To the closing agents handling purchases where TRSTE, LLC or Land Trust Service Corporation is named as the trustee of a land trust that is purchasing the property:
We have prepared the land trust and will ensure that it is executed at or prior to closing. Please contact us to ensure that the name that you will insured as the owner as well as the name on the deed will match the trustee and trust name and date.
Since the purchaser is the trustee of a statutory land trust, please forward to us a copy of the proposed deed for review and approval prior to closing. Please ensure that the following language is included on the deed prior to sending it to us for review:
Full power and authority is hereby granted to said Trustee named herein, pursuant to Section 689.073, Florida Statutes, either to protect, conserve, and to sell, or to lease, or to encumber, mortgage, or otherwise to manage and dispose of the real property (or any part thereof) described herein. In no case shall any party dealing with said Trustee in relation to said property, or to whom said property or any part thereof shall by conveyed, contracted to be sold, leased or mortgaged by said trustee, be obliged to see to the application of any purchase money, rent or money borrowed or advanced on said property, or be obliged to see that the terms of this trust have been complied with, or be obliged to inquire into the necessity or expediency of any act of said trustee, or be obliged or privileged to inquire into any of the terms of said trust agreement. Further all interests of the beneficiaries under the terms of the unrecorded trust agreement are hereby declared to be personal property only.
The deed is the only document we will need to review and approve prior to closing on our client’s behalf. Please do not send us any other communications regarding this closing, as they will only be ignored.
If you send us any documents to execute in relation to the closing, please note that:
To beneficiaries and closing agents who are handling the sale or transfer of a property from TRSTE, LLC or Land Trust Service Corporation as trustee, please coordinate directly with our Trust Administrator. Please contact us as early in the process as possible to ensure that there will be a company manager available on your closing date to execute the documents.
The beneficiary should not sign any documents to sell the property. Negotiate the listing agreement with your real estate agent if you are using one. The seller on the listing agreement should be our company as trustee of the land trust that owns the property. Have them send the contract to us using their preferred e-signing platform. They should send it to sign@mylandtrustee.com. As the beneficiary, you will need to email us to inform us that the listing agreement is forthcoming and to authorize us to sign it as the trustee. This process will be followed whenever there are any amendments, such as price reductions or changes to the listing agreement during the listing period.
When a buyer comes forward, follow the same process as you did with the listing agreement: negotiate the details with the buyer through your real estate agent, and then have them send the contract to us via their e-signing platform to sign@mylandtrustee.com, followed by your authorization email. We’ll sign it within one business day and turn it around to your agent.
Once we sign the contract, we will update our records to reflect the change in status and prepare for closing. You or your agent should notify the closing or title agent to contact our company at hello@mylandtrustee.com. Suppose we haven’t heard from the closing agent already, about a week or two before the closing date. In that case, we will reach out to them to begin coordinating the closing, executing the closing documents, arranging signing logistics, and handling payment.
A day or two before the closing date, we should receive the documents that need our signature and notarization from the title agent. We have multiple notaries in our office, so there is no need for the title company to send a mobile notary to our location, nor to charge you a fee for such a service.
We are not permitted to sign any documents without written authorization from the beneficiaries. The form to give us such instructions is available on our website. You should review the settlement statement to ensure the figures match what you expected from the closing. We do not represent you as your attorney, nor as your real estate broker or agent during the closing. Therefore, you will need to verify that those numbers are correct before sending us the instruction to the trustee, authorizing us to sign the settlement statement and other closing documents.
The closing agent will need to collect our trustee fees listed on the settlement statement. Our fees are also detailed on the “Fees” page of our website, but we will give the closing agent the exact amount due before closing.
Funds from the closing, when permitted by the closing agent, will be paid directly to the beneficiary instead of to TRSTE, LLC or Land Trust Service Corporation. However, at other times, the closing agent may require that they send the closing proceeds only to the “owner” of the property – our company. In such cases, they will wire the funds to our trust account, and then we wire the funds to you (additional fees may apply). Regardless of the method, we will need your wiring instructions so that the closing agent or we can send the sales proceeds to your account.
IRS form 1099-S for the closing will be issued directly to the beneficiary of the land trust because the land trust is a pass-through entity disregarded by the IRS for tax purposes. We should already have the beneficiary’s name, address, and tax identification number in our files, but—in some rare cases—we might not have the most recent information. Therefore, we may need to get this information from you to send to the closing agent so they can issue the 1099-S to you.
If you are only refinancing the property and your lender requires that the property be removed from the trust before the refinance closing, please have the title agent contact us as soon as possible. The closing agent can prepare the deed from the trust for you as the beneficiary, or we can prepare the deed and other transfer documents. We will execute those documents and send them to the closing agent. We will advise them to hold the documents in escrow until the transaction is closed, and the new mortgage proceeds are ready to be disbursed. We will charge our trust termination fee and send you an invoice that must be paid before we can prepare and execute the documents to remove the property from the trust. If the refinance closing does not occur, the closing agent should either return the original, unrecorded trust termination deed to us or destroy the originals so that they cannot be recorded.
Note that removing the property from the trust may affect your real property tax valuation and exemptions, potentially increasing your real property taxes in the following year. Additionally, you must secure new hazard and liability insurance on the property since the “insured owner” is no longer the land trust. You will also need to notify the homeowners’ association of the ownership change so they can send notices directly to you, rather than through our office.
If you have any questions or issues that come up during the process of closing on your land trust property, please don’t hesitate to contact your designated land trust administrator or our front customer service desk at hello@mylandtrustee.com.
The 1099-S for the closing will be issued directly to the beneficiary of the land trust as the land trust is a pass-through entity disregarded by the IRS for tax purposes. Our Trust Administrator will be able to provide you with the beneficiary’s name, address, and tax identification number.
Transferor information for the 1099-S:
Beneficiary Name: [Name of Beneficiary]
Beneficiary SSN: [(Call for SSN)] (For security reasons, we will provide the Social Security Number by phone.)
After closing, please wire the seller’s proceeds directly to the beneficiary (into an account in the beneficiary’s name) rather than to the trustee. We will sign a disbursement authorization directing the funds to the beneficiary’s bank account to facilitate this.
We are not permitted to execute any documents without written authorization from the beneficiaries. The authorization form can be found here.
You will need to collect our trustee fees on the settlement statement. Our fees are outlined on the “Fees” page of this website as well, but we will provide you with the exact amount due prior to closing.
Please send all documents for signing one to two days before closing, along with a UPS (preferred) or FedEx return shipping label. This will allow us to print, sign, witness, and notarize everything in advance. We will scan the executed documents back to you for review, and then ship the original documents using the provided label. We will send you an electronic copy of the documents prior to shipping them, but we must have a label to return the physical originals to your office.
