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Explaining “How to Collect Your Government-Backed Real Estate Tax Rebate Checks”

Checking out Ian Wyatt's latest High Yield Wealth teaser

By Travis Johnson, Stock Gumshoe, August 18, 2014

This pitch has been around for more than a year now, but apparently it’s in heavy rotation again so I took another look today.

And yes, you guessed it, the ad is almost completely unchanged from what ran in the Spring of 2013… the same pitch for REIT dividends being “Real Estate Tax Rebates,” the same spiel about the same teaser pick. So we’re re-sharing our article below (if they can’t be bothered to update their ad, well, we’ll take a half-vacation as well).

The updates? Not a lot, actually, the company teased is still a small commercial REIT, it still pays a monthly dividend (yes, the next “ex div” date is today, August 18, so you’ve already missed this month’s payout… but don’t worry, it was only 12.5 cents and the dividend has not changed since 2008 so there will be, in all likelihood, another one coming next month. The stock was around $20 when he teased it, in the midst of the runup of REITs in the Spring of 2013, but like most of those REITs it spiked and then fell back again and has more recently been pretty flat (it’s been between $17-$19 for most of the past year)… what you would expect from a fairly high-yield stock that doesn’t raise its dividend. It has been more stable than most REITs I follow, but is, like all of them, influenced heavily (probably too heavily) by interest rate expectations (I hold several REITs, though not the one teased here by Wyatt, and last wrote about REITs and interest rates in any detail over the Winter for the Irregulars, just FYI).

So we’ve got the same company being teased, a slightly cheaper price, and it’s still very misleading to call the dividends they pay “Tax Rebate Checks” … for more detail, what follows is our original article on this from May 14, 2013. The original comments and discussion are also included at the bottom, feel free to add on if you have thoughts to share:

——–from 5/13/13———

Ian Wyatt is no stranger to the misleading teaser ad — I say this not to pick on him specifically (there are dozens of others with similar-seeming ads), but because his pitches seem to catch the attention of gumshoe readers with their misleading references to “rebate checks” and “savings accounts.”

And this new pitch about “Real Estate Tax Rebate Checks” is no different — it sounds, in fact, quite a bit like his “gas rebate checks” pitch a few months ago. That one followed the same leap of logic we’re looking at here — he said you could earn enough from owning a particularly refinery stock that it would be like getting a rebate on the gas you buy … but judging from the comments these articles generate, and the response from readers, the ads give enough of a misleading big picture to make folks skim right through and just look for where they can input their name and address to start gettin’ those free checks.

I do so hate to burst any bubbles but no, there aren’t really “real estate tax rebate checks”, any more than there were “gas rebate checks.” (Though frankly, since property taxes are typically deductible you kind of do get a rebate on your taxes — though that’s obviously too boring and real to be teased or hyped.) So what is Wyatt talking about with these “checks” you get as a way of offsetting your real estate taxes?

Here’s a bit of the ad to get you all jazzed up before we begin:

“How to Collect Your Real Estate Tax Rebate on May 16th, 2013

“While the rest of the country is getting gouged by federal, state, and local taxes… a handful of everyday Americans are using a little-known rebate program to completely pay off their real estate taxes.

“This program is available to ALL U.S. citizens… regardless of income or employment status…

“Anyone can collect a share of the more than $171 million to be paid out in Real Estate Tax Rebates this year.

“The best part: These refund checks are mandated by the U.S. Government… meaning you’re guaranteed to collect!”

Man, I don’t know who Wyatt’s lawyer is … but I’d be sweating that “guaranteed to collect!” bit. The initial assumption I’m working with here is that he’s touting some sort of tax-advantaged real estate play, most likely a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT), which means the government does mandate that they send their income to shareholders. But the government sure doesn’t mandate that they make any income, or that they make a certain specific amount of income … and if they don’t make anything they don’t have to send you anything, so be careful how you define “guaranteed” in your head as you read along. Almost all REITs pay out more in dividends than they the government mandates them to pay — it’s the lust of investors for dividends, not the government rules, that keeps payouts increasing for successful REITs.

But moving on … we do want to find out specifically which investment he’s touting for these “rebate checks,” so how about some more clues?

“According to Kiplinger’s… ‘If you’re an investor looking for income, [Real Estate Tax Rebate Checks] are a great way to go.’

“In fact, you could be eligible to start collecting payments of up to $6,175.50 on Thursday, May 16th! ….

“Thanks to the unique nature of this program, you’re eligible to start collecting your rebate right away…

“You see, these rebates don’t pay out annually… they pay out monthly!

“When you enroll today, you’ll start receiving checks every 30 days….”

