I recently had a conversation with a great investor from Ohio. He had hired a company based in Las Vegas to draft a trust document, and a bunch of other stuff to help him on his journey into wholesaling.
He was kind enough to let me see the trust document created for him. There was no mention of any statute from any state saying that this document was a trust under the laws of….X. There were no instructions telling him to put that language in the Deed that would place property into the trust, and for some reason the seller was named as a party to his trust. Basically, this guy just had a weird contract that allowed his seller to still have an interest in the property – even after he gave them funds to close. At the risk of sounding harsh- this guy was taken advantage of, and he would need a ton of experience to be able to manipulate these documents into something workable.
I know I always say, “A trust is just a piece of paper” which is true, but it’s a legal piece of paper. There is a little bit of “know how” that comes with drafting and using these pieces of paper, Once you know the basics you can really take off and start using them to your advantage, but you need to get the basics down first.
After my conversation with this nice man from Ohio, I now have two new goals: One is to never ever have one of my clients feel the way this guy did today, and the second is to be sure my clients have every opportunity to understand what they are using and how to use it.
If you’re interested in getting free info, tips or updates about land trusts email me at info@teachmelandtrusts.com.