Land Trusts

A question from a real noob,

A lot of posts/books suggest using a land trust to hold re property. It is supposedly very easy to set up and administer and you can even set yourself up as the trustee.

I have called some attorneys in my area (Utah) and although they say that they are experienced real estate attorneys who work with investors, none have ever heard of a LAND trust, but are willing to help me set up a trust.

1- Does anyone know if a LAND trust (Illinois-type) is really valid in all 50 states?
2- How easy is it to set up?
3- What are the steps to set one up?
4- Is it true that the paperwork is not filed publically anywhere?
5- Where can I find out more specific information?

Thanks

Land trusts are legal in every state with just a few exceptions (very few, although i don’t remember right o which states do not recognize them) but I believe there is a list in Bronchick’s course.

William Bronchick ( Colorado attorney has a course on specifically land trusts). It was about $250.00 but I think he has since raised the price. It walks you thru step by step and includes all of the forms you need to set one up as well. You might try his .com address. Lu Brown (investor) also has a course but his materials are a lot more expensive than Bronchicks and I like the fact that Bronchick is a practicing attorney and owns real estate himself (major bonus).

There a lot of attorneys that are not familiar with land trusts and many of these will tell you they are not legal and they absolutely areand personally i would not want them putting one together for me.
Hope this information helps.

Thanks for the info. I have gone to his site and looked at what he is selling. Think I should check into it a little more.

In regards to Land Trusts being legal in all states I found this on the irs web site.


Illinois Land Trust
In Illinois, and in five other states, legislation has been enacted that creates a special type of trust, commonly referred to as an “Illinois Land Trust”. These trusts are designed to house real estate within a grantor trust and provide limited access to grantor or beneficiary information contained in the trust instrument or known to the trustee.

Sounds like the irs is saying that it is only legal in a few states. Does that sound right? Plus this page was under ‘Abusive Trust Tax Evasion Schemes - Special Types of Trusts’ label. Found it here; http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=106553,00.html

I had heard that it was a good idea to buy a home using a Land Trust strategy.

grimace_re
First let me advise you gentleman that land trust entities are legal in all 50 states but only two states do not follow the law of equitable merger and they are Louisana and Tennessee. That just means that when the trust is formed they do not characterize the beneficial interest as personalty as is in in most every other state. The IRS in those two states would still see the beneficial interest as realty so the trust could potentially be partitioned in a charging order.

As to the articles in the IRS website I did not yet read them but be assured that any homeowner on a deed of trust is under federal law specifcially 12 USC 1701 (j) (3) is allowed to deed or vest his title into a inter vivos,revocable trust in which the borrower is and remains A beneficiary and which does not relate to the transfer of rights of occupancy in the property, also called the Garn ST Germain Act of 1982.
So you are following federal law which supercedes state law…
In reference to Mr Bern remarks on attorneys I agree 100% most of them do not use them and do not understand how they are setup.
As long as the trust is setup properly and legally you are good but if you do things like cutting corners and it is not legally reviewed it could be considered a dry trust …

Thanks…

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quote author=colvegas link=board=22;threadid=7254;start=0#msg29099 date=1122708504]
grimace_re
First let me advise you gentleman that land trust entities are legal in all 50 states but only two states do not follow the law of equitable merger and they are Louisana and Tennessee. That just means that when the trust is formed they do not characterize the beneficial interest as personalty as is in in most every other

Thanks for that info, Colvegas.
I’d first learned of this type of owner financing while touring another home ( we didn’t buy) and speaking to the owner about his neighbor. Seems as if the fella seeking to sell me his house owned the nieghbors house and sold it to him using this method and raved about it.
I’ve since read up on it and for sure will be using a local atty ( in Tennessee) for this transaction.
Very lucrative way to sell, for sure!