Still not specific enough … how about some more background to make sure we’re sniffing around the right area?

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“In just the past few years, Real Estate Tax Rebates have been raised 4 times… even while home prices were sinking after the mortgage bubble burst.

“Now you might be surprised to learn that the Real Estate Tax Rebate programs are nothing new.

“The truth is, in-the-know Americans have been receiving these ever-increasing payments since the 1960s!

“As you might recall, back in the mid 1950s, housing was booming… they couldn’t build homes fast enough!

“The problem was there was shortage of capital to build all these homes…

“Demand for new homes was far outstripping supply… and as a result home prices were being driven up – unfairly punishing would-be new homeowners.

“That’s when President Eisenhower stepped in and passed a law that provided an unprecedented opportunity that would allow for massive inflows of private investment capital where it was needed most – to build new homes and neighborhoods for quickly growing American families.

“And despite the fact that most people still don’t know about this law, it turned out to be one of Eisenhower’s most critical moves in office because it made it possible for towns, cities, and suburbs everywhere to rapidly expand… without putting the cost on individual taxpayers.

“By 1965, Real Estate Tax Rebate plans were gaining in popularity as expansion continued and home prices – and along with them, taxes, – were spiking to new highs.

“But once things leveled off in the 70s, a lot of folks completely forgot about these rebate checks.”

Well, that’s all more or less true — since Eisenhower was behind both the GSE-backed privatized mortgage boom and the creation of the real estate investment trust, you could say that both REITs or mortgage REITS (mREITs) owe their current popularity to him, though I’m pretty sure Wyatt is teasing a more traditional REIT here. The first REITs were started up in 1960 after the category was created by law, and started going public not long after, but they did indeed lose most of their popularity in the 1970s and 1980s and they were largely small cap stocks — the “modern era” of public REITs and their growing acceptance and growing investor interest probably dates back to the early 1990s and the REIT boom of that era that brought us the real large-capitalization REITs that are now brand names for US investors (like Kimco Realty and Vornado).

And then we finally get into a few specifics …

“There’s one under-the-radar company that is legally obligated to siphon off the majority of its cash flow and pass it on everyday citizens.

“Last year, it distributed over $171 million to just a few thousand check recipients…

“But why are these checks so big?

“Well, it’s because this company makes millions off the most profitable tracts of real estate… commercial land.

“And the government requires that the bulk of the profits go right into the Real Estate Tax Rebate program…

“Here’s how it works…

“This company hauls in millions owning, acquiring, and building big commercial real estate developments…

“I’m talking office buildings, factories, warehouses, retail stores… massive buildings and pieces of land….

“This company rakes in millions from companies including Corning, Pennzoil, and Verizon.

“(In fact, it owns over 70 giant, cash cranking commercial properties.)

“And as I mentioned earlier, this firm is required by law to pay out 90% of the profits from its real estate business into the Real Estate Tax Rebate Program.

“That’s $171 million… paid out to citizens like you and me – each year.

“That’s why out of the select few companies funding this government-mandated Real Estate Tax Rebate Program… this one company is safest I know of to help you earn back the money you’ve had to pay on taxes over the years – AND collect a regular income.

“Plus, over the past couple years, it’s continued to contribute more and more to the Real Estate Tax Rebate Program – paying out bigger checks every time!

“And the next check is scheduled to be paid out in the next 30 days…

“But in order to collect – you must be enrolled in the Real Estate Tax Rebate program by: May 16, 2013.”

So they’re not great clues — the specific tenants, the number of properties, the fact that it’s a REIT, etc. — but that’s enough to fill up the Thinkolator about halfway and give it something to chew on. A few minutes later and our answer comes out the other end: This is most likely Gladstone Commercial (GOOD), a commercial REIT that’s chaired (as are the other public Gladstone companies — Gladstone Capital, Gladstone Investment, etc.) by David Gladstone.

This is a pretty stable REIT, so we can give Wyatt credit on that front — they do own “more than 70” buildings (81 as of the last count I saw), and they stress stability over growth. They have paid a monthly dividend for many years, and the dividend has been unchanged since it was last raised in early 2008.

Of course, it has a nice yield — just under 8% — but it’s not a free “rebate check.” To get your check for one of those big payouts teased in the ad, like $6,000+, you’d first have to buy in to Gladstone by purchasing something close to $100,000 worth of stock — assuming that they are able to keep paying the dividend, and I don’t know any specific reason why they wouldn’t, then $100,000 invested today into GOOD at roughly $20 a share would get you about 5,000 shares. And those 5,000 shares would each spit out 12.5 cents in dividends per month, so your monthly take would be $625. Not bad … and higher than my property taxes … but still, you did pitch in $100,000 to get there.

