for our retirement with a 401(k), profit sharing or anything like that, and we sometimes have real estate fall into our laps,” says Wendl, ”we are crazy not to take advantage of it.” Wendl has automatic withdrawals come off his rental income. First he pays extra principle on his rental properties, and then he contributes to his Roth IRA, his SEP account and college funds for his three children.
Buy Rental Properties
Many real estate agents look to income-producing properties to play a large role in their retirement plans. ”My first manager was an amazing force in my life, and he taught me to buy rental properties and make that a huge part of my retirement income,” says Diane Fowler, CRS, GRI, Gulf Coast Realty, Cape Coral, Florida.
Fowler originally retired in the early 90s when she was in her mid-thirties and moved to Florida. She already owned a rental property there that she and her husband moved into. After a few years she went back to selling real estate and continued to purchase rental properties. She has rented her properties for more than 30 years and today owns them outright as her tenants have paid them off. ”I want my tenants to buy real estate from me,” she says. ”I counsel them on how to improve their credit ratings and how they can qualify for mortgages to buy their own property.”
“My exit strategy involves accumulating enough retirement funds to support my lifestyle,” says Christopher Zoller, CRS, broker associate at EWM International, Inc., Coral Gables, Florida. He is building his SEP IRA and buying income-producing real estate at the same time.
”My accountant recommended I start setting up a SEP IRA for several reasons,” he adds. One of the best reasons is it helps reduce his tax liability. “I make the maximum contribution that I can to my SEP IRA.” He has done that for 25 years, and at the same time he purchases income-producing properties for cash. “Stick with what you know when it comes to investing,” Zoller recommends. ”For real estate brokers, it makes an incredible amount of sense to buy income-producing real estate.”
First Choices
Most real estate agents are 1099 employees, explains Reardon. ”They are independent contractors.” Many retirement options, including company sponsored 401(k) accounts, put a limit on the amount of funds that an individual can contribute for retirement each year. With a SEP IRA or a 401(k), the limit for independent contractors is much higher, he explains. Individuals can contribute up to 25 percent of their gross income annually up to $53,000. This is the sort of retirement investment that Reardon recommends to any REALTOR® who is ready to start planning for their retirement.
Zoller is president of the Residential Board of Governors of the Miami Association of REALTORS® and in this position he comes in contact with many agents at different stages in their retirement planning. His advice to younger agents is to start saving as early as possible. ”Save a minimum of 10 percent of your gross income every year,” says Zoller. ”Put it into a sheltered retirement plan so you don’t pay taxes on the money now.”
How much to save is variable. Historically, people were told to save 10 percent in part because social security was expected to be a significant factor in their retirement, says Reardon. ”For our current clients, we say something like 15 percent is better as a rule of thumb, because if their income is higher, social security replaces less of it.” As these folks tend to have higher incomes, he integrates their retirement plans with a method to control their taxes and gets them to save at the same time.
“For our younger clients (under 40), I am encouraging 20 percent,” continues Reardon. It is likely that there will be changes to social security and in today’s world, there are even fewer employer-sponsored plans, he adds.
Take All The Money
Another approach that comes up among real estate agents is selling off their book of business, which depending on how successful they have been, can result in some fairly hefty payments. Not too many REALTORS® realize they can even do this, says Gray. There are companies out there who will walk you through the process, he says, and give you a formula to find out what your book of business is worth.
“I think most people just stop selling real estate, turn in their license and go on to something else,” says Gray. “But if they had a successful real estate business, they are leaving money on the table.”
Even when REALTORS® work for a real estate company, they still have rights to their own accounts. Listings, pending contracts and leases are considered to be the property of the broker and can’t be sold by the REALTOR®. On the other hand, the contact information and personal knowledge that a REALTOR® has on prospective buyers, sellers, tenants and other contacts are the REALTORS® property and probably have value.
Gray was a successful REALTOR® in the Denver market for 48 years and toward the end of his career sold as many as 80 properties a year. He had more than 300 contacts in his file with names, addresses and phone numbers, along with numerous notes. Close to 10 percent of that total was providing him with regular referrals. He handpicked his successor and sent out letters to all of his contacts letting them know they should use this REALTOR® for any of their real estate needs.
“When I decided to move to Florida, I was a successful RE/MAX agent in Schaumburg, Illinois, with a large client base,” says Fowler. She handpicked another agent in her office with a similar personality, and they sent out over-sized postcards to her complete client list with her picture on one side and her successors picture on the other. The printed message was that they should trust this new agent with their real estate business.
“She paid me a referral fee on all the business she got from those clients for the first 12 months that I lived in Florida,” says Fowler. ”I got a pretty nice income for doing nothing.”
One other retirement recommendation from Fowler: “So many of us worked 12 hours a day, seven days a week,” she says. ”You have to think what to do with your free time or you’ll go crazy. You really need to think about a hobby or a volunteer position.”
Plan for the future by using the Social Security Retirement Planner.
