Real estate land trust investors work with communities to save America¡¯s land heritage by helping landowners find ways to protect their land. Real estate records are computerized; all your land holdings can be viewed at the touch of a button. These records are kept at the county courthouse or at the recorder¡¯s office; anyone can just go there, look up the owner of any property, click, and get all necessary information. This information can be used against you by unscrupulous elements to determine your financial ¡°worth.¡± A lawyer, creditor, IRS agent, newspaper reporter, or tenant can find out what you own and what you are worth, at a mere click. In fact, anybody interested in knowing details of property owned by you and what taxes you have paid or owe can simply log on your county assessor's web site to access the information. You must guard against the misuse of this important information by using land trusts for privacy, anonymity, and asset protection. 

Use Of Land Trusts

There has been a sudden growth in the number of land trusts. Earlier, only celebrities and millionaires used such trusts; now, even modest property owners are resorting to land trusts. Real estate is any house owner's wealth. They would prefer to keep that address and assets away from the public eye. Since the household wealth¡¯s detailed information is in the public domain, it raises an owner¡¯s concern and sensitivity. Setting up a trust for each property, under assumed names in title-holding trusts or land trusts, allows the homeowner to buy or hold real estate property anonymously. This is the best way to retain your privacy and foil the designs of people trying to obtain details of your real estate holdings. Real estate land trusts keep your name secret but let you control your property and its additional tax benefits as before. The other major benefit of a land trust is that if you buy property jointly with other partners, it protects your share from being usurped. It is easier to set up a land trust than to make a will. Of course, land trusts can be misused by undesirable elements to evade taxes or creditors.

Basic Elements Of A Land Trust

The three basic components of a real estate land trust are:

• A trust agreement.
• Beneficiary.
• Trustee.

1. A trust agreement. A real estate attorney can draft a trust agreement, keeping the cost, location and other complexities of the property in mind to make it a legal document. You need not file a land trust but must have it notarized.

2. Beneficiary. He gets the most property rights in legally drawn land trusts. The agreement must spell out the terms of the trust and what rights the beneficiary property owner will ultimately have to the property.

3. Trustee. To achieve the primary goal of anonymity through land trusts, you could simply appoint yourself or a trusted family member to be one of the trustees. It keeps the real estate investment safe and secure. A trustee has little say in the ultimate fate of the property because the beneficiary has the main right to the property. 

Other Aspects Of The Real Estate Land Trusts 

• Mortgage companies are wary of giving loans to property held in the trust. The best way out is to buy the property in your name, avail the loan mortgage, and then transfer its ownership to a trust. This way, the borrower transfers the assets to the trust but retains loan re-payment liability.
• In case you are planning to transfer the property to someone, use a ¡°quit claim¡± form to avoid paying the full transfer fee. The quitclaim reduces the full transfer fee to a fraction of the original transfer fee. Buy a homeowner's insurance cover to save on other tax liabilities for such transfers.
• While buying the insurance cover of the property, add the name of your new trust to the policy instead of your name only. The insurance taken on your name will be rendered null and void if the property is transferred to the land trust.
• To maintain the highest secrecy and anonymity, buy the property in the name of a land trust itself. This requires deployment of large resources, which only a few can afford. Thus, buying in your own name and then transferring to a trust is much more affordable.

Real estate land trusts give you a lot of privacy, as information about the property will not be available readily. Real estate properties are listed on the names of the current owners only, which in your case is some fancily named land trust. This provides the required anonymity and protects you from undesirable elements.

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