In this episode of Real Estate Investing Abundance, host Dr. Allen Lomax interviews Brian Martinez, a senior IRA specialist at NuView Trust Company, about using self‑directed IRAs to purchase real estate without current‑year tax liability. The conversation begins with Martinez sharing a formative high‑school charity experience that shaped his leadership mindset. He then defines self‑directed IRAs, noting they have existed since the 1970s and allow investors to allocate retirement funds to alternative assets such as real estate, private lending, cryptocurrency, precious metals, land, and offshore properties. Martinez walks through the step‑by‑step process of opening a self‑directed IRA, transferring or rolling over funds, completing application and transfer forms, working with a title company, submitting purchase authorizations, and closing the transaction, emphasizing that the IRA—not personal cash—must fund the purchase and that the deed is titled in the custodian’s name for the benefit of the client. He clarifies that any individual with earned income and an eligible retirement plan (401(k), 403(b), TSP, etc.) can open a self‑directed IRA; no special qualifications are required. The discussion then shifts to prohibited transactions, identifying disqualified parties (the IRA owner, spouse, ancestors, descendants, and their beneficiaries) and explaining that personal use, family rentals at preferential rates, or providing sweat equity can trigger IRS penalties, potentially resulting in early‑distribution taxes and a 10 % penalty. Martinez describes NuView’s role as a custodian that provides education, hosts events, and connects passive investors with active deal sources, but does not recommend specific investments. He offers strategic advice: diversify beyond traditional stocks, leverage the tangible nature of real‑estate assets for steady cash flow, and treat IRA‑owned properties like any other investment property. The episode concludes with Martinez’s contact information (website, email, phone) and personal reflections on his career shift from aspiring film producer to financial professional, his gratitude for relationships built over time, and his commitment to helping others achieve financial independence through tax‑advantaged real‑estate investing.
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Welcome to Real Estate Investing Abundance, the show for busy, fulfilled professionals like you to learn how to develop financial independence built on solid passive real estate investments. Now here is your host, Dr. Allen Lomax.
Hello, enlightened investors. I'm your host, Dr. Allen. Delighted that you've joined us today. Are you a busy professional passionate about the work of your calling, yet realize that even though you love what you are doing, you're exchanging your time for money? You know that if you were to lose the ability to exchange time for money, your financial well-being will be in jeopardy. If you can relate, I have great news. Steetalker Capital is an investment company designed for professionals to develop financial independence built on solid passive real estate investments. Remove the anxiety of an uncertain financial future and go to steetalker.com. Get your free 1-page, 10-step guide to passive real estate investing.
Enlightened Investors, it is a joy to be back with you again today as we discover the secrets to buying real estate tax-free. Our guest, Brian Martinez, is a senior IRA specialist with NewView Trust Company. He helps new and seasoned investors use self-directed IRAs to build and secure their wealth. Since 2018, Brian has educated investors on how to purchase passive real estate, in tax-deferred or entirely tax-free vehicles, while at the same time showing how to prioritize their creations of true diversity for his clients' portfolios. Brian is intentional when it comes to building relationships with local real estate investment associations, syndicators, investors raising capital, or those looking to lend their RIA money to other real estate investors. So, Brian, before we explore this secrets of buying real estate tax-free, share with us a memorable experience from your formative years that helped you to be the person you are today.
That's a really interesting question you're asking there. I think one of the best memories was— this is pretty impactful for me personally, but when I was in high school, I entered this contest. It was part of DECA, which was a marketing program, and I was the vice president of the class. We had to choose a charity of our choice. We had to present it, document it, and then present it. There's many schools where I'm from. I grew up in El Paso, Texas, and there's probably 25 high schools there. So I went in there just genuinely. The charity that I chose was the Women's Battered Shelter, and it was right around the holidays. A lot of them were stuck in these shelters with their children. They weren't going to be able to experience the holidays. So we did a little bit of a fundraiser and a toy drive for the kids, and it turned out really well. We had a lot of involvement from the community, especially our principal and our teachers. They all got involved. We donated, at the time it was Super Nintendo and a lot of great gifts for the children that were there. And we went there Christmas Eve and brought all the gifts and made a donation to the organization. And just seeing the faces and the tears coming out of their eyes and the Moms being so appreciative of all the presents for the kids and being able to bring that joy to their time in a tough time they were going through. I think that that really impacted me. And I was able to take this organization and this document that we did for the organization to— first, it was just the district, and then it got first place. And then I went to state, and Texas is a huge state, and I got first place again. And, you know, it was just very interesting to realize that I can actually make an impact. I think that's what I've carried with me throughout all my years, just knowing that I'm capable of being a leader and choosing something like this charity and presenting it in a well-mannered way. And I got a lot of great response and I took it all the way to the national level, which was really awesome.
