The Alternative Investing Advantage

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230

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Oct 2026

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Get off Wall Street and explore the wide world of alternative investments for your IRA. Take control and give yourself the freedom to choose the assets for your retirement plan, assets like real estate, cryptocurrency, private placements, and much more. Our podcast features Advanta IRA professionals and guest experts who help provide a roadmap to your success with investment trends, strategies, and tips for investing your IRA to build wealth for your future.

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October 22, 202656 min

From Engineer to Hard Money Lender: Harley Green's Journey - Episode 233

Harley Green, CEO of InvestAway, learned how to become a hard money lender by rolling his 401(k) into a self-directed IRA and funding fix-and-flip deals in a market he knew. He left a 15-year career in computer engineering to do it. On this episode of the Alternative Investing Advantage, host Alex Perny talks with Harley about funding loans with his own capital, letting investors co-lend, and running the business with AI from anywhere in the world. Key Points: - Harley shows how to become a hard money lender by starting with SDIRA funds and lending in a market you know well. - InvestAway funds every loan with its own capital first, which lets it underwrite in hours and stay in control of its terms. - Investors can co-lend by taking an assigned share of a loan that's already funded, title insured, and in active servicing. - Early lessons include having a private lending law firm draft loan documents, avoiding second-position notes, and checking for arm's-length transactions. - An AI agent working alongside virtual assistants now handles underwriting checks and draw requests, cutting each draw review to under 20 minutes. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 02:27 From engineer to lender 05:58 Speed and certainty 10:03 Early lending lessons 14:26 The co-lending model 18:55 Extension fees 23:30 Lending as a virtual lender 26:16 Building systems with AI 29:51 Interest reserves and title checks 41:53 AI and draw requests 46:00 Running the business remotely 51:56 Training virtual assistants 55:01 How to connect with Harley Subscribe to our YouTube channel and join our growing community for new videos every week. If you are interested in being a podcast guest speaker or have questions, contact us at Podcast@AdvantaIRA.com. Learn more about our guest, Harley Green: https://investaway.co/ Learn more about Advanta IRA: https://www.AdvantaIRA.com/ https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/advanta-ira https://www.linkedin.com/company/Advanta-IRA/ https://twitter.com/AdvantaIRA https://www.facebook.com/AdvantaIRA/ https://www.instagram.com/AdvantaIRA/ #HardMoneyLending #SelfDirectedIRA

October 15, 20261 hr 3 min

Impact Investing in Action: How a Vegan ETF Excludes Animal Exploitation - Episode 232 w/ Claire Smith

Impact investing lets investors put their capital behind their values, and Claire Smith has built a vegan investment platform around that idea. Claire is the founder and CEO of Beyond Investing and its venture arm, Beyond Impact. She joins Alternative Investing Advantage host Alex Perny to explain how her ETF screens out animal exploitation and where her venture fund invests. Key Points: - Impact investing began mostly as microfinance, and Claire says most impact funds before about 2012 lent small amounts to entrepreneurs in developing markets. - Beyond Investing's ETF screens out any company with evidence of animal exploitation, along with fossil fuels, weapons, tobacco, and human rights abuses. - About half the stock market fails that screen, so the ETF holds no energy stocks and adds mid-caps to fill underweight sectors. - The ETF sold Apple over leather watch bands and bought back in once Apple stopped using leather. - On the venture side, Claire backs companies that replace animal inputs in nutrition, ingredients, pharmaceuticals, and materials. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 01:33 Claire's path to vegan investing 05:04 How impact investing began 08:43 Why animal welfare 12:13 A public ETF and a venture fund 17:35 Divestment and cost of capital 23:43 The animal exploitation screen 29:55 Exclusion vs. inclusion 35:28 Selling and rebuying Apple 41:37 Venture fund focus areas 47:24 Cultivated meat and fermentation 55:58 Producing ingredients locally 01:00:41 Connect with Claire Smith Subscribe to our YouTube channel and join our growing community for new videos every week. If you are interested in being a podcast guest speaker or have questions, contact us at Podcast@AdvantaIRA.com. Learn more about our guest, Claire Smith: https://beyondinvesting.com/ Learn more about Advanta IRA: https://www.AdvantaIRA.com/ https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/advanta-ira https://www.linkedin.com/company/Advanta-IRA/ https://twitter.com/AdvantaIRA https://www.facebook.com/AdvantaIRA/ https://www.instagram.com/AdvantaIRA/ #ImpactInvesting #SelfDirectedIRA #VeganInvesting

