July 17th, 2010 | 
Author: 
Out of all the players involved in making sure your Land Trust is set up and functioning properly, none other can cause you as much joy and PAIN as your trustee. I had many students and fellow investors ask, “What do I do if my trustee and I have a falling out, or they try to sell the house from under me, or do something crooked and get me into trouble?
I could see that hard working people had been taught about land trust but not in a way that made it easy for them to understand. That’s O.K. though. I’m going to explain in my trademarked, “Land Trust Made Easy” way to take and fear, uncertainty, and apprehension out of your relationship with your trustee.
Even though it may be ideal for your trustee to know a little about Land Trust, real estate, and creative financing, it’s not at all necessary. The most important characteristics for your trustee to have is capability and willingness. Capability to sign what you what them to when you ask and the willingness to follow through with your request.
You want to be reasonably sure that your trustee doesn’t have any financial hardships. I mean like having credit issues, bad spending habits and such. Imagine that brother of law of yours that just can’t seem to get his act together. He always has a new plan to get on track and how he’s found God and stuff and all he needs from you is $5 to make it all happen.
Just take the root of the word, TRUSTee and picture the person you know this most epitomizes and presto, there you go.
I like to use my married sister as my trustee. Her characteristics are as follows: college graduate, gainfully employed, lives below her means, has a strong and tested bond with me, has a different last name as me, and lives in another state. I pay her a small percentage on every sale of a property, about 4% of my take, which is about $800.00 to $1500.00. I close about 4 deals a month so that’s a decent amount of money just to be available to sign documents when I ask.
Now I believe I have the ideal situation. If possible, always use kinfolk, however a long time close friend is also a good choice. Just make sure it’s someone you’d call if you had to dispose of a body.
Remember, you trustee is mortal and may have momentary misunderstanding of what you do to make money. Remember, the drive-by media will always be trying to fill their head up with fear-based notions. Most people out of lack of knowledge feed into this crap instead of informing themselves. Be prepared for this and educate your trustee enough so that they know you haven’t involved them in any illegal or risky activity.
Entrusting your finances to anyone is a decision not to be made lightly. Time to evaluate all your candidates before making a decision.
Posted in Real Estate Investment Trusts | 
Tags: Capability, Creative Financing, Fear, Fellow Investors, God, Ideal, Real Estate, Trustee