[mindslight]

The article is scant on details, but based on the few data points it throws out and the historic contribution limits, Thiel achieved an average annual return of at least 79% over 22 years. I'm guessing the way he did that is investing tiny amounts of Roth money into very early pre-seed rounds at vanishingly small valuations due to uncertain future prospects, and then making those prospects much more certain by following on with larger taxable investments. Heck if the earlier investment was a senior convertible note, he could probably get his Roth investment back even if the startup ultimately failed down the line.

So no, you're not going to get those kind of gains with real estate. It relies on early stage startups being notoriously hard to value, plus the wealth/connections to make for surefire exits. And if you tried to replicate it at an individual or even familial level, especially repeatedly, those early valuations are going to end up getting challenged. So sure, the same laws apply to everybody and anybody can set up a self-directed IRA. But not everybody can predictably and sustainably achieve such outsized gains with them.