South Jersey Real Estate Investors Association

Myths About Land Trusts

by Mr. Land Trust^® 

I write and teach a lot about the many benefits of using a Land Trust to hold title to real estate investments. There is a lot of misinformation in the marketplace about Land Trusts and a lot of bad advice given regarding these title-holding trusts. After using these trusts for more than 40 years, I have found that the myths outnumber the facts. In this article, I will dispel some of the myths that I hear over and over.

MYTH: Only bare land can be put into a Land Trust.

TRUTH: Any real estate (or real estate-related asset) can be titled in a Land Trust.

MYTH: My lender will not let me close my deal using a Land Trust.

TRUTH: This depends on if you are using borrowed funds from a lender that must qualify you in the secondary market. If you must meet secondary market guidelines you must indeed close the deal in your name, but you can put the property into a Land Trust the day after closing. Once you have 10 secondary market loans (the maximum allowed) you must use a portfolio lender and they will let you close using your Land Trust.

Note: Bank of America WILL let you close four secondary market loans using a Land Trust to take the initial title. However, you must use an Illinois Land Trust and the property must be in Illinois.

MYTH: Do I have to get a tax ID number for my Land Trust?

TRUTH: The answer is no. Nor do you have to register your Trust Agreement with anyone.

MYTH: You can't do a Short Sale using a Land Tr ... Read More…

Land Trusts vs. Limited Liability Companies

by Mr. Land Trust^® 

Recently I read an article by an attorney telling his readers not to use a Land Trust. He recommended titling your investment property in a Limited Liability Company. He reasoned that Land Trusts are only a “deterrent” to a lawsuit and they do not provide “true” asset protection. The attorney went on explaining how any lawyer “worth his salt” would find out you are the Beneficiary of a Land Trust as the result of a judgment debtor’s exam (which is a hearing in a courtroom . . . sometimes called a Citation to Discover Assets). The attorney writing this article concluded that you have “zero” privacy with a Land Trust and if you want privacy, you should “save the expense” of a Land Trust and title your investment real estate directly into an LLC (Nevada or Delaware).

After more than 40 years in the real estate investment business, I can spot an attorney who understands the law but does not have practical real-world experience. I agree that LLCs have better asset protection than a Land Trust, but Land Trusts have far better privacy elements than LLCs. I use LLCs in my business but NOT to hold title to investment property.

Let’s review the benefits of using a Land Trust.

Land Trusts:

1. Are NOT registered anywhere on the planet
2. Do not require a registered agent
3. Pay no franchise taxes
4. Cost nothing to form (you can form them yoursel ... Read More…

Mr. Land Trust® expands on some of the many reasons to use a Trust to hold title to your real estate:

Reason #1: There are hundreds of thousands of lawsuits filed every year in America.

Many of these lawsuits are filed against the owners of real estate because they are easy prey for contingency fee lawyers and their deadbeat clients looking to make a quick buck off honest hard-working real estate investors. (I read about one investor who bought a vacant lot and signed personally for the financing. The buyer discovered after the purchase that the site had been a gas station with underground gas storage tanks that polluted the ground. The EPA was a constant threat. The buyer stopped making payments on his bank loan and now the bank is foreclosing).

Reason #2: You are buying a Pure Option or entering a Lease-Option.

You could enter an Installment Contract where fee title will remain in the seller’s name until full payment is made to satisfy the terms of the contract purchase.  

Your concern is that by the time you have created enough value added to the property to sell for a profit, the owner (the title-holder) may have done something stupid to cloud the title such as filed bankruptcy, had a lien recorded against him/her, made repairs that resulted in a mechanics lien, gotten divorced, borrowed against the property, signed a long-term lease for under market rents, etc. 

You can’t prevent problems like these from cropping up. What you can do i ... Read More…

There are few (if any) benefits to owning investment real estate in your own name. There are many reasons NOT to own investment real estate in your personal name. Here is a real-life case in point.

I control ten condominiums (in one complex) via ten separate Land Trusts. Each property is held in a separate Land Trust with the Beneficiary of each Trust being a Limited Liability Company. All ten units are rented to tenants.

Now and then trouble would arise at this complex and the tenants would start arguing with each other which oftentimes resulted in the police getting involved. Upon further investigation, I found that one of my tenants was always at the center of the trouble. In fact, it appeared that she was the source of all discontent!

When it came time to renew the leases at my complex, I decided not to renew Ms. Troublemaker’s lease. She had rented from me for years and was VERY unhappy that we were “kicking her out.” Of course, she wanted an explanation as to why I was not renewing her lease and I simply told her that the “owner” (the Trustee of the Land Trust) was not happy with her involvement with the other tenants and therefore, her lease would not be renewed.

Well, this explanation was not good enough for Ms. Troublemaker. A few days after my conversation with Ms. T. I received a call from my attorney’s secretary (my attorney was serving as my Trustee). The secretary said there was a lady at their office demanding to speak ... Read More…

6/10/26 -  Landlords and housing providers, please read this carefully, and you will see that positive change is on the horizon.

New guidance from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development limits the types of Fair Housing Act complaints the agency will accept regarding assistance or service animals.  Those who have followed me for some time have seen my previous articles over the years about this, based on my experiences with legislation and litigation in Ohio. The litigation was the most telling because the analysis that the Court of Appeals followed is very similar to what is laid out below and what the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is doing. They are going back to a strict reading of the actual law. Let me give you a quick review.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) protects people with disabilities. Disabilities are defined as something that interferes with an essential daily activity. Service or assistance animals must be able to address that disability. The two biggest examples I can quickly recall are guide dogs and dogs trained to prevent injury to a person experiencing a sudden seizure or a drop in blood sugar.

