How to Put Your House in a Trust

Three steps. First, the trust has to exist — a revocable living trust naming you as trustee. Second, you sign a new deed transferring the property from yourself as an individual to yourself as trustee of that trust; the deed type depends on the state, commonly a warranty deed, grant deed, or quitclaim deed. Third — the step people skip — you record that deed with the county recorder where the property sits, and pay the recording fee. Until it is recorded, the house is not in the trust and it will go through probate no matter what the trust document says.

No. A transfer into your own revocable trust is not a sale — you remain the beneficial owner — and it does not trigger reassessment in any of the 51 jurisdictions. It is also exempt from real estate transfer tax in 50 of them, and 50 preserve your homestead exemption after the move. Assessors occasionally miscode a recorded deed, so it is worth a call to confirm the exemption carried over.

It stays exactly as it is. The Garn-St. Germain Act (12 U.S.C. § 1701j-3) prohibits a lender from calling your loan due when you transfer your home into your own revocable trust. You do not need the lender's permission and your rate and terms do not change. Refinancing later is routine too — some lenders ask you to move the property out of the trust to close and back in afterward, which is a paperwork step, not a barrier.

For the house alone, often yes. 34 states authorize a transfer-on-death deed: you record it now, you keep complete control of the property while you are alive, you can revoke it at any time, and at your death the house passes to the beneficiary you named without probate. It costs a recording fee. What it does not do is anything else — it moves one property and leaves the rest of your estate wherever it was. A trust handles the house and everything else, and it manages what happens if you become incapacitated rather than only when you die. See whether a TOD deed fits your situation.

Your home goes through probate, regardless of what your trust says. This is the most common estate planning mistake: people create a trust and never fund it. The trust only controls assets titled in its name — an unfunded trust is paperwork. And probate on a house is not cheap, as the probate calculator shows.

Yes — call your insurer once the deed is recorded and have the trust added as a named insured. Most carriers handle it as a routine endorsement at no cost. If the named insured does not match the recorded owner, a claim is an expensive moment to discover the mismatch.