Buy in your name -> land trust, but isn't your name still listed?

[Johnny Weekend]

A few suggestions to achieve anonymity is to buy in your name and then transfer into a land trust. However if someone were you pull up the records they will see the history and note that the prior owner was you (before the land trust). How do you achieve the anonymity?

[Scott Smith]

Thanks @Jim Goebel,

The St Germain Act excludes transfers to an Inter Vivos Trust (estate planning tool) from the Due on Sale Clause. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garn%E2%80%93St._Germain_Depository_Institutions_Act

Privacy has many benefits, and most of them won't be realized until an investor needs them - but by that time it is not available.  This blog begins to touch on some of the benefits and planning to achieve privacy: https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/anonymity-asset-protection-dummies-avoid-law-suits

The LLC or trust, even if not private, helps to limit liability to the properties in the entity. I did a review of properties owned under individual names in a resource we subscribe to, and was surprised to see investors holding large numbers of properties in their personal name (or their spouse). The danger is that if a judgement is made, Investors need to make seriously bad decisions related to their investments to free up equity to pay the judgement. Insurance generally doesn't cover negligence.

I recommend new investors get informed and understand that real estate investing is a business.  Over time, those decisions will protect the equity that is being developed.