October 7, 202651 min

Credit-Linked Notes: How Businesses Raise Capital on European Exchanges - Episode 231 w/ Taimour Zaman

Credit-linked notes let an operator raise project capital on European exchanges, and Taimour Zaman has worked in structured finance since 2014. Taimour is the founder of AltFunds Global, a financial advisory firm based in Canada and Switzerland. He joins Alternative Investing Advantage host Alex Perny to explain how these notes are structured, how they get underwritten, and which projects they fit. Key Points: - A credit-linked note works like a bond backed by an operator's assets. It lists on a European exchange, where investors can buy in and later sell without ever contacting the operator. - The borrower sets the terms. A note can be 100 percent debt, 100 percent equity, or debt that converts to equity. - Less collateral generally means a higher rate. Taimour says an insurance wrap can lower investor risk and, with it, the rate an issuer may need to offer. - An investment bank underwrites and rates every issuance. Before it signs off, the bank has to be clear on when investors get their capital back. - The model fits experienced operators raising $5 million or more. Taimour puts the sweet spot for small business owners at roughly $5 million to $60 million. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 02:37 From real estate investing to alternative financing 08:05 Revenue-based financing and funding structures by region 11:05 What a credit-linked note is 12:20 A real estate developer's funding gap 18:08 How investors buy and sell credit-linked notes 22:06 Collateral, interest rates, and investor risk 25:25 Credit ratings and launch timelines 29:41 How credit-linked notes get underwritten 35:47 How the bond market affects pricing 38:55 Open-ended notes and the secondary market 42:58 How investors are repaid at maturity 46:26 What size raise fits a credit-linked note 49:57 How to connect with Taimour Zaman Subscribe to our YouTube channel and join our growing community for new videos every week. If you are interested in being a podcast guest speaker or have questions, contact us at Podcast@AdvantaIRA.com. Learn more about our guest, Taimour Zaman: https://altfundsglobal.com/ Learn more about Advanta IRA: https://www.AdvantaIRA.com/ https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/advanta-ira https://www.linkedin.com/company/Advanta-IRA/ https://twitter.com/AdvantaIRA https://www.facebook.com/AdvantaIRA/ https://www.instagram.com/AdvantaIRA/ #CreditLinkedNotes #SelfDirectedIRA #RaisingCapital