It looks like GOOD’s dividend was entirely return of capital last year, interestingly enough, so in this case you might not have even had to pay taxes on it — that’s not terribly uncommon for REITs, particularly those that have low maintenance expenses like GOOD, they spit out essentially all of their free cash flow to shareholders and, thanks to non-cash charges like depreciation on their properties, the cash flow is much higher than the taxable earnings. Return of capital also forms most of the distribution for lots of other high-yielding asset-heavy investments like MLPs, and it basically just means that instead of getting taxable income from the company, you get your capital returned and your cost basis in the shares is reduced, so when you sell your capital gains would be higher. Their dividend has not always been entirely return of capital, they have reported earnings in some years — just not in 2012.

So if a company is not holding on to any of that depreciation cash, you’d hope that they don’t need it for, say, renovating or refreshing their aging and depreciated properties. And that appears to be the case with GOOD to at least some extent, part of their focus on stability is that they do only triple net (NNN) leases, so the tentants are responsible for maintenance, upkeep and taxes on the properties, so GOOD is really almost exclusively a financial partner of their tenants.

In many cases these kinds of leases come about because the tenant wants to monetize its real estate without losing control of it — some companies need to own real estate, but often for a retail company or a company with lots of far flung offices, owning real estate is just a drag on the balance sheet, something that ties up capital without generating a return. So they sell it off with a triple net lease, or they sign long-term triple net leases to build new properties, and GOOD puts up the capital to own the property and collects the rent but doesn’t do much else to the property. Unless there’s something substantial beyond regular maintenance, depending on the specific lease. Most of the time these are single-tenant properties with long-term inflation adjusted leases (10-15 years or longer), and they have very few vacancies. They do take on some financing risk, since GOOD does hold mortgages on about 2/3 of the value of their real state — most of those mortgages are for shorter terms than the lease, but presumably they’re typical commercial mortgages so there would still be a big balloon payment to refinance after the 4-6 year mortgage term (I haven’t checked, that’s an assumption).

There are some things that don’t precisely match with the teaser — the clients do match exactly, the yield matches, the strategy and the monthly payment of the dividend match (there are some other monthly dividend payers in REITdom, but not that many), and the timing matches (their ex-dividend date for the next payment is May 16, meaning you’d have to be in by the 15th to get the next 12.5 cent payout). But this specific company doesn’t pay out anywhere near $171 million in dividends in a year — the company has an enterprise value of less than $650 million, so that would be an absurdly high payout (they do pay a little over $20 million in dividends per year right now). So perhaps he’s referring to some broader group of real estate investments that he recommends, or perhaps the Thinkolator is sniffing up the wrong tree.

If you want to delve into this little segment of the market, “Triple nets” do get some investor attention as their own little subclass of the REIT space, and there are some substantially larger triple-net-lease REITs that are probably more conservative and more stable, and that come closer to paying the $170 million in annual dividends — but those stocks, like W.P. Carey (WPC) and Lexington Realty (LXP), have substantially lower yields and pay quarterly, not monthly. The granddaddy of monthly dividends and triple net leases, Realty Income (O), is far larger and, I think, a bit overloved by investors at the moment (though to be honest, I’ve been skeptical of the valuation for a while and it keeps going up) — and it pays out over $300 million in dividends a year and leases largely in strip malls and similar properties. So I’ll stick with Gladstone Commercial as our best match on this one … as to whether it will make you (gradually) wealthy, well, that’s your call. Let us know what you think with a comment below.

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Lea
Member
Lea
May 14, 2014 6:53 pm

I love you Sock Gum Shoe! Every time I am curious about an “opportunity” that would cost me money to find out about, you save me before I jump in. Curiosity doesn’t get to kill this cat!

mac mctry
Guest
mac mctry
May 22, 2014 11:03 am

….. glad to see your take on the b.s…. keep up the good work!!

Craig Blair
Member
Craig Blair
July 25, 2014 12:26 am

The rebates come in the form of special exemptions. There are extra exemptions is different states if your parent or grandparent is living with you, some states double the homestead exemtions for elderly and there are also special programs for disabled veterans to have taxes ruduced, or in his words rebated!

Roger Stevens
August 18, 2014 1:33 pm

Stock Gumshoe has given me more financial return than any other source, and if being an irregular cost twice as much, I would not hesitate to join. All of the Gumshoe writers are sincere, honest, knowledgeable and erudite. This combination is almost impossible to find elsewhere, in the world of financial investments.
Triple net leases that pay 8%, with government or national corporations as tenants, are probably as conservative and safe investments as one can find in this market. Mortgage REITS that hold mostly adjustable mortgages or short term mortgages usually pay more interest and do not have much exposure to the risk of higher interest rates. The risk is the lemming effect. Then investors let all ships lower in the lowering tide, whether there is any reason for them to do so or not.

