If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, it begs the question: How many insane people are mingling amongst us?

In the last few years, the real estate market has changed dramatically. Many fortunes quickly gained in a fast and furious real estate market, have now been quickly lost. Investors are either scared or defeated, not knowing where to put their money and fearful of losing even more than they already have. The heydays of easy real estate money are gone, and many people are left dazed or scratching their head in disbelief, walking away from properties that are either over leveraged or so far decreased in value, that they don’t have many options.

The key to continuing to succeed in a quickly changing market is to identify a need or a dilemma that fits the market, and then adapt quickly. For example, as a professional speaker, my main niche market has been realtors and investors. With realtors struggling in the market, my training rooms had become half full and at a reduced price from the typical seminar fee. So, what to do? Obviously realtors still need the training that I offer, yet many were so fearful and dumbstruck with what to do with the real estate market, that they were frozen.

To reinvent quickly, I decided to get my real estate license as a symbol of my solidarity with those that I train. Now instead of charging them for my class, I can train them and their clients for a referral fee on any commission generated from my training. Now we all have skin in the game. If the client purchases real estate in their IRA, I get paid; if they do not, no paycheck. With this new strategy, I have actually increased my business by 15%, even in a “bad” real estate market.

With investors I have trained for years, I now take the extra step and refer the business to a realtor that is competent in the workings of a real estate IRA. This way I can feel assured that my client is being well taken care of and the realtor is obtaining business that they normally would not have had. Everyone wins!

One creative strategy has enabled me to stay in a market, even when it’s not strong. What are some ideas that would help you prosper instead of flounder? If your success is only as limited as your creativity, what are one or two ideas that would completely change your current situation?

It’s difficult to be creative when you are in a state of fear or panic. Take some quiet time to brainstorm a list of things that are needed, but don’t currently exist. Or if they exist, think of a way that you could do it better and create it. Get excited about the possibilities in life, and a new direction or opportunity that your current situation is creating for you.

In the words of author Storm Jameson: “Happiness comes from the capacity to feel deeply, to enjoy simply, to think freely, to risk life, to be needed.” Embrace the changes happening in life and create the life you want, instead of the one you may have settled for.

Jennifer Dizmang leads workshops and provides training for real estate agents, CPAs, CFPs, and investors nationwide on how to use IRAs to invest in real estate and other non-traditional assets. In addition to her teaching credentials, Jennifer is a seasoned real estate investor specializing in the purchase of real estate and non-traditional investments in IRAs and 401(k)s.

No doubt, if you have a self-directed IRA or substantial investment funds, you have considered investing in real estate. However, you may lack the funds to invest on your own or the desire to deal with the hassles of property management. A viable option for you may be to invest in a real estate ‘syndication’ (i.e., a group real estate investment) as a passive investor.

What is a real estate syndication?

In a real estate syndication, a ‘sponsor’ or ‘syndicator’ will typically identify a real estate asset, such as an existing commercial or multi-family property (or vacant land for development), that will yield a sufficient return to pay themselves and their investors from cash flow during operations and/or equity on resale. The sponsor may obtain institutional financing for a portion of the purchase price and then pool funds from private investors to finance the down payment and closing costs, or they may raise all of the purchase money from private investors. The sponsor’s job will consist of finding a suitable property, putting the group of investors together, and managing the asset on their behalf. For its efforts, the sponsor will receive fees and/or a percentage of the ‘distributable cash’ (i.e., profits) left after all expenses and loan obligations have been paid.

What kind of returns do syndications offer?

Typical investor returns can range from 6-15% (or more) annualized, calculated against the amount of money invested. The range varies based on the type of investment and the level of risk to which an investor may be exposed. The higher the return offered, the greater the risk. For example, an investor or self-directed IRA may take a position as a ‘debt partner’, in which case the returns will be calculated as interest on the amount invested. Such returns may be in the lower ranges, but the debt partnership position may be ‘preferred’ or ‘secured’ by a lien against the real estate, which is a lower-risk position. Another option for investors is an ‘equity partnership’ position, where the distributable cash is split proportionately between the group of investors and the sponsor, whose compensation can range from 25-50% of the distributable cash. In this case the investor returns may be greater, but they will be dependant on the performance of the property and the sponsor’s ability to maximize returns by increasing income and decreasing expenses.

What information should I expect to see?

