This article continues our discussion of trusts, specifically the real estate trust. First, only a couple of states, like Florida and Illinois, have true “land” trusts. I won’t get into the legal details on how they are different, as that gets complicated. Just know that unless you live in these states you are NOT using a land trust. This gets confusing as many investors attend educational events where these trusts are taught or sold without distinguishing them.

The rest of us have something a little different. We call these trusts real estate trusts, asset holding trusts, property trusts or the like. They are really just simple living trusts but should be created by a knowledgeable attorney. They are designed to hold title for privacy purposes and facilitate transactions such as wholesaling or even selling real estate.

Trusts are a kind of legal entity (like LLC) that can own things. They can be a named buyer on a purchase contract and be named on county land records. Because trusts are not registered with the state, no one will
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All investors will certainly hear about the use of trusts in their real estate business. Most investors may encounter these trusts in some way. A few will use them regularly. The fact is, there are a number of different kinds of trust used both in real estate and our personal lives. This set of 4 articles will highlight the types of trusts most commonly encountered by real estate investors. Here we generally cover the 3 trusts used in REI, and then we’ll follow up with an article on each one.

The first one is most commonly called a “land” trust. This is not super accurate! Only a few states actually have true land trusts as they are very specific types of trusts authorized by the state. For the rest of us, we use property trusts, real estate trusts, holding trusts or the like. These are simple revocable (changeable) trusts designed to simply own real estate—either by contract or title. These trusts are used for privacy purposes and to facilitate many REI transactions.

The second trust is the standard family living trust. This is a much larger and complicated trust as it’s design
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Anytime (like now) that there is a rollout of government assistance, you can count on two things:

1)    Bumps in the road (it's hard to manage many millions of people needing help)

2)    SCAMS

I haven't yet heard of any of my clients or friends being taken in by this stuff, but I did want to alert you to this dynamic.

How to make sure your check is the right check.

Most of the Economic Impact Payments (i.e. stimulus checks) have been direct deposited by now. So if you have NOT received it, you might want to check the status using the tool the IRS has set up here:

https://www.irs.gov/coronavirus/economic-impact-payments

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I'd like to simplify things for you today.

There is so. much. noise. right now about how to survive (even thrive) in the midst of this very difficult season.

"Pivot" they say.

And yes, if you are running a business, these times call for a bit of a shift. Only a very small amount of businesses haven't been affected in some serious way by this ongoing crisis, and if you need somebody else to tell you to pivot at this point, chances are good that you are already in trouble.

I've already been writing to my clients a great deal about this dynamic, and I hope you have been finding these messages helpful. We will continue to be out in front on these matters, simply because things are constantly changing, and we are uncovering new information and new benefits (and how to receive them).

It's all getting very complicated.

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