Well, that is impressive for any teenager, but my goodness, going all the way to the national level, that is indeed impressive. I did not realize El Paso was that large city to have 25 high schools there. Wow, that's— been through there on the interstate, I don't know, I can't count the number of times I've passed through El Paso, but I didn't realize it was that huge a place.
Yeah, it's one of the top 10 biggest cities, I think, in the United States.
Is it really? I did not know that. Oh, learn something new every day, I guess, huh? Well, I actually had a really nice time in El Paso many, many, many years ago. I was in the college choir and we toured the country and we stayed with families in the various different cities where we were performing, and El Paso was one of those cities.
Wow.
Had a really nice time with family that hosted us that particular night, and come to find out she had— I mean, this many, many years later— her daughter ended up living in Colorado Springs where I was living at the time. And then another connection we had is that she had previously, before moving to El Paso, she had in her past life had taught on Guam. As a teacher there. And I also ended up teaching at the University of Guam. So a lot of intersections there with that one particular individual.
That's amazing. Not many people can say they've been to El Paso, Texas, but it's definitely a hidden gem. And the food's amazing there. The people are wonderful and welcoming. And, you know, it was, it was a blessing for me to be able to grow up there.
Yes. The one thing I love about South Texas are homemade tortillas, and you can't get them anywhere else. So yeah. Well, let's get into real estate here. So what is self-directed IRAs to start with? And then you can tell us how that connects with real estate. Sure.
So self-directed IRAs are a vehicle. They've actually been around since the 1970s. But most people don't realize that this is an option for them. Most people, you know, they work for their employers, they have their 401 plans. And then it's stuck investing into the stock market. So stocks, bonds, mutual funds, just things like that. And self-directed IRAs give people the option to invest into alternative assets. Number one being the asset class that most people do invest in is real estate. But there's a lot of other things they can do like private lending. They can do things like buying cryptocurrency, precious metals, buying land, even buying offshore real estate or investing into private companies. And it's a shame that not enough people are informed that this is an option for them to be able to build their wealth.
So how does that— I mean, in particular, you just kind of glossed over it here that you can use IRAs to purchase real estate. So how do you do that?
So that's a great question. And the process is actually very simple. If you have a current IRA or an existing, maybe previous employer 401 plan, you either have pre-tax money or post-tax money. If it's pre-tax money, It would be a rollover or a transfer from that IRA or that old 401 into a traditional IRA 9 out of 10 times. If you're self-employed, there's some other options like a SEP IRA. And if it's post-tax money, it would go into a Roth IRA. So once you figure that out, whether it's pre or post-tax money, you can transfer to a self-directed IRA. Now, NuView's a custodian like any other IRA company. You can still make contributions to your plan. You can still do Roth conversions. The only difference is that you're buying alternative assets. So just like you would buy real estate with your own cash, you're doing the exact same thing, but you're doing it with your IRA money. There's a few differences, like the title of the property would be titled as NuView Trust Custodian for Benefit Of, and then the client's name and account number. So their IRA owns the property and is actually on the deed of that property rather than their personal name owning that property.
Well, who can qualify for this? Can just anybody go out there and get a self-directed IRA, or are there qualifications people have to meet?
There's no qualifications. Anyone that has an eligible IRA, anyone that has earned income, like I said, the previous employer 401 plans, and there's quite a few other plans similar to that, like a TSP, a 403. Those are probably some of the most common that we see. Any of those plans that are retirement money, they can be moved over into a self-directed IRA, and then they can be used to buy these alternative assets like real estate. So you don't need to be qualified to open an account and start making these type of investments.
Well, can you just for a moment here, take a typical transaction and just walk us through the steps that a person would need to go through? Let's just start after they set up their self-directed IRA? What do they do from here?