Prior to accepting any investor funds, the sponsor is required by securities laws to provide a set of offering documents that explains the terms and discloses the risks of the offering to prospective investors. Further, unlike a stock investment, sponsors typically answer to their investors by means of periodic newsletters, financial reports, and/or teleconferences. The investors may also have some limited voting rights regarding major property decisions affecting the investment.

Checklist: 10 Things You Should Know

Before investing in a real estate syndication, you should review the private placement offering documents provided by the sponsor and ask questions regarding the following:

1. The sponsor’s background, education, and experience with similar investments, if any.
2. The team members involved in acquisition and operation of the property. The team may include attorneys, CPAs, other members of the sponsoring group, property managers, and affiliates that may receive fees, etc.
3. Cash distributions to investors during acquisition, operation, and disposition of the property including the proposed timing and anticipated percentage returns.
4. Proposed sponsor fees and cash distributions.
5. Proposed duration of the investment.
6. Property information, including the type and condition of the property, the purchase price, financial history, proposed ‘value add’ and exit strategies, and pro forma financial projections.
7. Withdrawal options for investors.
8. Dispute resolution provisions.
9. Voting rights of investors.
10. Provisions for removal of the sponsor.

Seek Professional Advice

In addition to satisfying yourself with respect to all of the items listed above, you should seek advice from your own attorney, financial advisor or accountant regarding the investment. Your attorney should determine whether the offering complies with applicable securities laws. A sponsor that disregards the applicable laws may expose itself and the entire investment to unnecessary civil or criminal liability, or they may be unaware of their fiduciary obligations to their investors. Your CPA or financial advisor should evaluate the financial merits of the investment based on past financial statements for the property and pro forma projections provided by the sponsor.

Where Can I Meet Syndicators?

Become a member of your local real estate investment clubs, attend their meetings on a regular basis, and attend the informational seminars offered by your self-directed IRA administrator.

Please submit your real estate investment questions to Kim Lisa Taylor of Trowbridge & Taylor LLP, Kim@SyndicationLawyers.com . Practice Areas: Securities Law, Real Estate Syndications, Private Placement Offerings, Private Lending Documents, Partnership Agreements, Entity Formation, and Public Speaking for Real Estate Investment/Education events. © 2010 Kim Lisa Taylor.

As women and mothers, we often think of others before ourselves. Yet the experts are always saying that if we don’t take care of ourselves, then we can’t possible be the best that we want to be for others. You can actually do both in your retirement account!

If you have a self-directed IRA, you can take care of yourself by growing your retirement account for your future needs, and also make investments that will benefit others. A great example of this is using an old 401k or IRA to loan money to individuals with a need, and secure the loan with real estate. This is called a promissory note secured by a first trust deed.

When making a note, or any investment in your IRA, there is a list of disqualified people to the IRA. The list of disqualified people includes, but is not limited to, yourself, your spouse, and your lineal ascendants and descendents, and their spouses. This means your parents, grandparents, children, grandchildren, and their spouses. You may not use your IRA to make a promissory note to anyone on this disqualified list.

Below is a case study as an example of this type of an investment:

Melissa has a traditional IRA with Entrust and wants to take control of her investments and grow her account. Melissa also wants to feel like she is making a difference in the world. She discovers that she likes the idea of loaning money to someone and securing the loan with real estate.

Melissa’s neighbor, Sara, mentions that she is looking to buy a new home because her growing family needs more space. Sara also states that she is having a hard time finding a bank to loan her the funds for the new home at a rate that she is comfortable with. Melissa and Sara discuss the possibility of Melissa’s IRA loaning the money to Sara instead of Sara going to a bank for the loan. Melissa does her due diligence on Sara and the property that Sara wants to purchase. After careful due diligence, Melissa decides to proceed with the loan.

Sara and Melissa draw up a promissory note secured by the first trust deed to the new property that Sara will be purchasing. Melissa remembers to reference the lender as her IRA with Entrust on the promissory note. Melissa then submits the promissory note and a copy of Sara’s real estate transaction documents to Entrust’s real estate department. Entrust then wires the funds to escrow based on Melissa’s direction.

In the promissory note, Sarah agreed to make her loan payments on a monthly basis to Melissa’s IRA. As such, each month Sara mails a check made payable to Melissa’s IRA directly to Entrust. Melissa logs into her Entrust IRA online each month to confirm that Sara has made the loan payment on time and in the proper amount.

