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How to Use a Self-Directed IRA to Buy Rental Property in Texas | DFW Real Estate Investing Strategy

By February 16, 2026Real Estate Pros Show

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Show Summary

In this episode, Dylan Silver interviews Jennifer Vokolek, a seasoned real estate investor and realtor in the DFW area. They discuss the growth and development of the I-75 corridor, buyer demographics, and available investment opportunities. Jennifer shares strategies for building a rental portfolio, including the benefits of using IRAs for real estate investments. The conversation highlights the dynamic nature of the DFW housing market and the exciting developments occurring in the region.

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    Investor Fuel Show Transcript:

    jennifer vokolek (00:00)
    They’re not cash accessible, but they don’t know that they can use their IRA in order to actually continue to buy property or to establish a rental portfolio that someone else is reimbursing their IRA and building back the retirement monies they’ve saved for 20 years. And they have a tangible, touchable asset that is appreciating. So it’s kind of like double dipping.

    Dylan Silver (01:59)
    Hey folks, welcome back to the show. Today’s guest, Jennifer Vokolek is an investor in Realtor with Remax active since 2001 and a resident of DFW since 83 and has extensive knowledge and experience along the I-75 corridor. She has a passion for helping clients achieve lifestyle goals, financial and investment as well. You can find her at Realtor4lifedfw.com. That’s Realtor4 with a four life.

    dfw.com or on social media, Realtor for Life. Jennifer, thanks for taking the time today.

    jennifer vokolek (02:33)
    Thank you so much. I appreciate the invite.

    Dylan Silver (02:36)
    Now, when we talk about DFW real estate in general, we were talking about this for the show. There’s so many areas. mean, you really, when you say DFW Metroplex, it means so many things. You’re in the I-75 corridor. For folks who may not be familiar with exactly what that encompasses, break that down for us. What’s the I-75 corridor in DFW?

    jennifer vokolek (02:56)
    So the ICAT 75 corridor of DFW runs from downtown Dallas all the way up to the Oklahoma border. So that’s going to be, whether you look at it as Dallas, Collin, and then Grayson County or cities would be Dallas. Then people would be familiar with Highland Park, Richardson Plano, Allen McKinney, Melissa, Anna, then Alstine Howe, Sherman, and then Denison.

    Dylan Silver (03:22)
    I mean, yeah, we were talking before hopping on here that the area that you’re in, Van Alstien, is an area where there’s a lot of development happening, but not so long ago, it felt like, you know, it was really not too much out there, right?

    jennifer vokolek (03:36)
    So right now the population of Van Alstyn is sitting somewhere between 8 9,000 people and in four short years they expect that number to be over 30,000. So that is a what almost four times growth in four years.

    Dylan Silver (03:48)
    huge.

    Now, I’m not too familiar with Van Alstien, so forgive me for the level of ignorance. Right now, is there a center of town and what’s that look like at the moment?

    jennifer vokolek (04:02)
    It’s a developing ⁓ area ⁓ right now. ⁓ It’s not center in the sense of having a city hall in the middle and then ⁓ shops and restaurants built around versus having two or three streets that then have different ⁓ centers. But growth and development is happening rapid fire. There is actually in the warmer and summer months, they do a farmer’s market and concert series. There’s a

    several new restaurants that have opened including burnt by jh, which is locally sourced farm to market fine dining there is a Cocktail lounge that is that is coming to the area all of that paired alongside some long-standing traditional van al steen locations like a Royals and ⁓ Romano’s Italian and Bill Smith’s which was actually a place in

    a cafe in McKinney that then moved this direction and we’re like super grateful for all of those accentuating parts.

    Dylan Silver (05:54)
    Now, when we talk specifically about folks who are looking at that I-75 corridor, and anytime that you’re looking at the urban sprawl of DFW, it’s people wanting to maybe not pay the center of Dallas prices while still having access to Dallas. Is there, would you say, like an avatar of someone who’s purchasing along that corridor, going up a little bit further north to where you are?

    jennifer vokolek (06:13)
    Mm-hmm.

    Dylan Silver (06:24)
    Or is it really just folks who are like strictly budget focused and looking at, I just not wanted to pay this much because I know it’s going to be a little bit more cost effective further out.

    jennifer vokolek (06:34)
    ⁓ The simple answer is yes. The longer answer is as you said, you get closer to the downtown Dallas ⁓ entity, the dirt value is more expensive. So therefore the houses are more expensive. A lot of those people are not only looking at ⁓ accessibility to downtown Dallas, but also lifestyle.

    often times at a tax bracket that allows them to put their kids into private schools or the charter schools. ⁓ Highland Park ISD is a renowned top tier number one school district along the I-75 corridor, very close to SMU, but a very small footprint compared to other people and spaces and those homes are typically well in the millions. So it’s a small, small buyer poll.

