Here are just some of the benefits:
- Avoids probate! Have you ever had the pleasure of trying to settle an estate? Let me just save you some time, money, and aggravation. If you have all your property correctly set up in trusts in the first place, then all your assets will pass automatically to the appropriate heirs to your personal fortune! This also avoids your last wishes being contested as can often happen with a will. We are not saying don’t make a will, but having your properties in trusts upfront will avoid many issues in the future. It’s kind of like estate planning as you go. Every time you close on a property you can take title in a land trust and have your estate planned in advance to where you don’t have to think about it constantly or update your will every other day.
- Anonymity in ownership. Now you have the ability to own nothing but control everything. If a tenant slips and falls on your steps and decides to sue you, how easy do you want to make it for their attorney to find everything you own? If you have nothing in your name and you look like the poorest person in the world to sue, how long do you think that lawsuit will last? Exactly. Lawyers are business men too!
- Quite possibly best of all, you don’t necessarily have to go to closings anymore if you don’t choose to. Your trustee (who you choose) goes to your closing for you to handle all the paperwork, so you can concentrate on doing more deals and making more money!
I was on the phone the other day with a brand new tenant buyer that is moving into one of our properties. She was calling again to complain about some repair work that was not done to her satisfaction and her general dissatisfaction with her experience with our company so far. As I was explaining to her that the house was not brand new and that what she wanted was not on our scope of work, I realized I had a perfect opportunity to “go negative.”