All of the profit from this promissory note is going into Melissa’s Traditional IRA and is tax deferred until Melissa decides she wants to take a distribution after she reaches retirement age. Melissa feels very good knowing that at the same time she is growing her retirement account for her and her family, she is able to make a difference in someone else’s family by helping them obtain a new home!

To learn more about how to you use your IRA to invest in notes or other non-traditional assets, contact Jennifer Williams at (949) 788-2970 to schedule a free consultation. Jennifer Williams is the Inside Sales & Client Services Manager for Entrust Financial Services, LLC. She works closely with investors, agents, brokers, and business owners, in addition to her work with CPAs and financial advisors. www.entrustcalifornia.com/oc.

Perceptions of age and beauty are shifting-and marketers and the media must follow suit.

The notion of what is beautiful in the human face and form has been a matter of interest since biblical times. Beauty is an elusive and subjective concept, yet at a time of growing longevity, we still struggle to see the aged as beautiful. I don’t mean beauty in the Mother Teresa or Georgia O’Keefe sense, as in “wow, what a venerable and inspiring woman.” I mean as in the “wow, what a hottie!” sense.

It wasn’t always so. We first encountered Sarah of the Old Testament at age 65, when she and Abraham moved to Egypt to escape a famine. Abe was concerned that the Pharaoh would be so taken with her beauty that he would kill him and take Sarah to the harem. So in what could pass as a plot from a cancelled sitcom, Abe pretended she was his sister.

But that was then and this is now. Now is an era when “agelessness” and anti-aging is the goal of millions, when our attitude toward the aging face and form is impacted by television, movies, print, billboards, web avatars and the ubiquitous images that unceasingly impinge upon the neutrons of our brain. We judge beauty based upon complicated cultural cognitive experiences. In short, we are programmed to judge aesthetics based on the prejudices of ageism. It is the only prejudice that we hold against our own future selves. And when we finally do get old, we unwrap that prejudice and take it into the gym, the Botox office and the bedroom.

Beauty in Numbers
When I give corporate presentations on the boomer/older adult “cohort,” I get the biggest response from a PowerPoint presentation that displays two maps of the United States. The first shows demographics by age in 2005. Only Florida is shaded in dark tones, indicating that more than 14 percent of the population is 55 or older. Then the map fades in, showing the change by 2025. By then every state in the union except California, New York, Maryland and Texas will be darkly shaded. We will be a nation of Floridas.

This portends well for seeing beauty in age. The brain is selective, self-protective, and fearful of the unfamiliar. Right now, we go through a kind of cognitive profiling when we see an older adult. Many younger people know older people only through cultural stereotypes perpetuated in the media. And just as with any prejudice, we discount our active grandma or gorgeous mom as the exception that proves the rule. But know enough of “the other guy,” and people get more individualized. The brain can see nuances of beauty rather then make blanket rejections.

Dr. Neal Cutler, executive director of the Center on Aging of the Motion Picture and Television in Los Angeles County, oversees assisted living and continuous care communities for the entertainment industry. He is also a strong voice in teaching gerontology through a construct he calls “lenses.” Cutler contends that it is how you look at aging and its context, not the meaningless content of a number (that is, your actual age in years) that informs your view.

When social agreements change politically, we call it a revolution. Indeed, Pulitzer Prize winner Dr. Robert Butler calls his latest book The Longevity Revolution—a far cry from his seminal 1975 work Why Survive? Being Old in America. But despite his bravado, of which I have also been guilty of in my writing, I contend we will have no revolution, only an anemic revolt, until media takes the helm.

When media changes its lenses, both literally and figuratively, our collective view if beauty and aging will also change. Too simple? I say no. Media is the universal peer group; its television and movie stars are the high school A-list to which we longed to belong. If all of us associated with media in all its permutations—those who buy, sell, write, provide visual content, critique, cast, host, advertise, photograph or in any way play a part on showing us images—take part, there will be a real revolution.

Consider the 1960s, when Black is Beautiful changed the way we see people of color. The message was clear: natural black features are not ugly. And that is the nexus between that movement and anti-ageism. Right now, wrinkles, sagging chins and white hair are inherently ugly, irredeemable as a sign of beauty. You can also be older and beautiful, but you can’t have any of those things. This notion is damaging to us on deep psychological as well as cultural levels.

Remember that the first time the phrase “black is beautiful” was uttered was in 1858 by abolitionist Dr. John Sweat Rock. Revolutions can take time.

