Land Trust
A land trust is an agreement whereby one party (the trustee) agrees to hold ownership of a piece of real property for the benefit of another party (the beneficiary). Land trusts are used by nonprofit organizations to hold conservation easements, by corporations and investment groups to compile large tracts of land, and by individuals to keep their real estate ownership private, avoid probate and provide several other benefits.

Mortgage
A mortgage is “an interest in land created by a written instrument providing security for the payment of a debt. A mortgage can be defined as either a conveyance of title to property that is given as security for the payment of a debt as it is defined in title theory states, or as a lien against property that is granted to secure a debt and that is extinguished upon payment according to the stipulated terms, as it is defined in lien theory states, such as Florida. The definition and the effect of a mortgage depend on whether the State is a title theory or a lien theory state.

Note
A written instrument acknowledging a debt and promising payment.

Quiet Title Action
Legal action brought to eliminate any interest or claim in a property by others. It is the procedure used to remove title defects from a real estate title when a Quitclaim Deed cannot be obtained.

Refinancing
Refinancing refers to the replacement of an existing debt obligation with a debt obligation bearing different terms. Refinancing may be undertaken to reduce interest rate/interest costs (by refinancing at a lower rate), to extend the repayment time, to pay off other debt(s), to reduce one's periodic payment obligations (sometimes by taking a longer-term loan), to reduce or alter risk (such as by refinancing from a variable-rate to a fixed-rate loan), and/or to raise cash for investment, consumption, or the payment of a dividend.

Reverse mortgage
A type of mortgage where homeowners can borrow money against the value of their home. No repayment of the mortgage (principal or interest) is required of the borrower(s) until the borrowers are deceased or the home is sold. After accounting for the initial mortgage amount, the rate at which interest accrues, the length of the loan and rate of home price appreciation, the transaction is structured so that the loan amount will not exceed the value of the home over the life of the loan.
Often, the lender will require that there can be no other liens against the home. Any existing liens must be paid-off through the proceeds of the reverse mortgage.

1031 Exchange
A 1031 Exchange, also known as a Like Kind Exchange, is a way of structuring a sale of certain kinds of property so that the seller’s profit or gain is not currently taxed. Instead, the property that is sold is replaced with another “like kind” property. If the transaction is properly structured, the seller’s profit or gain is deferred to a future date.

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