“We all establish land trusts when we buy a house, don’t we?”
I’m not trying to read into why they established a land trust to purchase property. It appears that they are actual owners of the property although why they need 2-3 other people as co-owners is beyond me. I wouldn’t Trust (forgive the pun) Barry Soetoro as far as I could throw him.
That being said there are legal tax perks to purchasing property in the name of a corporation or trust. Our best friends have done it and we are getting ready to do it and there is nothing nefarious about it. But then we are not Barry and Moochelle either. And we are not adding our attorney and a judge on as co-owners. LOL!
Most people do not purchase in the name of a trust or corporation so it is not the normal transaction.
First, holding property in a state other than your home state in a trust is very common and it is something I recommend to all my clients. The reason is probate and for high net worth clients it is for estate tax purposes. When someone dies and they have property in their name in another state it requires that two probate courts have to be involved. The court where you resided when you dies and the court where the property is located.
Second, I am not a lawyer but it is common to see the trustee's names listed as owners and that many electronic records are so simplified that they may not be able to accommodate showing that the owner is actually a trustee. I would not be surprised that a summary document shows the Obama's and the trustees as if they were co-owners.