She suggests intentionally defective irrevocable trusts as a way to to a change in ownership under Proposition 19 but that don’t transfer the property yet according to capital gains taxes.

Since you're unlikely to be reading the paper, I will soon have a default judgment against you, and by the time you realize it, you may no longer own the property you thought you did... thanks to your land trust.If you actually want privacy and asset protection from the inside as well as the outside;1) use a series LLC for each property, making sure to draft an operating agreement for each series, open a bank account for each series, have separate books for each series, and never commingle funds from each series.2) have the series LLC owned (100% membership interest) by an intentionally defective grantor trust (IDGT) with no ascertainable standard for distributions (no HELMS), a bank or trust company (preferably in South Dakota) as trustee (starts at $2,500/year), a non-related (non-family) trust protector with discretionary veto powers over distributions, IRC § 541 provisions so it withstands federal bankruptcy, and many other details which are too lengthy and technical in nature to expound upon here.As long as you have a $1M or $2M umbrella policy, you may be able to get away without having item #2, above.

Even if your jurisdiction does not require anything - or if the improvements predate the requirement for permits and is "grandfathered" - for myself, I would have an expert inspect the property and the improvements for problems or defects. 

They still need to reveal any material defects known to them, but otherwise are very limited on what they can say or do.

if I were to do it again, I would have done more research into getting an inspector that understood the needs of an out of state investor, such as providing virtual 360 photos, and zooming out too see where exactly the defects are located, which could be taken for granted when you get to walk through a property. 

The hoa won litigation this year for 30 million dollars due to building defects.

In reality you will rarely find a manufacturer defect.

When they 'shared it' with you, they made you aware of material defects, which you are required to report during the sale.

Somebody wanting to sue for you backing out of a bad deal or accusing you of selling them a property with defects like unknown termite damage).

Either the wholesaler is hiding some defect and doesn't want you to know about it, or they haven't told the seller that they are selling it to someone else and never had intention of closing.