Custodian Checklist Before a Self-Directed IRA Loan

The lender can be ready in 7–10 business days. The custodian might still be reading the note. On a self-directed IRA purchase, the closing date is whichever of those two is slower. Most missed contracts blame the lender. On these files the custodian’s wire desk and document review are just as likely to be the constraint.

Confirm the items below before you submit a scenario and before you write an offer. Loan structure: hard money for a self-directed IRA. Cash you must already have in the account: how much the IRA needs to close.

Confirm the custodian can hold this asset

A brokerage IRA that buys mutual funds will not take title to a house. You need a custodian whose account agreement allows real estate. Ask, in writing, for a yes on this specific plan: a non-recourse hard money loan, third-party rehab, and a sale or payoff inside the account.

Useful questions:

• Do you allow investment real estate, including property that will be renovated and sold?
• Do you allow the account to be the borrower on a non-recourse note?
• Will you review the lender’s documents, and how many business days does that review take?
• What vesting line do you require on title?
• What is the fee to buy, hold, and sell a property?
• Have you closed with a hard money lender before, or will this be the first file their staff has seen?

A slow “we think so” is not a vesting instruction. If the custodian cannot name the grantee clause, you are not ready to offer.

Pick the vesting path before the contract

Two structures show up on IRA real estate. They change who signs and how fast expenses move. They do not change the non-recourse rule or the ban on personal guarantees.

Custodian-held title. The deed names the custodian, for the benefit of your IRA. The custodian signs the note, the mortgage, and the disbursement approvals. Every bill goes through their process. That review is the price of having them on title.

IRA-owned LLC. The IRA owns the LLC. The LLC holds title and may sign as borrower if the lender and the custodian both accept that. People call this checkbook control because operating expenses can move from the LLC account without a custodian click on every invoice. The dollars are still IRA dollars. You still cannot guarantee the debt, live in the property, or do the rehab yourself. Wrapper tradeoffs, including land trusts, are on land trust vs LLC vs IRA.

Tell the lender which path you are using when you apply. A note drafted to an individual, or to a personal LLC that is not owned by the IRA, will get rejected by the custodian after you have already spent the inspection period.

Earnest money is a custodian wire

The deposit leaves the IRA. Your personal check is the wrong instrument even if you are “good for it.” Ask the custodian:

• How you request a wire, and whether a form must be wet-signed or notarized
• The cutoff time and the number of business days after they accept the request
• Whether they will wire a title company they have not used before
• What they need to see (contract, direction of investment, wiring instructions on title letterhead)

If they need four business days and your offer gives the seller two days to receive earnest money, rewrite the offer. Do not cover the deposit yourself and “journal it” later. That personal advance is an extension of credit to the plan. The IRS categories are listed under prohibited transactions. The fact pattern is spelled out in moves that disqualify the account.

Who signs, and who must not sign

Get the signature block in email from the custodian or from the LLC’s operating agreement before the lender sends documents. On a custodian-held deal, a trust officer or authorized signer executes. On an IRA-owned LLC, the manager executes for the company. You may be that manager. You still do not sign a personal guaranty next to the company signature.

Send the lender:

• The exact vesting name
• The signer and their title
• Whether the custodian requires their own form of direction-of-investment letter
• Any ban on recourse language they want in the note

Jaken Finance Group will underwrite the asset and coordinate with that custodian. We cannot make a brokerage custodian accept real estate, and we cannot make a prohibited guaranty acceptable by relabeling it. If the draft note still has you as guarantor, stop. Read why the guarantee disqualifies the account before anyone initials that page.

Documents to have in one folder

Lenders and custodians ask for overlapping sets. Collect them once.

• Latest IRA statement showing cash for equity, fees, carry, and rehab
• Custodian written confirmation that real estate and non-recourse debt are allowed
• Proposed vesting line and signer
• Purchase contract in the custodian’s or LLC’s name, or a clear plan to assign that counsel has approved
• Photo set, sold comps, and a rehab budget from an unrelated contractor
• Insurance broker who can bind a policy in the IRA or LLC name, with a mortgagee clause
• Title company that has closed IRA deals, not a consumer desk learning the vesting line at the table
• ID and formation documents for an IRA-owned LLC, if that is the path, including the operating agreement and EIN

Missing the title company’s IRA experience is how a lender-ready file becomes a three-week seminar for the closer. Ask the closer how many custodian deeds they have recorded. A confident guess is not a number.

Match the two calendars

Put both timelines on one page.

Clock	What it controls	Typical pace
Lender	Appraisal or valuation, term sheet, clear to close	7–10 business days on a complete hard money file
Custodian	Earnest money, document review, authorized signature	Whatever their service agreement says — often longer
Contract	Inspection, financing, and closing date	Whatever you negotiated

The financing contingency has to cover the slower clock. Promising a 10-day close because hard money “can” close in 7–10 business days ignores the custodian. Qualified files at Jaken Finance Group are priced at 8.99%–13.5% interest-only, with flip terms of 6–12 months. Speed on the rate sheet is not speed at the custodian’s funding desk.

Bridge timing is looser on the hold, 12–24 months in the same rate band, and just as strict on who signs at closing. A bridge inside the IRA is still not a setup for a DSCR refinance in the account. Rental loans at 5.75%–10.5% vest in an LLC outside the IRA.

Apply after the custodian has said yes

Submitting a scenario before the custodian confirms vesting wastes the first review cycle. We will ask who holds title. If you do not know yet, the file pauses.

When you do know, go to what’s the deal you’re working on.

• IRA is buying and renovating: Fund my fix & flip or fix & hold
• IRA is buying or bridging a close without that rehab: Buy a property or bridge a close

Do not start on Cash out or refinance a deal or Tap equity with a HELOC. Those cards are the wrong product for property owned by the retirement account. Call (833) 264-7776 with the custodian’s vesting line in front of you if you want to confirm the card before you upload the contract.

Get the signer and the wire path first

A term sheet that the custodian will not sign is not a closing plan. Lock vesting, the earnest-money process, and the signature block, then choose the flip card or the purchase card on the deal menu.

Rates, terms and conditions offered only to qualified borrowers and are subject to change at any time without notice. Closing times are in business days and commence upon receipt of appraisal payment and satisfaction of borrower conditions. Closing times may be delayed due to appraiser property access. All loans are subject to full underwriting for loan approvals. Jaken Finance Group only finances non-owner occupied investment properties. This article is not tax, legal, or investment advice.

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Jaken Finance Group, 2300 Barrington Road, Suite 400, Hoffman Estates, IL 60196