Land Trusts basics and why you should be using them now

[Chris Piper]

Land Trusts are the absolute best way for almost every real estate investor to take title to a property. They provide protection, privacy, and easy of purchase and sale. When you put a property into a Land Trust, no one knows how much you bought the property for, who owns it, how much you sell it for, etc. In the event of any legal action being taken against you, your property, if placed in a land trust, will not show up as an asset since it is not legally in your name. The property is titled in the name of the Land Trust, and you are simply the beneficiary.

Most people don't know this, but anyone can set-up a Land Trust. You do not have to be an attorney to set one up for yourself. Anyone can set-up their own Land Trust(s) for themselves, but in order to set-up a Land Trust for someone else, you DO need to be an attorney. Below are the benefits of using Land Trusts in your real estate business.

Benefits of a Land Trust:

• Liability protection
• Privacy
• Keep purchase price secret
• Keep sale price secret
  

• Keep change of ownership private

• Protection from judgments

• Protection from liens

• Avoiding deficiency judgment

• Avoiding condo and homeowner association judgments

• Avoiding probate

• Avoiding lawsuits

• Ease of control

• Ease of management

• Ease of negotiation

• Improved financial statement

• Saving on title insurance

• Ease of transferability of interests

• Simplification of making gifts

• Limiting liability

• Avoiding partition

• Ease of foreclosure

• Safer lease/options

• Avoiding personal problems of beneficiaries

• Avoiding real estate brokerage laws

• Avoiding seasoning problems

• Loaning money

• Buying foreclosures

• Buying distressed properties

• Equity stripping

• Holding judges property

[Ned Carey]

Originally posted by @Chris Piper:

Not really anything in that trust can be taken.

true but not absolute by any means

How is it any easier for a purchase and sell with a trust?

They will see how much you paid before you put it into a trust.

The part not mentioned is that while it doesn't show up, it still needs to be disclosed or you could be defrauding a creditor.

Most of the benefits you list are either bogus or exaggerated. A land trust is a revokable trust so provides no asset protection.

Land trusts are one of the most over promoted, misused, and misunderstood strategies in real estate. While they certainly have their place; land trust gurus spread misinformation from guru to guru to unsuspecting investor.

Sorry to rain on your parade Chris but there is a lot of misinformation here.