i am 61 year old retired for 3 years just starting to  learn to invest in real estate. should i take money out of my old 401k to

buy property or put in a self direct 401 to buy property?

@Chris Oconnor

If you are self-employed with no full-time w-2 employees, you can set up a Solo 401k & rollover funds from a non-Roth IRA as a tax-free direct rollover and then invest in real estate.

Solo 401k vs. Self-directed IRA

A Solo 401k has several advantages as compared to a Self-Directed IRA including the following which specifically apply to your situation:

• Unlike a Self-directed IRA, you can have the account for the Solo 401k at a bank or brokerage that does not charge maintenance fees and where you will have checkbook control.
• Unlike a Self-directed IRA, if you use leverage (which must be non-recourse financing in either case) to acquire real estate with your Solo 401k the income will not be subject to Unrelated Debt Finance Income tax

General Considerations Re Investing Retirement Funds in Real Estate:

1. If you purchase via an IRA (as opposed to a 401k), you will need to open an IRA account at a specialty trust company which allows for investments in real estate. Unless you invest via an LLCowned by the IRA, you will not have checkbook control over the funds which means you need to run transactions (e.g. income, expenses, etc.) through the trust company who will need time to process the transactions and generally charge fees for each transaction. On the other hand, keep in mind that there are costs associated with maintaining an LLC (such as the $800 annual franchise tax in California).

2. If you are self-employed with no full-time employees, you can set up a Solo 401k through a 401k provider which allows for investing in real estate. In that case, you can simply have the account at a bank or brokerage where you will have direct checkbook control.

3. In either case, all of the income and expenses will need to flow in and out of the retirement account.

4. In either case and if you will you debt to acquire the real estate, it must be non-recourse financing. See more at the following link: https://www.biggerpockets.com/blogs/9552/70408-ira... If debt-financed real estate is acquired via an IRA, any income attributable to such investment will generally be subject to unrelated debt finance income tax.

5. In either case, you can't live on the property or otherwise use it for personal use.

6. In either case, you can't work on the property as it must be a passive investment (e.g. you must hire someone to fix the toilet and can't pay the expense with non-retirement funds).

7. In either case, you must purchase/sell real estate from/to an unrelated person and the real estate can't be titled in your name personally (e.g. in the case of the 401k, it would be titled in the name of the 401k and you would sign as trustee of the 401k).

8. In either case, you should verify that you are eligible to transfer the funds from your existing retirement account (e.g. if the funds are in your current employer 401k, you will likely not be able to transfer until you quit your job). 

@Chris Oconnor

There are a lot of benefits to having a Solo 401k plan as long as you are eligible. Do you have any self-employment activity?

Another consideration is how you would like to use the property. Real estate purchased with a Solo 401k plan can generate tax deferred (or tax free) growth for the 401k. Real estate that you buy with funds that you take out of a 401k will generate income for you, but it won't have the qualified tax status of the retirement account. Many people successfully invest inside and outside of retirement accounts at the same time.

thanks for your help