Okay. I mean, the first step would be to fill out an application. In the application, it just asks for your basic information, like your name, address, birthday, and then the type of an account that you'll be establishing. Are you rolling over funds? Are you transferring funds? And then we need to know who your beneficiaries are. Once you've completed the application, you're also going to fill out a transfer form. If it's coming— the money's being moved from an existing IRA, or you'll fill out a rollover form. If you don't have an existing IRA, you can contribute to the IRA as well. As long as it's earned income, you can make contributions. So once the account is open and established, say you've identified the piece of real estate that you want to purchase, what then you'll do is you'll start working with that title company that you're buying the property because they're going to make sure that the deed is under the name of the IRA. You're going to provide all the documents to what's called our transactions department or processing department. They're going to review all the documents, make sure that everything's in good order and ready to go, and the property is titled correctly, number one. Now, if you need to make that first deposit on the real estate, then what you'll fill out is called a purchase authorization form. And then we will send that wire to the escrow company and hold that property for you. And then it's IRA funds that are paying for this. You can't use your own cash to put that down payment on the property. So it's good to have your account open and funded and ready to go once you find that opportunity. So then the next step, say you've done your inspection, your IRA's already paid for that. You know you want to buy this property. It's a great investment for you. Then the day of closing, NuView signs majority of the documents on behalf of the IRA. And then there's a few sections we'll have the client go ahead and initial, and then we're going to send them a DocuSign. They're going to initial where they need to, and they fill out the purchase authorization form for that closing. So that's the transaction. And now their IRA owns that property. So as it's a rental property, they're generating that rental income. All that cash flow is coming back to the IRA and it's growing for them tax-deferred or tax-free, just depending what type of IRA vehicle they're using.
Well, there are certain transactions that are forbidden transactions. How is it that a person can actually get in trouble With their self-directed IRAs.
Correct. So there are what's called prohibited transactions. The rules are pretty basic. Any investments you make using your IRA, self-directed IRA, it's got to be what's called a passive investment. It must remain at arm's length. There are specific parties that you're not allowed to do business or transactions with. That would be the IRA owner, their spouse, their parents and grandparents, and their children and grandchildren. These are the disqualified parties. So what that means is, Those parties, they cannot be the ones to live on the property or rent the property from the IRA-owned property. They cannot be the ones to put any sweat equity into the property. If it needs work or renovations done, then it's got to be a third-party person that comes in and paints the house if it needs to be painted or changes the light bulb, something as simple as that. It can't be any of those parties that I mentioned. Also, any beneficiaries that are listed are considered disqualified parties. If it's none of those disqualified members I mentioned, but they are a beneficiary of yours, they're considered disqualified as well, because at some point, if something were to happen to the IRA owner, they're usually the parties that would inherit the IRA.
And so they can't benefit from it directly.
Correct. It's meant for retirement, so it's more patient money.
So brothers, sisters, cousins, they could—
Yeah, that's—
Purchase a property with your IRA.
That's correct. So brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews, Any branches of the family tree are not disqualified, so they could be your renters. However, we don't always suggest you having family members staying in the property because what tends to happen is called sweetheart deals where you might give them a discount on the rents or maybe late payments, things like that. And we don't monitor that here at NuView. That is the client's responsibility to make sure that all the rents are collected. So a lot of times when it's a family member, Those things tend to happen and the IRS would frown upon that.
And what happens when the IRS frowns upon a transaction?
So that could trigger a prohibited transaction, which could end up causing the whole IRA to be taxed, maybe even distributed to the client. And it could be an early distribution with a penalty.
And what would that entail?
Typically, if it's an early distribution before the age of 59 and a half, there's a 10% penalty. And then if it's, say, a pre-tax account like a traditional IRA or a SEP IRA, then you would be subject to paying taxes on that whole amount. And then the remaining after taxes is distributed to you as cash. So it's almost like you took your whole retirement account out early and had to pay the penalties and taxes on it.
So it could be substantial.
It could be.
It's a good idea not to involve yourself.
Correct. You want to just make sure you follow the rules and try to keep things pretty basic and treat it like any other investment property. Would you want to rent to a family member? Would you rather have it be a third party so it's strictly an investment property?
And so what does your company do to help connect passive real estate investors with the active investors?