In recent years, this has become a wide-open, exploited area with multiple online cottage industries springing up to provide fake certifications for emotional support animals. This resulted in a stretch way beyond the bounds of what the ADA encompassed, and emotional issues are not frequently co ... Read More…

Most any serious real estate investor will agree that one of your most valuable tools in being successful is the art of networking. In many cases the first thing I would advise is to join your local real estate investment club. This gives you access to many like-minded people who like you want to buy, sell trade and rent properties.

I look forward to the annual National REIA cruise and have been aboard for this networking cruise for almost two decades now. As a faithful follower of National REIA, I have become friends and established great relationships with the staff as well as the hundreds of attendees who flock to this unique event. If you have not attended before, you are missing out on loads of opportunities presented here.

Let me give you some benefits of a real estate related cruise that you may not have considered. The cruise is education based and packed full of real estate strategies for you to learn in a relaxed atmosphere. And, the event, if you care to keep receipts and records of meetings and such, is something that may be able to be written off as business and education expense on your taxes (please consult your accountant). There are many opportunities for you to network with others during lunches, dinners, breaks and the many social functions that are planned throughout the cruise.

Since you have all this information and personal contacts, you can easily prepare your years business plan based on what you learn here. I am a national speaker s ... Read More…

Today: The “Perfect” Time to Invest
By Andy Heller, Co-Founder, Regular Riches Investment System

Should an investor swim or reach for a life preserver?

Just a few years ago, the number of real estate investors was growing by leaps and bounds; however, today
many investors that were attracted to real estate in the early part of this decade due to skyrocketing property
values have retreated to the sidelines. The market has been cooling nationwide, and so it seems has the
appetite of many investors. The million dollar question is, are they right? Should other investors follow their
lead?

To help answer this question, let’s look at a similar occurrence that happened in the late 1990s in the stock
market. Stocks began to appreciate rapidly in the mid 1990s. In response, stock investment clubs popped
up all over the country. The increased interest in the stock market drew more attention to stocks from
previously inactive and novice investors. This brought more money into the stock market, which in turn drove
prices even higher. The bubble burst on the stock market in the early 2000s. Stock investment clubs closed
and interest in the stock market waned in response to the declining values.

The end of the bull market and start of a bear market in the early 2000s sent many of these new stock
investors to the sidelines, just as real estate investors attracted to skyrocketing property values earlier this
decade have also just recently retreated to the sidelines. As we asked abo ... Read More…

 A System and Discipline by Tony Youngs

I remember when I attended my first seminar back in the 80’s the speaker said you have to have a system and discipline. I knew what the system was because he was teaching it. But I did not know what the discipline was until I began to apply the system. The discipline is that you have to take the action to make the system work properly. Through months and years of trial and error, I now know what he meant by discipline. I had to discipline myself to always take action, even when I didn’t feel like it. Despite all the easier softer ways of doing things today, I still sometimes don’t feel like it. But I force myself to take action.

Many years ago, I found something on the internet that I printed and framed and it is on my office wall. It’s called, the “7 Excuses”.  I can’t do it, I’m not feeling it right now, I’m too busy, I’m too tired, There’s no guarantee it’s going to work, I’m not good enough, and my luck sucks. I still to this day do not know who the author is, but I read that from time to time to keep me motivated. I always check to see if I’m making excuses. Let’s break it down.

I can’t do it: if that’s what I’m thinking, I’m probably right, But if I change it to, I can do it, I’m also right. I must program my mind that I can do it, Then all I need to do is try, and if I run into a hurdle, I find a wa ... Read More…

The Impact of Student Debt on Qualifying Tenants

As an investor and housing provider, one of the things I fear most is a long-term vacancy. I’m
about to face the worst vacancy of my life… all three of my children will finally be out of the
home, with two of them heading out over the next few weeks in pursuit of educational
advancement. In today’s world, that advancement is usually accompanied by something else
we are becoming all too familiar with in the United States, student debt. My children will leave
school in 3 years with around $50,000 in student debt, which has become easier than ever to
access. Never before have I seen such willing lenders who are anxious to provide funding to
someone who statistically is less than likely to make the lender whole. As an industry, this
overfunding of student loans, and the high volume of defaults, will begin to affect how you and I
manage into the future.

Starting at the end of June, student debt will no longer be paused as a side effect of Covid, and
payments will again be called due. Over one-third of all Americans between the age of 18 and
30 have some type of student loan. Thirty percent of those loans were already delinquent
before the Covid pause. As a housing provider you are going to see the impact of this over the
next several months and years and need to be educated and ready to make the best decision
possible.

Having been a private investigator and housing provider my entire adult life, I have seen the
ebbs and flows ... Read More…

Why Use a Land Trust?

By Mr. Land Trust®, Randy Hughes

Do you remember 1969? Probably not. You may have been born after 1969 and did not find real estate as an investment until many years later. I remember the year 1969 very well. It was the year in which I purchased my first rental house. I was still in college and realized that I needed to break the cycle of poverty in my family.

First, I decided to get more education than anyone else in my family. So, I went to college and majored in business. While studying in college, I realized that most people in America who became wealthy did it through investment real estate. My initial interest was in apartment buildings, but since they took large amounts of down payment money (the “nothing down” concept had not been invented yet) I defaulted to the single family home as my IDEAL investment vehicle.

By the time I graduated from college I had acquired three rental houses and one small office building. After graduation I continued acquiring rental houses and titling them in my name personally. One sunny morning I woke up and realized the potential risk I was creating by owning all these properties in my own name. These were the days before you could access the county recorder’s office online. But, you could go down to the court house and walk into the recorder’s office to look up each owner of every property in town. Wow, was I stupid!

I began to research different ways of holding title to real ... Read More…