Land Trusts 101

Warning To Anyone Who Owns Real Estate:

If You Own Any Properties In Your Own Name Statistics Show You Have A Huge Target On Your Back And A Damaging Lawsuit Is Just Around The Corner If You Don’t Do Something FAST To Prevent This From Happening To You!

 

Let me share some very important facts that unless you do something FAST could cost you everything you’ve worked hard for.

Statistics show

Fact:

Approximately 1 in every 12 people in this country will be involved in a lawsuit this year!

Fact:

Fraudulent lawsuits are a $5 Billion dollar business affecting many unsuspecting and innocent people each year.

Fact:

Every year at least 14,000,000 (fourteen million) people and their families will be party to Slip-and-Fall Civil lawsuits that are filed throughout this country costing millions of dollars that 85% to 95% are settled out of court. That means that at the very least most of these are nuisance suits generated just to generate a payday for someone.

Do you want to be the next victim? Why would you want to needlessly expose your real estate assets when you don’t need to and jeopardize your financial future? You can’t forget about the time, stress and anxiety you and your family will experience just because you are named in a lawsuit. Even if you aren’t guilty of doing anything wrong it can ruin your life. When you are sued it costs you time, personal grief and attorney’s fees, possibly thousands of dollars regardless of the outcome of the case. This doesn’t sound like a good formula for accumulating wealth to me wasting money defending yourself from those unscrupulous people and their contingency fee lawyers.

The good news, there is a solution that will help you better protect the real estate assets you have and the ones you acquire in the future and it won’t cost you a fortune or give you stress in your life. Sound interesting? Does it sound like something you would like to hear more about? If so, please read on..

Over the 30 plus years I’ve been investing in real estate I’ve learned the importance of protecting those real estate assets you acquire from lawsuit Happy Americans. I’ve watched investors lose part or all of what they have accumulated from years of hard work just because they had the appearance of having money.

In my father’s day, people were proud of what they had and wanted the world to know how successful they were, but that was then and today it’s a totally different story. Today it isn’t a good idea to show any signs of affluence or someone will try to take away your wealth using the court system instead of working for what they get. Suing people has become the new way to achieve financial freedom in the shortest time and easiest way possible. It has always amazed me how anyone can sleep nights who sue people at random just to get money.

Another thing that I find unsettling is the fact that no matter how a person who is suing has been damaged, maybe from being insulted, accosted, hurt or mis-used in some way in their minds, money seems to be the only way to right the wrong they feel has been inflicted upon them. Scary isn’t it? The worst part of this problem is, you never know when someone is being offended by you or when they get hurt on one of your properties. It can happen at any time and you probably won’t know when it happens until a lawsuit has been filed against you.

So what’s the solution to this problem or is there a solution? It’s not a matter of if you will be involved in a nuisance lawsuit of some kind it’s a matter of when. The thing I have learned over my 30 plus year real estate investing career is to be prepared before a lawsuit happens to you. Don’t wait until it’s too late then try to protect yourself after you have been served court papers. That doesn’t work. The time to protect your real estate assets is NOW, not tomorrow when it may be too late.

You may be asking if there is a perfect solution to prevent a lawsuit happening to you and the answer to that question is NO because anyone can sue you for anything at any time. The good part of the problem is, we can make it not only difficult to find what someone owns, we can also make that process for the person suing very, very costly, forcing them to quickly to have a conversation with their checkbook and ask themselves, how mad am I? How much am I willing to spend to get money when the process isn’t going to be quick and will definitely be costly? When the suing party’s attorney are finding it extremely difficult to find the name of the owner of a property, the clock keeps on ticking and the person suing is being charged more and more as the hours go by without much success, in my opinion is Real Justice.

How would you like to learn how to be completely legal at confusing almost any adversary who is suing you simply by making it difficult to find who the real owner is of any property? That is what this article is all about. Being perfectly legal, yet extremely expensive to pursue, that is my goal. If someone wants to sue you, let them pay a hefty price! Let me show you how it doesn’t get much better than that.

The real secret that will allow you to create this expensive guessing game for any trip-and-fall person and their contingency fee attorney, it’s called the “Land Trust”. Many of the seasoned investors I know around the country who own multiple properties would never own any of those properties in their own name simply because of this problem. They own all of their investment properties in separate land trusts. Their name never shows in public records where the people who sue for a living can easily find everything you own and approximately how much equity you have in each property. Because all of their properties are not in their personal name it will be extremely difficult and costly to find out whom the owner really is without an expensive search and a court case.

My goal is to make the task of suing me just because you may assume I own a particular property very, very costly and time consuming. If I’ve learned one thing every real estate investor needs to know it is; “Own Nothing, Control Everything” and the land trust will allow you to do just that!

You might say I’ve cracked the code using land trusts. I have figured ways to use the land trust to not only better protect your real estate assets but to also keep your personal real estate business information totally confidential so it is going to be nearly impossible to find out exactly what you have and where your treasure is located. For anyone who wants to sue you, let’s make it a guessing game of what you own and what your real estate portfolio is worth. Let them assume all they want because they will never know for sure what properties you own, or if you own any properties at all.

