Land trust questions.

[tarheelsman71]

Was wondering if anyone here can answer some questions about forming a land trust. My group of five families, individually, none of us could afford to purchase a homestead/retreat. However, united we could each pony up some money to afford some land. Is there anyone out there with some major gotcha's, or some sage advice for us. I know it is kinda hard considering that you dont know our situation, but give it a whirl if you will. Our group has been formed and active for 4 years now. So far everything is stored in my basement. 1100 sq ft of wall to wall stores, but we dont live at our retreat. Another guy I go to church with has 3 cabins out in the sticks that he said we could use if the SHTF. And for about a year he was gung ho, buying an AR, learning to use it, buying MRE's, and cans of food, etc. Well he hasnt taken his retreat off the table, but there were issues. He does not live at the retreat. It is remote, but no so remote that people havent broken in before. Our stuff would never be safe there. We dont want to leave anything there, because is he decided to sell the porperty, or he gets hit by a bus and his wife sells it, then we would be out. We want to approach him and see if he is willing to form a land trust, LLC or something where we have our name on the lease, etc. That way it would take more than a whim to sell it and give my group more security in knowing that the retreat aint going there. We want to do some stuff, but only if it aint going nowhere. ANyway, if you have any info it would definitely be helpful. What is funny and tragic is the the land owner is a real estate guy so he would have the answers, but I want to know more.

[monkeybird]

As badly as I hate to say it - you need a lawyer. Period. This is a complicated issue. I would not trust the real estate agent/owner as far as I could throw him/her. Get your own representative.

[EX121]

I agree with Monkeybird. My brother-in-law did something simular and it turned out bad. The big problem he had is there was no prior provision for buy-out if one person wanted out. so he had to scramble to pay off the other guy.

[tarheelsman71]

Thanks for the info. I would have had a lawyer draw it up, but I wanted to hear any recommendations. That buy-out clause would be a big one.

[610Alpha]

Like Dave Ramsey says "The only ship that doesn't sail is a 'Partnership'", what happens if someone gets divorced or goes crazy and starts doing drugs or _____. This stuff happens all the time. What if one of members spouse or child gets real sick and they need the money to pay for medical bills how would the rest of you buy them out? Extremely high levels of communication and all kinds of what-ifs need to be played out and documented. Like lawyers say "if its not in writing it didn't happen".

Don't want to be a downer but this stuff can happen and does, not that it will but you need to plan ahead for these things. Good luck.

[tarheelsman71]

Funny you should say that....One of our group used to be married. What is odd about it is that we were having a meeting last 14 months ago at his house with his wife and we were doing a BOB gear check and everyone going over the contingencies and checking out his very cool Gen 4 NVG's. We talked, planned, coordinated until the wee hours of the morning. Then we couldnt get either of them to answer an email or phone call. Then out of the blue 2 months later, the wife emails back and says that her and <his name> wont be making the next meeting as we are getting divorced. During that last meeting they had already signed sep papers, but played it off like professionals. the rest of us in the group were floored. Then we were stuck trying to figure out is they we in or out or what. What should we do with the food in my basement that they helped pay for. He was one fire team leader, and she was our medic. Talk about shell shock.

I do have good news though, I just left a meeting with the land-owner. He and I did a bunch of talking about s-corp, llc, land trust's, but before we did any of that I watched him purchase 3000 dollars worth of #10 can of food. He had watched some videos that I had sent him from Gerald Celente, and it made things pretty clear for him. I felt kind like I was taking advantage of him, because he was in such a flustered state, but it is all for the best. We are planning a land trust. Basically he said the best way to do it is to have the land divided into shares. Each person give him a promisary note for a certain amount of money per month. Those promisary notes equate into shares of the property. 49% of the property will be divided by the 5 family units. He had some requests that no one do anything to the property without letting him know. Like burying a shipping container or something like that. With that said, he said that he would put in a provision that would state that only a 75% vote could the land be sold. There were a lot of other items that we talked about. More importantly was his understanding that we were scared that he would sell the property after building it up. His commitment joining the group continued when he asked me to purchase one my AR's. I am really excited. Which is funny because I am the pessimist in the group. Anyway, we are playing in a golf tournament tomorrow so we will have about 5 hours to hammer out some more details before we go and see the Lawyer next week. I think this has the ability to turn out bad, but I dont think our economy has too much more time before it tanks so my group is close to having a real retreat instead of a place to bugout to and then turn it into a retreat.

[Erg]

Best advice, get a free consult from an attorny in this matter. Every state is different with that sort of thing.

Good luck