September 30, 202648 min

Learn How to Invest in Pre-IPO Companies - Episode 230 w/ Harvey Kesner

Pre-IPO investing has long depended on knowing the right person at the right time. In this episode of the Alternative Investing Advantage, host Alex Perny talks with Harvey Kesner, Chairman, President, and Co-Founder of EquiDeFi, about how technology is making private placements easier to find and complete. Harvey draws on a career that started with reviewing IPOs at the SEC to explain what changed under the JOBS Act and what still stands in the way. Key Points: • The JOBS Act allowed general solicitation for private placements for the first time. Under Regulation D Rule 506(c), issuers can publicly advertise offerings as long as each investor's accredited status is verified with documents such as tax returns or brokerage statements. • Paperwork has been the biggest bottleneck in pre-IPO investing. Every 506(c) investor signs a separate subscription agreement, so EquiDeFi combines verification, digital signatures, and payment options into a process that investors can finish in about 10 to 15 minutes. • Electronic ownership records are safer than paper stock certificates. Harvey recommends issuers bring on an SEC-registered transfer agent early so ownership stays clean and shares can move into a brokerage account if the company goes public. • Due diligence falls largely on the investor. Reg D offerings to accredited investors have no SEC-mandated disclosure requirements, so a thorough private placement memorandum and a diversified approach both matter, since any private investment can lose its full value. • Retirement account investors face their own paperwork questions. Many self-directed IRA owners aren't sure who signs subscription documents, and EquiDeFi is working to automate that onboarding step for retirement funds. Chapters: 00:00 Why pre-IPO investing has been hard to access 01:58 Harvey Kesner's path from the SEC to EquiDeFi 07:56 How the JOBS Act changed private placements 14:22 Stock certificates and SEC-registered transfer agents 23:46 Self-directed IRAs and private placement paperwork 26:56 Disclosure requirements for Reg D offerings 32:26 The investor journey on the EquiDeFi platform 42:22 What's next for EquiDeFi Subscribe to our YouTube channel and join our growing community for new videos every week. If you are interested in being a podcast guest speaker or have questions, contact us at Podcast@AdvantaIRA.com. Learn more about our guest, Harvey Kesner: https://equidefi.com/ Learn more about Advanta IRA: https://www.AdvantaIRA.com/ https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/advanta-ira https://www.linkedin.com/company/Advanta-IRA/ https://twitter.com/AdvantaIRA https://www.facebook.com/AdvantaIRA/ https://www.instagram.com/AdvantaIRA/ #PreIPOInvesting #PrivatePlacements

September 23, 202656 min

Mortgage Note Investing: Buying the Debt Instead of the House - Episode 229 w/ Jamie Bateman

Mortgage note investing means buying the loan instead of the property, and Jamie Bateman has been doing it since 2018. Jamie is the founder of Labrador Lending and a former Department of Defense employee who started with rentals in 2010. He joins Alternative Investing Advantage host Alex Perny to explain how notes are bought at a discount, how a defaulted loan gets worked out, and where investors actually lose money in this space. Key Points: - Notes almost always trade below the principal balance. Jamie says a performing $100,000 note might cost around $90,000, so he is owed more than he paid from day one. - There are three exits on a nonperforming note. Through the property, through the borrower, or by selling the note to another investor. - A modification can raise principal without raising the monthly payment. That keeps the loan out of full underwriting and makes the note worth more. - Coupon rate determines flexibility. Jamie avoids notes under 7 percent because a low rate leaves no room to lower it in a workout. - Misjudging the property is the biggest risk. He lost $100,000 on a note where the house looked fine outside and needed $120,000 of work. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction to the debt side of real estate 02:08 From a Department of Defense job to real estate investing 06:37 Why he moved from rentals to mortgage notes 13:02 Buying notes at a discount on the secondary market 17:53 Originating loans versus buying existing debt 21:28 The three ways to exit a nonperforming note 28:31 How loan modifications actually work 31:22 Where the inventory comes from 35:12 Why capital, not deal flow, is the constraint 39:47 How the fund is structured 44:44 Why leverage matters for self-directed accounts 49:39 What happens when a fund takes a property back 53:51 The biggest way to lose money on a note 55:14 How to connect with Jamie Bateman Subscribe to our YouTube channel and join our growing community for new videos every week. If you are interested in being a podcast guest speaker or have questions, contact us at Podcast@AdvantaIRA.com. Learn more about our guest, Jamie Bateman: https://labradorlending.com/ Learn more about Advanta IRA: https://www.AdvantaIRA.com/ https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/advanta-ira https://www.linkedin.com/company/Advanta-IRA/ https://twitter.com/AdvantaIRA https://www.facebook.com/AdvantaIRA/ https://www.instagram.com/AdvantaIRA/ #MortgageNotes #SelfDirectedIRA

September 16, 202648 min

Land Banking: How Investors Buy Land Ahead of Development - Episode 228 w/ Marcella Silva