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Dusty
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Dusty
August 18, 2014 1:56 pm

Trailing Stops: I have had a Trailing Stop on one position with one of my brokerage accounts and it keeps automatically cancelling every time there is a dividend– quarterly. It is easy to set up a new stop, just annoying.

Due Diligence: All the analysts and stock pushers are too adamant about “Due Diligence” before plunking down our pocket change. I am of the opinion that an MBA and 10 year’s experience in big finance might give enough education for a decent “Due Dilligence” of the books/published data. My own approach is to look at the stock charts as far back as possible. The graph of actual ticker prices/quotes for 5 or 10 years tells a whole lot. BigCharts.com is good, usually, for up to 5 years. My account in TD Ameritrade provides charts for up to 10 years. Many other time frames are available, of course, within the maximums. I look at all of them before pushing the ‘Buy” or ‘Sell’ button. And ‘Limit’ buys only to avoid uncomfortable or unpleasant surprises in the actual price paid.

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William F Tilson
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William F Tilson
August 20, 2014 8:48 am

Wow, a trip down Memory Lane.

Without boring everyone senseless with my resume, suffice it to say that I was a novice at dividend investing when I started doing so in earnest in early 2012. To accelerate the learning curve, I Googled investment advisers and subscribed to a bunch of free newsletters. Like an idiot, I thought there would be something useful to be gained, and there was, just not what I imagined.

By late 2012, Wyatt Investment Research rose up in the midst of my newsletters, and I clearly remember the spiels about “Gas Tax Rebate Checks” and “Real Estate Tax Rebate Checks”. No Martha, I was not bright enough to immediately link the obvious similarities in the two prevarications, even though they came out fairly close to each other. I guess they were part of Wyatt’s annual subscription fishing expedition. They both are making the rounds again this year.

I read both spiels, but I knew there was no such thing as a Federal “gas rebate” check or “property tax rebate” check, so I declined to join up and went on about my business. Shortly thereafter, I fell for Wyatt’s “Dividend Calendar” story and subscribed to High Yield Wealth at the end of the year under a discount price with a full year, 100% money-back guarantee. I will try almost anything that might be worthwhile under those parameters.

Dividend Calendar is where I found Gladstone Commercial and Prospect Capital, both of which I have owned since very early 2013. The share price on those two investments is very unstable – I think the proper term is volatile – but the dividends are good, and I stayed the course with both. Since that time, I have added a number of investments to my dividend portfolio, none of which came from Wyatt.

I subscribed to another Wyatt service in mid 2013, and I experienced what Ms. LaValley experienced – 98% of Wyatt’s communications to me under that new subscription’s banner were sales pitches for his ridiculously narrow options service. Then sure enough, the same options eMails started arriving under the High Yield Wealth banner. I was not induced to pay an exorbitant fee to learn how to sell call options on Apple, Microsoft, and NetFlix. I would have had to pony up in excess of US$ 70 thousand just to try a single transaction, and I do not have that manner of risk tolerance.

I sold covered calls in 1970 a number of times for a girlfriend who inherited several thousand shares of Texaco from her grandmother, obviously with the help of a Merrill Lynch broker sitting in front of me. I made money for her, but that was before the days of multibillion dollar hedge funds and Cray super computers on every desktop.

Bottom line, I subscribed to two Wyatt services, bought two stocks I still own, both of which occasionally dip below my basis, even though I average Prospect down at every opportunity, and I became enraged at receiving endless sales pitch eMails, sometimes four a day, on a service in which I had expressed absolutely no interest.

I cancelled both subscriptions within the warranty period and received full refunds, but that was insufficient compensation for the absolute annoyance of never-ending solicitations.

In our euphemism oriented society, we call Wyatt’s style prevarication. I am a dinosaur. I prefer the more accurate term liar. To call an MLP dividend a “Gas Rebate Check” is nothing but a lie.

I said I learned something in the past two years. Well, that is easy – you have to kiss a lot of ugly frogs before you meet the handsome prince named Stock Gumshoe.

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Paul
November 21, 2014 12:47 pm

Thank you Travis for saving me from getting involved with Ian Wyatt. I saved $49.00 dollars and possibly more. I really like your research and advice. It is well worth the price of joining the Irregulars.

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Mary Prosser
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Mary Prosser
March 13, 2015 10:30 am

Bottom line, you are saying that what Wyatt is pushing is Reits? Invest and get back interest?

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