Incorporating a foreign-based real estate property into your self-directed IRA real estate portfolio is a transaction allowed by the Internal Revenue Service that is to say they don't disallow IRA investments in real estate as long as you are properly set up with a self directed IRA company. The reason not many people have done it is (a) they are not that interested in investing in other countries for lack of information about that countrys economic and political climate, (b) a significant number of IRA advisers do not recommend it because of the visibility argument, (c) custodial rules do not compel IRA trustees and custodians to offer foreign real estate as an investment option.

The opportunity to optimize measures for wealth accumulation and enhancement may be jeopardized if retirees and would-be retirees do not look beyond geographical borders to include a foreign property into their self-directed IRA real estate holdings. They fail to see how a self-directed IRA real estate account can offer a wider-based global area for foreign real estate. There are pockets and clusters of geographical entities worldwide Europe (both eastern and western), Asia, some Arab countries (Dubai is a shining example), and the Asia Pacific regions where real estate property investing is going at a feverish pace.

Woe to the self-directed IRA real estate adviser or trustee who does not have the foresight to investigate real estate overseas to further the interests and well-being of their clients. A world of difference can set an IRA adviser apart from others who are too parochial in their thinking and carry around a small town mentality. Since the self-directed IRA real estate account does not prohibit the acquisition of foreign-based real estate, why deprive clients of the possibility of building their assets with lucrative options outside North America? This is what the self-directed component means in the self-directed IRA real estate account. Clients have carte blanche to look into other investment possibilities. Millions of Europeans have, for a long time, looked outside their own borders, scooping up ski resorts in places like Spain and Portugal, Bulgaria, and Costa Rica. These countries have become so popular among foreign investors that properties have increased in value tremendously. Real estate developers and promoters are now on a scavengers hunt in less well-known countries so they can offer projects to interested investors.