Best Practices for Titling Real Estate

[00:00:00] Speaker A: A lot of people always ask me how they should take title to their real estate, and my advice is always, if you're married, if there's any other reason to not do so, then don't do it. But if otherwise, you should take title with both spouses. That's the best practice because in Florida we recognize tenancy by the entirety, asset protection. So if one spouse is in an accident or a litigation, a contract dispute, anything like that, where they get sued and the judgment is solely against that spouse, it will not attach to property that is owned as the entirety as husband and wife or spouses. A married couple is generally the way we write that now. They just own title as a married couple and it will not attach. Now, the great thing about Florida is even if the deed into the married couple fails to state their marital status, so it just says, John and Jim, take title. If later a judgment hits one of those two people, if they can sign an affidavit saying that they were married at the time they took title, and they remain continuously married the whole time that they held title, then tenancy by the entirety protections will protect that property from judgment creditors. So for that reason, we always recommend holding title as tenancy by the entirety. As a married couple, if you are a married couple now, there are times, of course, that your family law attorney or your state planning attorney may say, let's not do that. Let's have this property in one spouse's name, this one in the other spouse's name, and there are very valid reasons at times to do that. So it's very particular to your situation. So anytime you're getting ready to buy property and you're going to be taking it in your own name, you're not going to be taking it into an LLC or a land trust or a corporation. Be sure to consult an attorney to talk about the best way to take title. Before you go to closing, don't just go by whatever your realtor said or whatever a friend told you you should do. Consult a lawyer, a real estate lawyer in Florida who understands Florida's nuances. If you live outside the state and you're coming to Florida and you're buying property, be sure to talk to a Florida lawyer. Don't necessarily rely just on the advice of your attorney who's represented you for years in your home state, where you're coming from. So that's a, that's another thing to think about. Also, of course, there are other ways to hold title. You can hold it solely in your name. That's sole ownership you can hold it as joint tens of rights of survivorship although a married couple cannot hold it as joint tense rights of survivorship because they're married. So it's always going to be tendency about the entirety joint tenant rights. Survivorship just means that the last one standing gets it. So whoever the survivor is, of all the owners on the on that property, it's theirs. As long as they are the last survivor, after everyone else has died, they own the property. So joint tenants right of survivorship is a good way to hold it if you are unrelated by marriage to hold title that way. And then also, of course, there's tenants in common, which means if there's multiple owners, let's say there's three owners. As each one dies, their share goes to their heirs as they have either put it in their will or by statute, depending on if they don't have a will or if they have a will. So that's another reason it's very important to have a will. Typically we recommend if you are unrelated parties owning property together, it's better to form an entity like a land trust, form a land trust, or form an LLC held title to that property because it just makes management a lot easier and also protection for asset protection that I talk about a lot here. It is provided if it's inside of the trust or an entity that you're not going to get if you just own it solely in your names. So that's my $0.10 on how to title property, ten by the entirety. Joint tenants rights of survivorship and tenants in common. Hope it helps. [00:04:14] Speaker B: Thanks for listening to this edition of Trust this if you got something out of it, please press like and subscribe and give us a five star review to help us reach others who can benefit from this series. Until next time, keep aspiring to a better life.