Unlocking What’s Sitting in Plain Sight: A Conversation with Ramez on Self-Directed IRAs

Happy to have you back, friends. It was a breezy day in Boise when I hit “record,” and on the other end of the line was a very warm (110°!) Chicago afternoon. My guest, Ramez, was doing what so many of us do as entrepreneurs and investors—showing up anyway. AC on the fritz? He still brought the heat—in the best way.

I invited Ramez on because I keep meeting people with retirement dollars just sitting in traditional accounts. Great intention, not-so-great utilization. And if you know me, you know where my mind goes: “How can we put those dollars to work inside real estate?”

A Sommelier, a Parking Spot, and a Pivot

Before we dove into strategy, Ramez told me the story of how he landed in the self-directed IRA world. It wasn’t a straight line. He grew up around hospitality and real estate (his family’s heritage, Lebanese and Jordanian, is big on people and property). He’s actually a trained sommelier who opened wine bars. Then—cue the plot twist—he started dating someone who worked at the IRA Club. One Vegas conference later, he sat in on a talk by their founder, Dennis Blitz, and something clicked.

He went home, looked at his small 401(k), and—after reading and watching everything he could find—moved the funds into a Roth IRA and bought… a parking spot. Not a condo. Not a duplex. One revenue-generating sliver of downtown Chicago near Millennium Park where parking is gold. He still laughs when he tells it. Today, he owns seven of those little cash machines. (And the girl? She became his wife.)

“Self-directed is just our industry’s word for control.”

That line stuck with me. Because underneath the acronyms and account types, this is what most of us want: Agency.

👉 Do you want to understand how self-directed IRAs can be put to work for you? Tune in to Episode 27 of the Idaho Real Estate Investing Show and join us for Idaho REICon on October 10th!