    As you move farther up into Richardson, Plano, that still readily provides access for people into downtown Dallas via the dart. So they’re able to get a less expensive home, still have fantastic schools, family atmosphere, but take mass transport and take the dart rail downtown. The dart rail doesn’t go farther north. And from that standpoint,

    A lot of times people then stop looking at downtown Dallas and driving from where I am. It’s too far given the normal traffic like a rush hour traffic. The difference for me, argument’s sake, from driving from Van Alstyn to downtown Dallas without traffic is about 45 or 50 minutes. With traffic, will take an hour and half to two hours and people just don’t want to give that much of their day away. That being said, from Plano north up to Sherman, there has been an incredible

    Dylan Silver (08:18)
    Yeah.

    jennifer vokolek (08:24)
    incredible infiltration of ⁓ businesses that have reaped the rewards of Texas tax benefits. For example, AT &T is actually moving their corporate headquarters out of downtown Dallas up into the Legacy Center of Plano. And in Sherman, you’re going to have the semiconductor that’s going to open. So you’ve got a lot of tech people and a lot of retail people that are now looking at, okay, I want to be up in these areas. ⁓

    Frisco, while not along the I-75 corridor, is often coupled with ⁓ Allen, McKinney, ⁓ Melissa. And that’s considered to be Sportstown, USA with, you know, Texas Rangers and Stars and what. So it depends on lifestyle ⁓ on top of budget for where people are looking as it retains to the Metroplex.

    Dylan Silver (09:17)
    Right.

    Now, for investors specifically, single family investors, there is, of course, opportunity all throughout DFW, all throughout Texas, really. But when you’re specifically about that corridor leading up to Oklahoma, it does feel like it’s just going to be one straight shot almost, and that there’s just going to be cities, small towns and larger towns popping up along that route. And so it’s providing ⁓

    jennifer vokolek (09:21)
    Yeah.

    Dylan Silver (09:45)
    really an opportunity for investors to develop, for investors to flip homes when possible. I know that that’s maybe a little bit trickier now than it was five or six years ago. In your experience working with single family investors, are they seeing that opportunity as well to develop along that

    jennifer vokolek (09:55)
    Yes.

    Absolutely. are ⁓ not, as you said, as much with flipping. The margins just aren’t as great versus purchase and hold. And one of the things, because these northern areas are less expensive, it’s allowing even first-time buyers to get into the market with specific intent of doing what I call a leapfrog. So they’ll buy a first house.

    owner occupied, don’t require 20 % down. They’ll be able to do it. In Anna, for example, they qualify for USDA financing, which is 100 % financing with a 2 % funding fee. So somebody can get into the house with virtually nothing, then move on to another property, again, use owner occupied financing, if they qualify for both and keep the first one and put a tenant in and let somebody else build their wealth.

    Dylan Silver (11:35)
    Yeah, that’s huge. I would say that strategy would you would you I guess not compare but but would you see that there’s folks who are doing that who might also be looking at like house hacking with like a duplex, triplex aquaplex, that type of thing.

    jennifer vokolek (11:36)
    Mm-hmm.

    Not so much where we are because you’re going to have multi-family ⁓ units more available downtown where that land is too expensive to do that. ⁓ Particularly when you’re talking about first-time home buyers that have specific intent of turning that property into an investment. I’ve very recently had ⁓ some guys that they’re friends, they got sick of paying rent.

    and they decided what they wanted to do was exactly what you’re saying. Buy a duplex, they were gonna live on one side and then have somebody living on the other. Cut to they’re looking in this Anaheim, Van Alsteen, Sherman area and they’re only qualified up to 275,000, which is not a lot.

    Dylan Silver (12:42)
    Yeah, you know, and that can change, you know, which type of deals that you’re looking at. You know, one of the things pivoting

    jennifer vokolek (12:47)
    Well, and what

    we, I’m sorry, what we found very quickly, unfortunately, is that when we were looking at properties at Tuesday, they existed for duplexes, but they were in areas and condition that I flat out told the guys, your parents will kill me if I sell this to you. And they wound up buying a single family brand new house for the same price.

    Dylan Silver (13:08)
    Yeah, and that’s what I was gonna mention, you with the price of some of these new builds, it’s remarkable, right? And going back to, you know, why some of these other strategies may be trickier, it’s, well, you can’t flip a home for 250, 260 if there’s new homes that are that price or maybe, you know, $15,000 more, because a buyer is gonna come and say, well, if I’m paying that much money, I might as well pay 10 grand more or the same amount for a brand new home.

    jennifer vokolek (13:13)
    Mm-hmm.

    Correct. Correct. And if you’re buying a house that when you renovate and are ready to flip it’s between that $250 and $300 mark, well the as-is value at purchase had to have been under or close to $100,000 and you and I both know that that’s a tear down, not a flip.

    Dylan Silver (13:53)
    I’ve seen a lot of people try to cowboy it up and try to make those things happen. And you know, that’s one of the tricky things about being an investor, right? Is you’ve got to find these deals that underwrite and oftentimes too, you have to be able to pivot from one strategy to another. So if fix and flip was, you know, your bread and butter, you might be looking now, although I’ve heard, you know, things are changing, but you might be having to look more at, hey, I’m going to do buy and hold strategy or hey, you know, I may have to pivot to a different asset class entirely. I know that you have

    jennifer vokolek (13:58)
    He

    Yes.

