A residential real estate transfer has to be reported if at least one of the new owners isn’t a real, breathing human — but a legal entity or a trust instead.

We’re talking about the usual suspects:

Domestic or foreign. Doesn’t matter. If an entity or trust is taking title, your reporting radar should immediately go up.

Why?

Because these structures are commonly used to hold property — and sometimes, to hide who’s really behind it.

Now, before everyone reports every single trust that walks through the door, take a breath. FinCEN carved out certain exemptions, so you need to be familiar. You also need to understand what a Beneficial Owner is and what information needs to be collected from them.

Translation: not every entity deal is automatically suspicious. But every entity deal should trigger a pause and a check. Let’s get into the nitty gritty.