Real Estate Investing: Don't forget to apply for your Abatement !

Hello All:

Don't forget to apply for your real estate abatement's before the end of the month! January is usually the month that cities and towns allow owner's of real estate to apply for a reduction/abatement of their real estate property taxes. On real estate have owned or presently own I apply every year. The procedure is simple, go or call your local tax assessors office and request an Abatement form, fill it out in detail and send it in. In about 30 - 60 days you will receive an answer on how much you were given off your tax bill.

The key to getting your request for abatement accepted is how good your reason for abatement is; you just can't say I want a reduction because...
Rather, you have to make an argument for them in order for acceptance, such as :

-> The value of your property has dropped dramatically
-> You purchased the property for less then assessed value
-> The property is not worth what the town or city has assessed
-> The property hasn't been physically assessed for greater then 3 years
-> Use category has changed or is no longer valid

and so on, you get my point.

You may also want to note that you recognize that the assessment is based on the previous year (they always are 1 year behind ), but your argument still holds true.

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Until next time -be well.

James Gage

Real Estate Investing : Question About Land Trusts

Good Morning:

I received a question this morning concerning my last post on land trusts, so I thought I would post it with my answer for the benefit of all my faithful blog readers.

Be well,

James Gage

Q: Do we have to have an attorney represent the trust in case of any legal disputes or can we represent properly the land trust in California?

A: It depends on what the legal action is about. For example, if it's an eviction then the trustee can defend or bring the litigation to the court on behalf of the trust. If on the other hand it is a civil or criminal action against the trust I would use an attorney to represent the interests of the trust; keep in mind the engaging of an attorney on behalf of the trust is a responsibility of the trustee.

www.jgage.c

Real Estate Investing: Reasons to Use a Land/Realty Trust

1. Avoids property being probated (out of court transfer upon death of beneficiary)

2. Ease of Transferability

3. Judgments do not attach to the beneficiary

4. No Partition (avoids spouse’s “forced share” sale buyout upon divorce)

5. Easier management with multiple owners (multiple owner do not have to sign docs)

6. No costs upon transferring beneficiary

7. No registered agent needed

8. Legal and Equitable property interest in trustee’s name (never be in the "chain of title")

9. Income and Expense conduit, not a business with tax consequences

10. Trustee has no personal liability

11. No annual fees like other entities, if trustee is an individual or friend

12. Estate planning benefits – automatic successor beneficiaries

13. Less expense with grantor creating the trust entity

14. Avoids the due on sale clause (lenders never know what happened)

15. Privacy of ownership (no recordation of the Trust Agreement) Helps avoid Identity Theft of your name

16. Keep sales price private

17. Able to fracture interests of multiple owners without being "partners"

18. Ease of linkage to other asset protection entities

19. Non-judicial repossessions of real estate sold on installment contract

20. 1099 not required for transfers (personal property not subject to real estate regulations)

21. Ease of operating across state lines

22. Lots of case law to support land trust administration

23. Many attorneys do not study this section of the law – not profitable for them (yields a competitive advantage)

24. No recordation of the Trust Agreement

25. No tax return to file (pass through entity)

26. To avoid “seasoning” problems (secondary market rules of ownership)

27. To save title insurance premiums (Trustee-insured-remains the same)

28. Good negotiating technique in the sale or purchase of property (Disney World used land trusts to acquire its property prior to construction...to avoid price escalation)

29. To provide non-recourse financing

30. Lowering of real estate taxes (prevents re-assessment)

31. Avoids state regulations that apply to corporations and LLC’s

As you can see, Land/Realty Trusts are a wonderful tool for you to use to hide your assets, avoid real estate tax increases, privatize your sales transactions, avoid probate and use for many other benefits. Now that you have a basic understanding of why people use Land/Realty Trusts, please consider acquiring our Land/Realty Trusts Made Easy Home Study Course. You will be amazed at the logic behind how to structure your Trust Agreement so no one but YOU understands what is going on.

At the end of the course we give you all of the forms needed to create and maintain your own Land/Realty Trusts on 1 CD, and we have even included 2 DVDs on how to file out the trusts page by page and line by line - this will save you thousands of dollars in legal fees. As a bonus you will receive on CD Oxford's Law Dictionary.

By the way, I want to let you in on a secret! When attorneys put together land /realty trusts for their clients they hand over your information to a paralegal who uses a computer program (that only attorneys have) and 20 minutes later you have your document. And sense I have a legal background as many of you know, I have this software which I use for creating my own trusts, and now I am making not only my knowledge and expertise to you, but also these very valuable trust documents. So please take time out of your busy day to visit my web site.

This is available by going to: www.JGAGE.com clicking on “Investing Tools” then clicking on one of the “Package Deals” tabs.

Are you working hard to acquire your assets? You will spend a life time building your financial estate…spend a little time and

money learning how to protect your net worth from the deadbeats and their contingency fee lawyers!

Please visit our website at www.JGAGE.com. You can read even more about Land Trusts and how they benefit you.

Be well,

James Gage

Real Estate Investing: Abatement of Real Estate Taxes

Hello All:

James Gage here with a real estate tip that may save you hundreds of dollars on a yearly basis on your property tax bill ! Many of you may say I already know about this, but my question is how many of you are taking advantage of this strategy on a yearly basis?

You see all communities offer what is called an " Abatement Process", that is, usually in January of each calender year, the city or town of where the property is located allows owners to petition the city/town government through the abatement process to lower said properties real estate taxes. You will have to call your local town hall or city hall and request an abatement form along with the proper time frame to file. When you receive the form you make a case on why your taxes should be lowered, such as value of the property in your opinion has dropped, what you purchased the property for is not what you could sell it for, the neighborhood as a whole has lost value etc...

It has been my experience that the powers that be will always allow some sort of decrease in taxation just for the mere fact that you took the time to file for abatement.

Hope this helps.

Be well.