Rental Property Investor · Titusville, FL · Member since 2018 · 27 posts · 11 votes
I currently have a quad Plex in my personal name that I need to move into a holding LLC or land trust. Most of my properties are in LLC's currently. I don't plan to sell this property or mortgage it in the future and do not currently have a loan on it. Land trusts seem like a good way to hold the property but wanted to get other opinions. I am interested in anonymity and also currently do not have insurance on this property. My plan is to probably get liability and fire insurance coverage only and do as much as I possibly can to prevent wind storm damage. I know there is another scheme where people create their own mortgage company to make the property appear to have no equity. 
Attorney · UT · Member since 2025 · 55 posts · 46 votes
1y
If the Florida property is in your personal name, and then you transfer the property to a Florida LLC, it may trigger a property reassessment.
So you may want to consider using a land trust to avoid a property reassessment.
To give the appearance of no equity in the property, you may be referring to a friendly lien. This is where you have one of your companies provide a secured loan or line of credit to the title holder of the property, and then your company can record a lien on the property. So if a tenant or their attorney searched the property records, they will see that there is a recorded lien on the property.
Note: This information is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, tax, financial, or investment advice. No attorney-client, fiduciary, or professional relationship is established through this communication.
Rental Property Investor · Titusville, FL · Member since 2018 · 27 posts · 11 votes
1y
@KC Ushijima
Thanks. It was just reassessed so not sure if that would be a huge concern. If I want to do the friendly lien, can that be done on either an LLC or a land trust?
Attorney · UT · Member since 2025 · 55 posts · 46 votes
1y
To do a friendly lien, it would be the title holder that is the borrower.
So the borrower could be either the LLC or the land trust.
Your original post indicated an interest in anonymity. With a land trust (or trusts in general), you need a trustee.
If you are the trustee of the land trust, the property records would show something about the property went from "David" to "David, Trustee of ABC Land Trust" (or "ABC Land Trust, and David, Trustee"). So anonymity may be difficult in that respect.
So you could look into a Nominee Trustee/Power of Attorney, or setting up a Wyoming LLC to be the Trustee of your land trust if you are interested in anonymity.