The point of using a land trust in real estate is for the beneficiary to remain unknown/anonymous for as long as possible.You can ask the trustee for verification that they are in fact authorized to sell the property held in trust (it's not always the case that they are, you should check).  

And then there's all the unknowns and lack of quality control etc...with out of town. 

You have 5 numbers you are putting in.number of payments  (N) You use 15 I used 180 (coupled with this is payments per year You used I and I used actual 12, compounding monthly or annually)Interest (I) is unknown (usually used for loans but in this scenario calculates Return)Present Value (PV) this is your initial -$150000 paymentPayment (PMT) This is your -$3000 monthly payment not your annual -$36,000 paymentFuture Value (FV) This is your payout of $1,650,000 I understand most people are never going to understand this but powerful information.

Doing things that are unknown is natural.

Judicial,Collateral,Unsecured,Secured,Seller,Syndication ~ confirmed Mortgage Brokers (sophistication, in lending terms) "15% ROI Margins" ~ confirmed ROI unknown tho…Tax attorney(Roth,Judicial, Sophistication) "10% ROI"  Unknown*Accountants (how much and where Terms infrastructure legalities) 7% ROI Unknown*Mortgage broker (lending acquisition all major lenders ,TD,RBC…….

Not saying you cant find a good deal because you can I just don't like having so many unknowns.

Then you learn as you grow, you aren't being thrown into a sea of unknown problems, you can build your own brand (very important in PM BTW) and focus on acquiring the kind of owners, properties and tenants you want to work with. 

You raise some great points - considering I've barely just begun my investing career, I should really just focus on finding deals within my own province (if not my hometown) instead of crossing the border to find properties and deal with even more unknowns and variables. 

It's part of the unknown of unknown in real estate.In these city not moving grass=jail which is ridiculous , on other and, stealing a bra for $850 in victoria secret in Oakland is not a crime LOL law on the same country can be extremely exhausting just for hundred a month lol

We felt that $90k kept us safe and anything north of that got is into trouble with the unknowns.