All Forum Posts by: Derek W.

@Richard Vang Or if they are professional squatters and setting you up. It sounds like you might be new to land lording. Hope you don't have to deal with these types already!  It can be costly. 

Red flag! Red Flag!  In all of my years I've never had a tenant order an inspection, or call the health department, or call code enforcement etc without that creating serious hassle for me down the road. Your tenant is up to something no good. Start documenting ALL contact in detail and put everything in writing from here on out. I sense a court case in your near future...

What do you mean "my guess is maybe he thinks he's buying a house"

None of my tenants have ever misunderstood that they are renting, not buying. Did you do a lease option or something?

There are many reasons for many different entities, both good and bad. In this case, I would prefer a good 'ol Illinois Land Trust over an LLC. An LLC has yearly fees. It has to be set up with a state government branch (yuck). And there is paper work tracing it back to the managing member of the LLC. I can set up a trust in 5 minutes on my computer with no cost, no annual fees, and no way for anyone to ever know who the parties of the trust are. It's a private document that is held in my locked filing cabinet at home.

@Greg H. I don't think we are talking apples to apples. A mortgage is personally guaranteed by an individual and secured by the property. A code enforcement lien only attaches to the property.  There is no personal guarantee that goes beyond it. Their only remedy is to foreclosure on the property and take it as collateral for their lien. Also there are tax and credit implications with a mortgage. Not with a lien. 

I had a friend who bought bulk property in Detroit for years. He had to buy the entire tape, the good, the bad, the ugly.  With the useless vacant lots and burn outs, he deeded them to a shell entity with only a po box as contact info, and let them rot. The city could come after that entity, but ultimately couldn't figure out who it was and just dropped the matter. I'm sure that po box is stuffed full of threatening letters, bills, notices and the like. But that's as far as they could go. 

The Original Post said "how do I un-own a property."  It didn't say "how do I wipe out all liens and fines so I can continue to own a property." @Stephen S. Has already stated that the liens and fines attach to the property, not the individual.  So when they come after him he simply says "oh, I sold that house for $100 to the Camden Revitalization organization, and I paid the sales taxes on that money". 

"Mr. Steven, do you have contact info for the group you sold it to?"

"Of course I do.  It's po box xxx,  Camden New Jersey.  Please forward all bills and threatening letters to them and leave me alone. Thank you."

But you can sell to a trust that you've set up. It seems important to "sell" it to the trust, rather than just deed it. In California we use a grant deed primarily to transfer ownership in a sale, and a quit claim for inter spousal, corrective deeds, amendments, etc. what would signal a sale in New Jersey? What are the different deeds available?  If you name the trust creatively, it should throw a wrench into their search. "Camden Revitalization Trust" or "New Jersey Corrections Department Trust, or "Fairview section 1845-192 Trust". 

All of the Coldstones in my area have gone out of business. There used to be 4 within a 20 mile radius of my house. Now there are none. Hmmm

@Stephen S. Can you clarify why you couldn't just record your quit claim deed to someone else and no longer be the owner? 

@Steven Potter you raise a really good point. In California, only the seller has to notarized and sign a grant deed or qc deed. There is nowhere the buyer signs in order to record the deed.  So I could very easily deed my property to the city, or grandma, or anyone else without their knowledge or permission.  But reading the thread our OP has said that he has quit claimed the property a few times, but they never did the paper work on their side to accept it?  

@Account Closed you are forgiven as it was SO obviously a comment from a newbie, and not from a grizzled real estate vet. There aren't any old timers out there that haven't stepping in a pile of s*#t now and then and had to learn how to clean off their shoe.  Thank you for your military service. Now it's time to learn real estate.