I need to mention here that I am not an attorney!  I’m not giving you legal advice. I am a real estate investor who has figured out some very basic and unique and legal ideas of how to protect your real estate assets in ways the public and their attorneys will find difficult to figure out.

The Land Trust Avoids Probate, Save Taxes

Any property held in a land trust can be designated for transfer of ownership whenever you desire. Your spouse, children or other successors can avoid costly and time consuming probate proceedings and are able to sell or refinance the trust property without delay. Probates many times take years to settle. With a land trust your heirs can immediately sell the trust property and once sold avoid having to make any further payments on the property they inherit but don’t wish to keep. The Land Trust is not and should NEVER be used to avoid paying Taxes owed to the IRS by any Beneficiary. That is not its purpose.

The Land Trust Can Protect Your Credit Report

Public recordings of any property you may acquire or already own will show up on your personal credit report. The more properties you own in your name can lower your credit score and make it harder to obtain credit. If you hold title to property in a land trust, any liens relating to your property do not report to your personal credit report. This is because the lien attaches to the property and not to you. This allows you time to work out the problem with the lien since it doesn’t appear on your credit report.

The Land Trust Will Insulate You from Liens & Judgments

Liens, judgments, a lis pen dens (the filing of a lawsuit) and claims made by city and/or your county government usually attach to property held by a person in his or her name. This can make the property more difficult to sell or refinance if this were to happen. Yet, the same property if held in a land trust any legal matters affecting the beneficiary or beneficiaries do not pass through to the subject property, and if one or more beneficiary has legal problems, those legal problems do not attach to the land trust property.

Multiple Owners of Any Property

Properties with more than one owner benefit greatly from a land trust because it isolates each owner from any liens, judgments or other public record filings from being attached to the property. It also allows for owners to readily and easily sell or transfer their interest to another investor. They could also gift their share of the trust property to a family member whenever they wish without tax or reassessment. With land trust ownership, it is possible, in some states but not all, to sell the trust property for cash and avoid the reporting of the sale to governmental agencies. Another advantage of using the land trust, by having only one trustee acting for all of the owners (beneficiaries), there is no need for all of the beneficiaries to sign papers, documents and contracts, which may become necessary from time to time to deal with the trust property. This will save time, confusion and money when there are several owners.

The Land Trust Makes It Easy to Transfer Ownership of a Property

Many cities and counties charge hefty transfer taxes when someone sells property to another person or entity. They usually reassess the property taxes causing the property taxes to increase considerably. When using a land trust, it is possible to privately transfer the beneficial interest in the trust (the actual ownership) without reporting to any governmental agency. Unless you live in a state that requires you to report any transfer of ownership. This is because a person’s interest as a beneficiary of a land trust is considered personal property under the law of most states. This can be extremely beneficial when buying out a partner or spouses interest of a trust property, or if you wish to deed the property as a gift to children or grandchildren.

The Land Trust Provides Privacy

The legal ownership of all real estate is listed with the county recorder’s office in all counties. That means your personal information is available to anyone who wants it. This may be the reason why many property owners are constantly solicited by mortgage brokers to apply for new loans. When you form a land trust, your interest in the property remains confidential. I think we all believe that matters of real estate ownership should be private. You don’t need to let anyone know your bank account number, or balances. Why let the entire world know about your real estate holdings, it’s nobody’s business? A land trust offers a way to maintain privacy about your real estate ownership.

The Land Trust v. LLC’s and Corporations

Many advisors and attorney’s tell real estate owners to hold title to their properties in LLC’s or corporations. This may provide some asset protection, but it also has some drawbacks. We believe that the absolute best way to hold title to real estate is with a combination of the land trust and an LLC. This means you get all the advantage of both forms. However, this may not be the best thing for all real estate owners. Only your Certified Public Accountant can advise you about this.

Let me ask you some questions to help you decide if you need to put your properties into separate land trusts.

Do you want to make sure that your heirs can pass title to your properties without being tied up in probate for years?

If so, then you need a land trust!

Do you want to protect your property from liens and judgments that may have nothing to do with you, such as those from business partners, ex-spouses or other family members?

If so, then you need a land trust!

Do you want your investment properties to be isolated from lawsuits that may arise out of your actions not related to the property, such as an auto accident or other business situation for which you are unjustly sued?

If so, then you need a land trust!

Do you want to keep liens or judgments related to your property, that you dispute, or are not responsible for from being reported to your personal credit report?

If so, then you need a land trust!

Do you want to have the privacy from the entire world knowing your business through public records regarding your real estate?

If so, then you need a land trust!

Do you want to keep city inspectors or other governmental or private employees from knowing where all of the properties you own are, and possibly linking a problem in one to all the others?

If so, then you need a land trust!

Do you want to minimize your risk of being a target of an over zealous lawyer and their sleazy trip and fall clients simply because they know that you own real estate?

If so, then you need a land trust!

Do you want to effectively transfer the ownership of the property without the taxes being raised or triggering a due on sale clause?

If so, then you need a land trust

Let me show you how!

Check out my Land Trust Course that will show you how to better protect you from lawsuit happy Americans.