Land banking means owning the ground before development reaches it, and Marcella Silva has spent nearly two decades doing exactly that. A former software engineer at a national laboratory, Marcella rolled over her 401(k) into a self-directed IRA and bought her first parcel in early 2008. She joins the Alternative Investing Advantage podcast, with host Alex Perny, to explain how the strategy works, what qualifies an area, and why she treats it as very different from raw land investing. Key Points: - Land banking means buying predeveloped land in the path of growth. - Marcella separates it from raw land investing, which she calls far riskier without research. - She looks for multiple economic trends, not one. A single driver, like entertainment, in Las Vegas leaves the area exposed in any downturn. - California's green mandate drives her current focus. State law requires 100 percent alternative energy by 2045, which she says is creating enormous demand for land. - Infrastructure comes before the parcel. She tracks where utilities are investing in high-tension power lines, since land without grid access cannot transmit energy. - Protected land is an automatic no. Williamson Act farmland in the Central Valley is off limits, and she avoids parcels within a mile of it. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction: land banking and raw land investing 02:00 From software engineer to land banking 05:28 What land banking actually means 07:49 How to identify the path of growth 12:36 Why she only invests in California 17:15 Ports, manufacturing, and industrial demand 22:02 What a land banking parcel looks like 25:48 Green energy and the new land rush 28:56 Solar, battery storage, and green hydrogen 32:13 Power lines, protected land, and what to avoid 41:44 Where to start and what makes land risky 46:23 How to connect with Marcella Silva Subscribe to our YouTube channel and join our growing community for new videos every week. If you are interested in being a podcast guest speaker or have questions, contact us at Podcast@AdvantaIRA.com. Learn more about our guest, Marcella Silva: https://dirtisgold.com/ Learn more about Advanta IRA: https://www.AdvantaIRA.com/ https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/advanta-ira https://www.linkedin.com/company/Advanta-IRA/ https://twitter.com/AdvantaIRA https://www.facebook.com/AdvantaIRA/ https://www.instagram.com/AdvantaIRA/ #LandBanking #SelfDirectedIRA #RealEstateInvesting

September 9, 202652 min

Real Estate Debt Funds: How Fix and Flip Lending Actually Works - Episode 227 w/ Brandon Rickman

Real estate debt funds sit on the other side of every fix and flip, and Brandon Rickman has worked both sides. Brandon and his wife flipped between 500 and 600 houses in metro Atlanta before he co-founded ProLend Capital four years ago. He joins Alternative Investing Advantage host Alex Perny to explain how these loans are underwritten, how draw schedules work, and what an investor should ask before investing in a fund. Key Points: - He switched sides for economics. Brandon says his flips grossed 20 to 25 percent but netted closer to 9 percent after the work. - Borrowers fall into three buckets. Institutional banks underwrite the person, while hard money and private lenders underwrite the property. - His fund never lends above 70 percent of the value. That leaves at least 30 percent equity if a property has to be taken back. - Rehab money sits in escrow and is released on inspection. Finish half the flooring, and you get half that drawer, not all of it. - Leverage inside a fund matters for retirement accounts. Brandon confirms his fund uses none, which Alex ties to tax treatment for IRA investors. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction: real estate debt and fix and flip lending 02:40 From 600 house flips to running a debt fund 06:16 Why he moved from flipping to lending 09:59 The deal that tied up his capital for two years 16:56 Institutional, hard money, and private lending compared 23:09 Why the fund focuses on fix and flip over DSCR 26:11 How a fix-and-flip loan gets underwritten 32:06 How draw loans work and what triggers a release 37:13 Loan terms, points, and interest 43:04 How investors participate in a debt fund 48:34 Why leverage matters for IRA investors 50:46 How to connect with Brandon Rickman Subscribe to our YouTube channel and join our growing community for new videos every week. If you are interested in being a podcast guest speaker or have questions, contact us at Podcast@AdvantaIRA.com. Learn more about our guest, Brandon Rickman: https://prolendcapital.com/ Learn more about Advanta IRA: https://www.AdvantaIRA.com/ https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/advanta-ira https://www.linkedin.com/company/Advanta-IRA/ https://twitter.com/AdvantaIRA https://www.facebook.com/AdvantaIRA/ https://www.instagram.com/AdvantaIRA/ #RealEstateDebt #SelfDirectedIRA #FixAndFlip

