Investment strategy for SD Roth IRA

[Jerry Jones]

I remember I saw a topic like" What would you do with $50K IRA account" started by Josh, but could not find it anymore.

I am thinking about rolling over my old not performing 401K into a Roth IRA for a better return and diversify. Ideally I want to be a passive investor for this account. What options do I have and what's the expected return for each option?
Here is what I got right now:
1. work as private lender. There are some government contract project which offers 17.88% rate with $50K minimum investment.
2. buy tax lien using some tax lien investing company. I was recommended the company called pip-west, which focuses on the tax lien in Illionous and claimesa 24%~36% return but they charge 6% setup fee at beginning and 2% continuous fee for all the investment fund.

Is there any other reputable tax-lien company with lower fees?

Also, is there any other/better options availble?

Thanks very much for your feedback

Jerry

[Jason Hartman]

I invested a significant amount of money with PIP West (Don Fullman and Charles Sells) and had a bad experience. As I see it, it's a long story but the end goes something like this...

In the beginning stages it seemed to work for awhile, maybe two years or so, where I invested and got some checks back; however, it was a disaster the end.

Here's the most blatant part, I gave them and their lawyer $17,500 to foreclose on 10 properties. They told me I had to wait about two years before I would know the status. When I didn't hear a thing from them for a long time, I tried to reach PIP West (Don Fullman and Charles Sells) via repeated phone and email to no avail. After numerous attempts, I was finally successful (calling from a number unknown to them) but they basically told me that I had lost all my money, and lost the opportunity to foreclose on the 10 properties (a loss of the substantial profits they projected), even though I paid them $17,500 for this and they, as my agent, were supposed to be managing it with a fiduciary responsibility to me.

When I asked a few simple and polite questions via e-mail, Charles Sells told me I had to deal with their lawyer who did not respond until my lawyer got involved. After several go arounds and a lot of wasted time/money, their lawyer was essentially non-responsive to the actual issues at hand.

As it turns out, the lawyer they referred their foreclosures said he doesn't do business with them anymore - I wonder why???

Also, they have a very tricky contract/arrangement as Don Fullman lives in and dealt with me in Orange County, California but Charles Sells lives in South Carolina while their contract calls for arbitration in Georgia - totally weird and leaving no good recourse.

There's more to it, but that's the basic outline from my, and my lawyer's perspective. Did I get ripped off?

@Shera Gregory @Vania Castillo