Avoid Costly Probate Court and Save Your Holdings with a Trust

Looking to buy or sell a home in South LA County or North Orange County? Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call us at (562) 316-2915 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

Avoid Costly Probate Court and Save Your Assets with a Trust

I have been having a lot of clients asking me about trusts, estate issues, wills, and probate issues. Because of this, I have invited Margo Bergkvist to come speak with us today. She is an estate planning attorney for Bergkvist, Bergkvist & Carter LLP, and has almost 30 years of experience in this field.

So, when is a good time for someone to do a trust?
If anyone is starting to accumulate an estate or any real property, then a living trust is going to allow your heirs to get distribution upon your death without going through the long probate process. So, almost any time you buy a home or investment property would be a good time to look at a trust.

Why should I use a trust instead of probate?
Probate can take 9-18 months to complete, and it involves lots of court costs and attorney fees. Basically, the money you have been trying to protect for your heirs will be eaten away in the process of probate. You really want to avoid probate if you can.

Although it costs money up front to set up a trust, it will protect your heirs and your assets more completely. Also, if you become incapacitated after something like a stroke.

If you would like to reach out to Margo to form a trust or to ask her any questions, she can be reached at (562) 435-1426, and her office is in downtown Long Beach. Margo doesn't charge for consultations, so feel free to reach out to her.

Otherwise, if you're looking to buy or sell in Long Beach, North Orange County, or South LA County then please contact me. I am always willing to help. You can call me at (562) 316-2915 or email me at melinda.elmer@gmail.com.

Why work with us?

Melinda Elmer has served Orange County and Los Angeles real estate communities such as Seal Beach, Rossmoor, San Pedro, Lakewood, Bellflower, Sunset Beach, Los Alamitos, Huntington Beach, Belmont Shore, Belmont Heights, Long Beach and Signal Hill since 2003. Working consistently 10-14 hours a day, she sells over 65 homes a year and is always working in the best interest of her clients to ensure they get results. Her goal is not to simply help you get your home on the market, but to sell it for top dollar. Melinda has a time-tested strategy to get your home sold quickly and for top dollar, and she would love to share it with you. If you want to work with an agent who will put you first, Melinda Elmer is your best bet.

Melinda Elmer
The Elmer Team
5000 East Spring Street
Ste 525
Long Beach, CA 90815
Phone: (562) 316-2915
Fax: (562) 344-2489
Lic #01399946
melinda@theelmerteam.com

What our clients have to say

"Melinda made my experience with selling my property and purchasing a new home as pleasant as possible. It was a contingency buy involving three properties. Melinda orchestrated the process to ensure each property closed to meet my expectations. Thank you Melinda for your courteousness and professionalism."

-Cathy Butler

-----
"Melinda and her team are amazing. This is my 4th transaction using Melinda and I would never use anyone but her and her team. The knowledge Melinda brings to the table and the professionalism of her team is top notch. We will never use another agent EVER, Melinda and her team will be our agent team for life.

Thanks again Melinda for everything you have done, we appreciate you very much. Huge shout out to Dawn, Kerry and Angie who do an amazing job as well. Keep up the good work everyone.

- Gabriel
Click here to read more reviews

Melinda Elmer Testimonials

Click to hear recent
testimonials from happy clients

Ken - "Melinda was always on top of things. She answered all of our phone calls and if she couldn’t, she got back to us right away or her assistant got back to us. She helped us out a lot because we would get home from work pretty late and if we saw something we liked, she would come out. She knows what’s going on and we had a great experience with her."

Jessica - "Melinda was very helpful, knowledgeable, and she made sure to explain the whole process to me. I had a really good experience working with her. She also made sure to keep my dad informed as he was pretty involved in the process too. From the beginning, I knew that it was going to be a good experience working with her."

Elizabeth - "I was very pleased with the service that Melinda and her staff provided for me. They were always professional and were always attentive to any questions I had. I did a lot of research on the internet before hiring a Realtor and I’m glad I followed my instinct and worked with Melinda!"

Shelby - "Melinda was always helpful and answered any questions I had. I’m not familiar with the selling or buying process so she would always take the time to explain it to me. Melinda helped me with things my property manager should have helped me with and she was always easy to get in contact with."

Muneer - "Melinda did everything she should have done. She told me what steps to take in order to purchase the property and what I should do next after buying it. She really did a good job and we appreciated it!"

Meghan - "We had excellent results with Melinda. I ended up in the place that I loved! When I was going through the loan process, Melinda was on vacation and I ended up having to switch loan officers. She gave me the name of someone that she worked with that could help with the loan and I was just really impressed. She got involved and would email me and made me feel more at ease all while she was on vacation, which was definitely above and beyond."

Lydia - "We ended up buying and selling through Melinda Elmer. We had nothing but positive experiences with her, she was amazing! Every little glitch or hiccup we had through the process, Melinda was on it and took care of it. It was just a smooth selling and buying process. Even when we went camping on the night we had to sign a lot of paperwork, she had an escrow lady come to our campsite so we didn’t have to change our lives at all. We would refer her to anybody!"

Norma - "It took us a little while to find a home. We kept looking and looking until we found this one and she never gave up on us. We got the house so we’re very happy! "

Sheena - "We had been looking and found a condo so we ended up purchasing it. Melinda was great and even at times when I was frustrated, she stuck with it. At one point there was a concern about the property and the minute we found out about it, she was able to execute a plan. The whole process was very good! "

Martin - "It took less than a month to find the place, but the escrow took a bit longer. Melinda did everything she possibly could to expedite the closing of the home. Since I’m a veteran, I was using a VA loan, which is more stringent than the typical loan. There were a lot of things that needed to be done, and Melinda was on top of making sure everything got taken care of in a timely manner. Every day during the escrow process she helped me just by reaching out to those parties to make sure the loan went through. Melinda did an excellent job!"

Tyler -"We were in a time crunch because we have a baby on the way. Everything went smoothly. We found a house within a month of looking. My wife and I have opposite schedules. They arranged things to fit our schedules so that my wife and I could see the house together before making an offer. That was really nice of them."

Long Beach, CA Real Estate Video Blog with Melinda Elmer

Pages

Avoid Costly Probate Court and Save Your Holdings with a Trust

Avoid Costly Probate Court and Save Your Assets with a Trust