September 2, 202650 min

Agriculture Technology Investing and the Fourth Revolution - Episode 226 w/ Chris Rawley

Agricultural technology is undergoing what Chris Rawley calls a fourth revolution, and he has spent a decade funding the companies behind it. Chris is the founder and CEO of Harvest Returns, a platform that raises capital for farms and agribusinesses. He joins Alternative Investing Advantage host Alex Perny to explain what precision tools, robotics, and biologics are actually solving, and where an investor can take a position. Key Points: - Agriculture is in its fourth technology revolution. Steam tractors, then synthetic chemicals, then GPS, and now precision tools and robotics. - The farm credit system barely fits specialty crops or livestock. Chris says it has hardly changed in six decades. Adoption is the bottleneck, not invention. Chris estimates a ten-year lead time and calls ranchers three times more conservative. Robots now weed by machine vision. Some yank the weed, others zap it with a laser, and others kill it with steam. Financing risk worries him most. Early rounds are raised on a promise and later rounds on performance, so stalled companies run out of cash. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction: technology in agriculture investing 01:38 How Chris Rawley started Harvest Returns 03:10 The four revolutions in agricultural technology 10:01 Why the farm credit system leaves growers behind 14:39 Cash flow deals versus early-stage growth 17:17 Precision agriculture, Starlink, and slow adoption 25:53 Consumer demand and the margins farmers live on 29:40 Cattle technology and the cost of beef 33:41 Robots that pull, zap, and steam weeds 37:12 How Harvest Returns finds and structures deals 43:13 The number one risk in early-stage agriculture technology 46:14 Where Chris is bullish and where he is not 49:07 How to connect with Chris Rawley Subscribe to our YouTube channel and join our growing community for new videos every week. If you are interested in being a podcast guest speaker or have questions, contact us at Podcast@AdvantaIRA.com. Learn more about our guest, Chris Rawley: https://www.harvestreturns.com/ Learn more about Advanta IRA: https://www.AdvantaIRA.com/ https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/advanta-ira https://www.linkedin.com/company/Advanta-IRA/ https://twitter.com/AdvantaIRA https://www.facebook.com/AdvantaIRA/ https://www.instagram.com/AdvantaIRA/ #AgTech #SelfDirectedIRA #AgricultureInvesting #AlternativeInvestments #PrecisionAgriculture