Okay, so that's a really good question as well. What we are is we're considered the custodian of the IRA. So we can't put investments in front of the clients. It's really up to them to go out and find those investments on their own and let us know what they want to do with their IRA funds. We do provide them lots of education on the different types of assets that they can purchase and invest in using their IRAs, but we can't put the investments directly in front of them. However, we have lots of client events and we attend lots of conventions throughout the year, and we do network with a lot of passive and active investors. We can put them in the same room, but it's really up to them to do their own due diligence, whether they want to use their IRAs to make these types of investments in their IRAs or not.
Well, before we go into our last segment here, what are some pieces of advice you would give to anyone who is looking to open a self-directed IRA?
I can't really give the advice, but I could tell people, explore all your options. The one biggest takeaway that I've always had is don't put all your eggs in one basket. The whole reason that financial advisors tell their clients to diversify their portfolio And they might mean just in the stock market, but there's so many other ways to diversify that portfolio. Because if you have all your money in one investment, that investment goes south, you just really took a big hit in your wealth for retirement. And those are supposed to be some of your best years. You want to retire wealthy and comfortably and not have the stresses of having to keep working until you die. Nobody wants that. You put your time in, you put your money in, and it's time to reap the rewards from those investments. So if you diversify your portfolio, there's better chances of getting better returns. And the reason The reason I love what I do is because I can educate people on the fact that buying alternative assets is something tangible. You can actually put your hands on a piece of property and see what it looks like. It's brick and mortar. It's not like the stock market where you have no control over it. Owning real estate in an IRA or in cash, whether it's still an investment and it's still something that some people are always going to need somewhere to live. So it's not going anywhere. The stock market could crash tomorrow. And if you own a piece of real estate, you're still going to have renters paying you rent. There's always going to be the cash flow.
Hopefully anyway. I've been through some tough markets, but anyway, it is true that real estate certainly is a tangible asset. And even if you lose all of your tenants, hopefully you're going to have some equity in that property and enough to sustain that property until you can at least get it rented again there.
I couldn't have said it better myself.
Well, Brian, tell us how our viewers and listeners can get in touch with you.
Yeah, so one of the best ways to reach me is if you go to our website, newviewtrust.com, we have a little chatbot at the bottom. You can always leave your contact information and any questions you have for me, and I will get right back to you. If you want to email me directly, you can definitely do that as well. My email's pretty simple. My email is bmartinez@nuviewtrust.com. NuView is spelled N-U-V-I-E-W trust.com. And if you wanna call me directly, I'm happy to share my phone number as well. My direct phone number is 407-519-9172.
Well, Brian, just a couple of last questions here. Share with us one of your most difficult setbacks in life and how did you come through that experience and what What did you learn from that?
So I think my biggest challenge was after graduating college, and what I originally went to school for was to be a film producer, and I moved out to LA, and I experienced what LA really is like. And it's not what you see on TV. It's a pretty tough industry out there. Everyone's out there for the same reason. Most people are working 3 jobs to survive. And, and, you know, I realized that maybe this wasn't the right direction for me, and I should rethink where I want to go with my future. I had to put my pride aside and give up on my dreams and rethink what I wanted to do. I moved back to Florida. I'm in Orlando, Florida. I've been here for the last 17 years. Now I find myself working for a financial company and I feel blessed to be here. But I think that if I wouldn't have moved out to LA and realized what it's really like, I probably wouldn't be where I am now.
Do you still do film producing?
I wish I did. It's just an expensive hobby now.
Well, but you do it as a hobby, I hope, right?
Yeah, for fun.
Yeah, cool. Well, when you come to the end of this life, how are you going to look back on your life and what are you going to be most grateful and thankful for?
Actually really love that you asked that question. If I look back in my life, I'm probably most thankful for, you know, I haven't been married, I don't have kids, but I do have a lot a lot of nieces and nephews and a lot of friends with kids that call me uncle because I feel like I've crossed many people's paths in my life and I've impacted them and I've did my best to bring them up and build their confidence and believe in them when they couldn't believe in themselves. And they've done the same for me and they're always going to be family. Um, so I like to know that I can lead by example.
Oh, very good. Well, Brian, it has been a pleasure having you. Very informative conversation. Thanks for taking the time to be with us today.
Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate you bringing me on.
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