[00:00:00] So one of your friends or colleagues or even your employer has asked you to act as land trustee for their real estate land trust. And you're looking around right now trying to figure out should you do it, and what does that actually mean?
[00:00:27] I'm Joe Siegel with Aspire Legal Solutions and my land trustee, and I am a real estate asset protection and estate planning lawyer here in Florida. And this is what we deal with every day because we are the Trustee of over 2000 properties in 65 counties across Florida at any time. We are the oldest land trust company in Florida, and we sat on the committees that helped write the law. We have literally written the book. We'll put a link to it down in the show notes, and it's what we do every day. So we'll tell you a little bit about what it's like to be a land trustee so you can make your decision as to whether you want to remain your friend's trustee out there in the public records. So what do you do as a land trustee? Well, your job as a land trustee is to be the face of that property. So anything that happens at that property, you are dragged into it. We had one client, one time who named his mother as trustee because he didn't want to pay an annual trustee fee to us to be the trustee. He wanted to save some money. So we gave him all the warnings and told him some of the things that happened, and he said, no, no, no, I don't care, I want my mom. She said, she'll do it. She's going to be the trustee. So fine, we prepared the trust. She's the trustee. And not a month later, he calls us, begging us, please, please, please remove my mom as trustee. I need you guys to take over as trustee. And we go, fine, we'll become the successor trustee. But what happened? Why? Why is this so important? Well, a tenant is suing me for racial discrimination in the leasing of this property. And the federal marshal showed up at my mom's house with the complaint to serve her and it scared her to death. That's just one example. Another example is the property was being used as an illegal daycare and an illegal dog fighting breeding ground. Well, daycares, children and vicious dogs do not mix well. So the dogs attacked a child and maimed child, and it was very bad. And so all of a sudden, you know, you're worried about, well, the trustee is about to be in the news because they own this property. So they're going to knock on the door of the trustee to get comment. The Press Will. Hey, did you know that there was an illegal dog fight, breeding grounds in the backyard, and an illegal daycare going on inside the house? And if you are acting as the trustee, you are the one with Channel nine shoving their microphone in your face. You, you are the one that when mold is growing in the baby's bedroom right behind the crib, the parents show up at your house or at your office with the child wrapped in a blanket screaming at you because you are the face of that property. You are the face that caused that black mold that is making their child sick. You are the person who poisoned the neighbor's tree next door. We've had that happen. All of these are real life cases that we have seen ourselves as trustee. Plus, being trustee is a very, very important position because you have complete power to lease, sell, encumber and convey the property. That means you can sell the property, you can lease it out to people, you can put a mortgage on it. And so for the people who are trying to choose a trustee and you're thinking of just choosing a friend or a colleague or a parent or a relative to be your trustee, we can tell you horror stories there as well. We can tell you stories of the client's best friend who he chose to be the trustee of the property, who takes the property, goes out and pulls out a giant mortgage on the property because they're hurting for money. They get the cash, throw the property back into the land trust after the fact, and then run away with the money, spend it, and now the property's being foreclosed and he goes, but wait, I didn't authorize property, a half million dollar mortgage on that property. You probably didn't, but your trustee, what do they have to lose? They'd already lost everything. They had nothing else. So they, they went and pulled the money out of your property because they had absolutely all the right to do that as far as the rest of the world is concerned, and they basically stole the equity out of your property. We have had friends and family as trustees who have decided to use the fan, the home, the trust home, as a grow house for illegal drugs. We've had them lease the property out to tenants and just keep the rents and not let the true beneficiary, their client, know. We are capitalized, we are professionals, we have law licenses. We are also real estate brokers. So we have licenses at stake, we have reputation at stake. We are well capitalized, we are worth lots of money. So we do not want to put ourselves at risk by doing something stupid or Illegal with your property and by being so experienced. We are not phased when we get served with a lawsuit, no matter how thick it is, no matter how scary it is. We are not phased when we get a call from the FBI, the irs, atf, dea, Homeland Security, because something was found in a property where we are the trustee and they have questions for us. We are not phased when a neighbor sues us personally, alleging that we poisoned their tree next door, alleging that we illegally cut down their tree next door. It's part of what we do. We're used to it. So why take a chance? Number one, if you are being asked to be the trustee for a friend or a relative or a colleague, why take that chance? Why take on that burden, that potential liability to yourself?
[00:06:04] Why burden your tranquility for their saving money on a trustee? You're not going to get paid for it for all the headache that it could bring you. So why take on that burden if you don't need to? And number two, if you are a beneficiary looking for a trustee, why take the chance that you're going to put this friend, relative in that situation and potentially destroy a relationship, a lifetime of relationship with this person, because you've now put them in the sights of people who are angry about something that happened at that property. Why take the chance that your longtime friend finds themselves down and out and they need money so they go, well, I can mortgage this property or I can lease this property and I can just take the money or I can start growing or using it for illegal activities and I have all the power in the world to do that. Why take that chance when you can choose a large professional third party trustee? That this is what we do every day, all day long for thousands of properties around the state, been doing it for well over 25 years, over a quarter of a century. Why take that chance? Don't do it. Use a professional third party trustee, get all the benefits of land trust, get that anonymity, get that convenience that you don't have to show up and sign documents at closings, get that peace of mind, that foundation under you, that you can feel comfortable that the property is being held in a trust by a trustee that is not phased by the events of being a trustee and is also not going to do anything illegal or wrong with your property.
[00:07:50] If you have any questions, call us or email us or just come visit
[email protected] we're happy to help in any way we can.
[00:08:00] 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.