August 26, 20261 hr 2 min

Manufactured Housing Investing Under California Rent Control Laws

Manufactured housing gets harder to buy in California, and that is exactly why "Ali" Nasir Ali stays there. Ali is the managing director of Rise360 Ventures, a former commercial appraiser, and the second generation of his family in manufactured housing. He joins the Alternative Investing Advantage podcast with host Alex Perny to explain how rent control, vacancy decontrol, and aging infrastructure are priced into a deal rather than ruling it out. Key Points: - Regulation reduces competition. Ali argues that because most California investors want to buy out of state and most out-of-state buyers avoid California, the difficulty itself leaves more deals available to whoever stays. - Rent control ordinances can cut both ways. He describes a Southern California ordinance containing a phrase entitling an owner to an 8 percent cap on investment, which an operator spent close to two years leveraging into a substantial lot rent increase. - Vacancy decontrol is the harder constraint. In at least three California cities, an owner cannot raise lot rent to market even after a lot goes vacant, and must instead scale from the historical rent. - Park-owned homes mix two different asset types. A home in a community is personal property that depreciates like a car, so blending that income with land income creates a valuation problem, which is why Ali keeps homes in a separate entity. - Occupancy is his filter. He looks for communities around 30 to 50 percent occupied, ideally about half full, with at least 50 units or a cluster of smaller properties close enough to share management. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction: manufactured housing in regulated markets 01:47 Eight generations in real estate and 45 years in manufactured housing 04:26 Why building new communities rarely works out 08:01 Overcoming the stigma around manufactured housing 11:21 What due diligence looks like in California 16:14 Rent control and vacancy decontrol explained 26:20 Financing and why capital is flowing into the asset class 29:30 Park-owned homes versus renting the dirt 37:30 What Ali looks for in a community 43:08 Trailers, mobile homes, and the 1976 HUD code 49:59 Underground utilities and water risk 55:19 Why the heavy lift comes first 59:35 How to connect with Nasir Ali Subscribe to our YouTube channel and join our growing community for new videos every week. If you are interested in being a podcast guest speaker or have questions, contact us at Podcast@AdvantaIRA.com. Learn more about our guest, "Ali" Nasir Ali: https://rise360ventures.com/ Learn more about Advanta IRA: https://www.AdvantaIRA.com/ https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/advanta-ira https://www.linkedin.com/company/Advanta-IRA/ https://twitter.com/AdvantaIRA https://www.facebook.com/AdvantaIRA/ https://www.instagram.com/AdvantaIRA/ #ManufacturedHousing #SelfDirectedIRA

August 19, 202652 min

Farmland Investing: The Asset Nobody Is Making More Of - Episode 224 w/ Rob Moore

Farmland investing separates the land from the crop, and Rob Moore says that separation is the whole thesis. Rob is the general manager of AcreTrader, which buys row crop farmland and leases it to working farmers. He joins Alternative Investing Advantage host Alex Perny to explain how the asset class works and why returns come from the ground rather than the harvest. Key Points: - Row crops and permanent crops carry different risks. Tree crops like almonds and citrus take years to develop and tie returns to commodity prices, while row crops get replanted annually and leave the value in the underlying real estate. - Cash yield is low by design. Rob describes roughly a 2 to 4 percent annualized cash-on-cash return from rent, with most of the long-term return coming from land appreciation rather than income. - Location drives risk more than crop selection. Around the 100th meridian, the map turns from green to brown, and outside the reliable rainfall zone, there are fewer farmers, fewer bidders, and a much wider range of outcomes. - Leverage adds risk without adding much upside. Rob argues that debt might lift cash-on-cash from 2 percent to 3 percent while exposing the investment to variable rates, which is a poor trade for an asset held for capital preservation. - Arable land is disappearing permanently. Rob cites roughly 4.8 acres lost every minute in this country, and once farmland becomes roads and neighborhoods, it does not revert to farmland. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction: farmland as an alternative investment 01:13 How Rob Moore got into agriculture and AcreTrader 02:37 Row crops versus permanent crops 08:57 How farmland leases are structured 13:10 Commodity prices, trade policy, and subsidies 18:59 Tenant turnover and why farms stay leased 21:17 Why location determines farmland risk 26:56 Why AcreTrader buys without leverage 31:50 Exit strategy and the liquidity problem 37:57 Institutional buyers and intergenerational land transfer 47:30 Why lost farmland does not come back 50:43 How to connect with Rob Moore Subscribe to our YouTube channel and join our growing community for new videos every week. If you are interested in being a podcast guest speaker or have questions, contact us at Podcast@AdvantaIRA.com. Learn more about our guest, Rob Moore: https://acretrader.com/ Learn more about Advanta IRA: https://www.AdvantaIRA.com/ https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/advanta-ira https://www.linkedin.com/company/Advanta-IRA/ https://twitter.com/AdvantaIRA https://www.facebook.com/AdvantaIRA/ https://www.instagram.com/AdvantaIRA/ #FarmlandInvesting #SelfDirectedIRA

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