Land research

Steve Schell

I am new to land research. I have an ancestor in Adams Co., Illinois who has a trust deed in 1869. Can anyone explain how that is different from a deed for land? I am assuming they are not the same.

Thanks for any help!

embakly

Hi Steve,

I found a bit about trust deeds on Investopedia. It explains that Trust Deeds are created when one party of the transaction needs to take out a loan from a separate party in order to purchase the property. The trust deed is basically an agreement between the borrower and the loan lender stating the property is held by a neutral third party until the loan is paid.

Trust deeds are less common now but will pop up quite a bit in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. A few states (Kentucky, Maryland, and South Dakota) use both trust deeds and mortgages.

Hope this helped!

~Emily

Steve Schell

Thanks, Emily, it does help a lot! I was having trouble finding my old discussions and just found this today!