A title holding service is an independent third party used to hold title to property in order to protect it from unauthorized changes in title or unauthorized liens, usually by holding title as a trustee. Title Holding Services Corporation is organized to handle active transactions, as opposed to land title trustee services that only accept assignments for long-term holds.

A title holding service usually holds title as a title holding trustee of a trust. A title holding trustee acts more like a nominee or escrowee of the maker of the trust or of the beneficiaries, rather than as an active fiduciary managing the day-to-day affairs.

Many owners of property appreciate the privacy that accompanies a title holding trust. Hence, THSC usually will use a generic name for a trust rather than the trust maker’s name or the property name. You can usually expect title to read something like:
Title Holding Services Corporation, a California nonprofit mutual benefit corporation, as Trustee of the THSC Holding Trust No. 12-10000.”

A title holding service is an independent third party used to hold title to property in order to protect it from unauthorized changes in title or unauthorized liens, usually by holding title as a trustee. Title Holding Services Corporation is organized to handle active transactions, as opposed to land title trustee services that only accept assignments for long-term holds.

A title holding service usually holds title as a title holding trustee of a trust. A title holding trustee acts more like a nominee or escrowee of the maker of the trust or of the beneficiaries, rather than as an active fiduciary managing the day-to-day affairs.

Many owners of property appreciate the privacy that accompanies a title holding trust. Hence, THSC usually will use a generic name for a trust rather than the trust maker’s name or the property name. You can usually expect title to read something like:
Title Holding Services Corporation, a California nonprofit mutual benefit corporation, as Trustee of the THSC Holding Trust No. 12-10000.”

Handling Simple or Complex Transactions

THSC can act as title holding trustee for situations as simple as a traditional land trust; but traditional land trusts are not well-suited to active property transactions. They were designed simply to hold title to property across generations, for which the unlimited life of a corporation like THSC is well-suited.

But where THSC really excels is in active, creative or complex real estate transactions in which a title holding trustee must be sure that it is executing the correct documents at the correct time and handling them in the proper manner. This requires the kind of in-house expertise provided by real estate strategies attorney Ronald M. Ballard acting as Secretary and General Counsel to THSC to provide for legal review of THSC actions before any deed, voluntary lien or other transactional document is executed by THSC.

Sample Complex Transaction

With the ongoing crisis in most real estate markets, creating value continues to be more difficult than ever before.

Simply rehabbing a house might involve one person buying the property, another handling the rehab, another funding most of the rehab, and, eventually an end-buyer taking over the property for occupancy or leasing out.

Each of these persons has a different financial interest:

The buyer wants purchase and personal capital protected from new liens and ease of taking possession if the rehab goes sour.

• The rehabber wants to be sure to receive the proper share of profit on resale and to have the ability to attract construction funding.
• The funder wants to be sure that loan proceeds are properly applied, sales proceeds first payoff the loan, and that there are no unauthorized liens or transfers until the final sale.
• If the end buyer is a landlord who leases out the property, it may be interested in privacy and a degree of asset protection.
• If the end buyer is an owner occupant, it may be interested in proper title for estate planning and probate avoidance purposes.

All of these differing financial interests can be resolved using a properly structured trust with an independent title holding trustee. THSC is likely the only, specially structured nonprofit mutual benefit corporation with the legal sophistication to hold title and safely protect multiple financial interests in creative transactions such as these.

THSC services are not limited to one property or even one property per member. Many members will have interests in several properties.

THSC can hold title to multiple properties on behalf of one or more members. One trust can be formed to hold multiple properties or a separate trust can be formed for each property. Either way, the privacy of the underlying beneficial owners can be protected. If the property is originally purchased in the name of the trust with THSC as title holding trustee, then the beneficial interest of the underlying owner usually will never appear in the public records.

With the ongoing crisis in most real estate markets, creating value continues to be more difficult than ever before.

Simply rehabbing a house might involve one person buying the property, another handling the rehab, another funding most of the rehab, and, eventually an end-buyer taking over the property for occupancy or leasing out.

Each of these persons has a different financial interest.

The buyer wants purchase and personal capital protected from new liens and ease of taking possession if the rehab goes sour.

The rehabber wants to be sure to receive the proper share of profit on resale and to have the ability to attract construction funding.

The funder wants to be sure that loan proceeds are properly applied, sales proceeds first payoff the loan, and that there are no unauthorized liens or transfers until the final sale.

If the end buyer is a landlord who leases out the property, it may be interested in privacy and a degree of asset protection.

If the end buyer is an owner occupant, it may be interested in proper title for estate planning and probate avoidance purposes.

All of these differing financial interests can be resolved using a properly structured trust with an independent title holding trustee. THSC is likely the only, specially structured nonprofit mutual benefit corporation with the legal sophistication to hold title and safely protect multiple financial interests in creative transactions such as these.

Many distressed property transactions today require multiple persons to make a deal work, particularly when outside funding is needed to rehab a property or the property is being purchased from a bank as a REO.

If only one of the parties holds title to the property, then the others can feel insecure about the risks of unauthorized title transfers, misapplication of funds on sale, and the personal impact of involuntary liens such as mechanic’s liens or a citation for violation of a building code.

These issues can be resolved by holding title in a trust with THSC as the independent title holding trustee for the benefit of its members involved in the transaction. By each of the participants in the transaction becoming a member of THSC, they can be involved in the formation of a trust to hold the property during the course of the transaction.

With THSC holding title to the property investors can secure deals that would have escaped them before.