Jim Hebin's Guerrilla Asset Protection
Jim Hebin (aka: "Beach House Jim") is a local Real Estate Guru who has been teaching in the Tampa Bay area since 2006. He has been landlording since 1984, and comes from a family of landlords and vacation rental operators, is he is thus very familiar with the predators and pitfalls associated with owning and renting real estate.
In this class, he begins by identifying the four basic predator types that real estate investors (especially landlords) must watch out for:
Tenants, Attorneys, Ex-Spouses, and Government Agencies. He describes the modus operandi of each, and how to stay out of their "crosshairs."
He then describes the distinction between various types of artificial entities, and elaborates on the strengths and weaknesses of each. He decribes how and when to use LLCs vs. Land Trusts vs. Corporations, and how they work together to provide a strong defensive position against these predators. For example, Land Trusts should be used to "own stuff and do nothing" while LLCs should be used to "do stuff and own nothing." It is prudent to set up a separate land trust for each property, but you may use the same LLC as trustee, who contracts with a separate LLC management company using a master lease with right to sublease to the actual tenant.
All the techniques he teaches fall into one of two categories: either they are "Bear Traps" or "Wild Goose Chases." Like Lou Brown and other followers of the late, great Jack Miller, Jim advocates the use of "strategic naming conventions" for your artificial entities to throw predators off the trail, such as using Land Trust names like "The Baptist Unwed Mothers Fund" or "Amputee Orphans of Florida Trust" that only someone heartless would try to sue it, or using 9 digit numbers that look like social security numbers (XXX-XX-XXXX). If someone wants to interpret that as a social security number then that is up to them.
Setting up your LLCs in other states that are more privacy-oriented, like New Mexico, make it harder for predators to locate LLC officers and more expensive for them to serve process out-of-state. This makes for an expensive "Wild Goose Chase" for the predator. An example "Bear Trap" includes Financial Friends cross-collateralizing loans on each others'
properties in a quid-pro-quo fashion, covering any exposed equity with demand notes with interest rates that outgrow equity year to year.
Many of the techniques he describes cannot be done alone, as self-dealing is not allowed. Instead, he suggests we cultivate a group of "Financial Friends" from our local investor community to do deals with each other, serve as trustees for each others' land trusts, clouding each others' title as necessary, and cross-collateralizing loans on each others' property. A Financial Friend can be kept honest in several ways, especially by reciprocating duties and laibilities with each other's properties.
About the Instructor: "Beach House Jim" Hebin has been investing in real estate since 1984 and has used land trusts, LLCs and corporations in Florida and other states. He teaches classes to real estate investors, such as "Vacation Rental Fundamentals" and regular Land Trust Workshops and LLC Workshops in the Tampa area. He currently provides reasonably-priced coaching and mentoring to investors and landlords on property management and setting up and using artificial entities to enhance their real estate portfolios.
Jim's website is "http://BeachHouseJim.com" and can be reached at
(727) 470-0771 or at Jim@BeachHouseJim.com.
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Some other Guerilla Asset Protection Tactics
Do trustee resignation letter at the same time as trustee is appointed. Fill
in the date later as required, attach the original pen to the document.
Overencumber properties. E.g. 17% note with no payments.
Incsmart.biz to get a wyoming llc company
which is very cheap.
Nevada and Wyoming are the only two states where an SSN is not needed to incorporate. Privacy is preserved. However it costs about $2500 to set up and $800 a year to maintain. I don't know if that is because you need an intermediary to do it for you or because of its intrinsic costs.
Warranty deed warrants that title is good. Quit claim deed just abandons
interest to you.
Garn-St Germain Depository Institutions Act of 1982 says that transferring into a trust is not an acceptable reason for acceleration or alienation of the loan, that is, calling the loan due.