    Dylan Silver (14:23)
    a rental portfolio. For folks who are looking at establishing a rental portfolio in DFW or even along that I-75 corridor, do you have any general feedback for them as far as best practices so that they set up their business for success not just this year, next year, but 10 years down the line?

    jennifer vokolek (14:25)
    Yes.

    lot of it depends on who the buyer is and what their level of pain willingness is and I say that you know ⁓ because that’s also going to depend upon whether or not I suggest to somebody that they look at an older house ⁓ either with minor repairs and updates to be done to ⁓ tap into maybe a market that is more ⁓ verified.

    verified is probably a good word versus some of these very small communities that are still establishing. ⁓ What I have particularly encouraged a lot of buyers as of late and most of my investor buyers are from the swing ends. Most of the middle age like 30, 40s, they’re too busy honestly at soccer club.

    Whereas your young folks out of college are going, want to buy a house and I want to like try and move my portfolios forward. They don’t have the money for repairs, much less a flip. They don’t have the, the credit in order to even get the hard money to do that. So a new construction, ⁓ house allows them to know that they’re at least looking at one to 10 warranties or one to six, depending upon the builder.

    without having major repairing concern. On the other side of that are people that are now rapid fired. The unfortunate reality is that we have a huge population in the United States of divorcees and they are looking at, my husband and I are in the same boat, they are looking at what their retirement plan had been and it kind of got split up and now they’re trying to rapid fire figure out how do I still retire at the same time and plan. ⁓ And they’re not

    They’re not cash accessible, but they don’t know that they can use their IRA in order to actually continue to buy property or to establish a rental portfolio that someone else is reimbursing their IRA and building back the retirement monies they’ve saved for 20 years. And they have a tangible, touchable asset that is appreciating. So it’s kind of like double dipping.

    And for those…

    Dylan Silver (17:46)
    Yeah, I mean, that’s

    that’s huge. The IRA and using that for real estate is huge. And you pointed out something that I haven’t heard other people mention, which is, you know, the rental income reimburses that. So it’s not like you’re just taking it out and, you know, losing completely or in your mind, you might be thinking, well, I don’t want to take this out early because I’m going to be not being able to see the top value of my my IRA. Of course, when you go to

    sell that property, you’re going to get those benefits. But then also too, you’re getting the rental income ⁓ yearly until you decide to sell the property.

    jennifer vokolek (18:22)
    What works a little bit, ⁓ so because the IRA is, you’re purchasing the house with the IRA, the tenant is then paying back the IRA. And so you can’t technically touch the money again until you’re 59 and a half, but 59 and a half comes pretty darn quick and you couldn’t touch the money before 59 and a half anyway. So you’re not changing your,

    Dylan Silver (18:30)
    Right.

    jennifer vokolek (18:48)
    household expenses or budget when you’re 40, 45, 50, you’re just planning for that expansion of what was there based on both the IRA being rebuilt, and there’s no tax penalty for withdrawing that money from your IRA to buy the property owned by the IRA. So there’s not a financial disadvantage to it.

    also have to send a check to Uncle Sam for early withdrawal. That’s not how it works.

    Dylan Silver (19:22)
    Now,

    if you have a traditional IRA, do you have to like redesignate it in some way in order to make that

    jennifer vokolek (19:28)
    You transfer it to a trust company that specifically manages self-directed IRAs. so it’s kind of, in many ways it works ⁓ like when people do 1031 exchanges where they sell one investment property, then there’s a whole ⁓ holding company for up to typically 45 days. And then you transfer that money to the purchase of a new investment property. There’s no tax.

    disadvantage because you never touched the funds. It’s the same thing with the self-directed IRA. You never touch the funds. So the tenant doesn’t pay you, the tenant pays the IRA. When there are repairs to be done, the IRA pays the repairs. When the taxes come due, the IRA pays the taxes.

    Dylan Silver (20:00)
    Right.

    tax.

    Yeah, that’s a huge for breaking that down fo and think a lot of peop not understand exa that I might be thinking, greater risk. But no, I mean the money if it’s in the

    In another case, it’s staying in the IRA. So it’s a great fit for a lot of people. We are coming up on time here though, Jennifer. Any new projects that you’re working on and then also too, what’s the best way for folks to get in contact with you?

    jennifer vokolek (20:51)
    So probably the best way to get a hold of me is by phone or text, which I check at, I’m attached to my phone, like most realtors are. And so phone call, text, carrier, pigeon, 214-727-1980 is going to be the fastest, best way to get a hold of me. But probably the biggest number one thing I’m working on right now is I’ve always been very fortunate

    ⁓ to be working in a referral platform and and have my business is about you know i would say ninety five ninety seven percent i know you because of somebody else not you know from you just found me on the internet and so right now the biggest thing i’m working on is all of those people that are coming out of the woodwork and we’ve got so many listings coming online right now all the way up and down the seventy i seventy five quarter at varying price points

    to really accommodate those people that are new to the Metroplex. And I am just ecstatic to see all the growth and development and to help people get to know the area that I love.

    Dylan Silver (21:57)
    Jennifer, thank you so much for coming on the show today. Thanks for your time.

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