Patronize at Your Peril
The idea is to acknowledge beauty not despite, but regardless of age. Consider just these two statistics:

• The current life expectancy is 71.6 and is slated to rise to 94.1 this century.
• Those over 65 control half of the discretionary income and three-fourths of the accumulated assets in all of the United States.

Patronize us at your peril.

The strongest sales pitch for any product to the older adult is that another older adult likes it. Ask any of my clients in assisted and independent housing, and see what their “resident ambassador programs” yield in lead generation and referrals. Senior to senior is as potent as teen peer modeling and social marketing.

Susan Schubert has documented what happens when older adult women feel beautiful. As director of recreation and volunteers of the Motion Picture and Television Fund, Schubert polled recreation, residential nursing, and other staff involved with residential care. The average age of the women is 87. “They come dressed for meals, they accessorize, they flock to cosmetics demonstrations,” Schubert says. The residential beauty parlor is booked, and when Jodie Foster endowed a swimming pool, the ladies were fitted with flattering bathing suits by members of the local costumers union. In short, they take their aging with good humor, and they buy on.

What we see there is a microcosm of what happens when older adult women feel beautiful—they consume. They may consume differently, but the bucks fly. I am constantly challenged by marketers that ignore the older adult market. In an article geared to direct mail marketers in Deliver, Brice Britt writes “despite their diminishing influence and comparatively small numbers, (they) shouldn’t be forgotten.” That’s nice of you. Marginalize older women, make them unbeautiful, and you’ll kill our desire to shop.

I am a proud member of the Boomer Authority (www.BoomerAuthority.ning.com), a worldwide trade association for those involved in marketing and branding to mature markets. We still search our heads, wondering why ad buyers cannot see the demographics. It’s too facile to say they are kids themselves and don’t get it. I think it’s the misguided belief that because we Boomers have imbedded brand loyalty and are too wise to change, we cannot be diverted. Make your brand a little better, less expensive and more useful—and stop ignoring the most affluent market in the nation. Engrave this on a plaque and put it on your desk: It’s the market, stupid!

Health and Beauty: Together Forever
As they say in New Jersey, “not for nothing” am I fascinated by looks as we age. I came late to the media dance, having not begun on radio and then television until I was 38. By the time I was hosting Money Talk on The Learning Channel, I was over 50, and wondering how long the gigs would last. And so I began to study the effects of aging on the skin, the bones, and the middle.

Despite their frenzy to look younger, Boomers and older adults are not anti-aging. After all, no one dies of old age—we dies of not having old age. As a market, we are wide open to health solutions that also make us look better. The recent Edelman 2010 Health Engagement Barometer study reveals that 86 percent of those polled said they were most responsible for their own health. Show us healthy images of ourselves looking beautiful, and the whole industry of health and beauty merge for more profits than you can shake a Restylane injection at.

So has the new world of media paid attention to the nexus between health and beauty? At first, not much. But now media has taken some steps, if not leaps, in the right direction. We do see images of happier, healthier and more active older adults. Of course, they are still ravishing models, but what the hell, it’s a start.

On September 15th, I will be 62. I am again working on television. On my 60th birthday, I climbed the Himalayas in Bhutan. On my 61st birthday, I canceled a trip to Egypt because I was too busy running my company. On my 62nd birthday, I will officially be a senior citizen, and I will go to Jerusalem and from there, finally to Egypt. I am not in a rush to see the world—I have plenty of time, so long as I stay young. And here is the ultimate secret of that elusive product that we all want to buy, that product called being young: “Youth, it comes in all ages.”

Adriane berg is CEO of Generation Bold (www.GenerationBold.com) a marketing, branding and business development consultant to reach boomers, seniors and caregivers. Her latest book is How Not to Go Broke at 102: Achieving Everlasting Wealth (Wiley 2009).

I always look at this day as the first of many barbecues, and the beginning of summer. I hope all of you are enjoying a day off with family and friends.

A recent CNN poll asked 15,000 respondents where they have you gotten their best financial advice. About 28% said a financial advisor; 34% said the media; 22% got it from a family member; and 16% took advice from a friend. How about you? What do you think are the best places to go for financial advice?

If you are part of a growing trend of investors, you plan to take charge of your financial future. A self-directed IRA is a way to diversify, while maintaining control and being able to invest your IRA in assets you know and understand. Want more information? Visit www.theentrustgroup.com and check out the advantages of self-direction. Now more than ever, it is important to take control!

Happy Mother’s Day! To all mother’s world wide!