Putting a home in a trust means changing the property’s legal owner from you personally to the trust, and the mechanics are simple: sign a trust document, prepare a new deed naming the trust as owner, have it notarized, and record it with your county. The recording itself can be done in an afternoon. What takes thought is everything around it — the choice of trust, the tax consequences, the mortgage, and the insurance follow-up that keeps the transfer from quietly breaking something later.
Pick the Trust Type First
Before any deed gets drafted, decide whether the trust will be revocable or irrevocable. For most homeowners the answer is revocable. A revocable living trust lets you keep full control: you can amend it, pull the house back out, or dissolve it entirely at any time.1Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. What Is a Revocable Living Trust? The IRS treats a revocable trust as invisible for income tax purposes — all income and deductions flow through to your personal return, and no separate trust return is required.2Internal Revenue Service. Abusive Trust Tax Evasion Schemes – Questions and Answers
An irrevocable trust is permanent. Once the home is in, you cannot take it back or change the terms without the beneficiaries’ consent. You give up that control deliberately, because it is what allows the property to be shielded from creditors and potentially excluded from your taxable estate. The costs are real: the transfer is a completed gift, and depending on how the trust is structured the home may not receive a stepped-up basis at your death. Irrevocable trusts fit specific strategies like Medicaid planning or estate tax reduction. They are a poor tool for someone who just wants to skip probate.
Steps to Transfer the Home
Sign the Trust Document
Nothing can be transferred until the trust itself exists on paper. The document names you as grantor and typically as the initial trustee, names successor trustees to take over if you cannot serve, and names the beneficiaries who inherit at your death. Most homeowners work with an estate planning attorney to draft it; templated versions are available online. The trust must be signed according to your state’s requirements before you touch the deed.
Pull the Current Deed and Legal Description
You need the full legal description from your existing deed, not the street address. That description uses surveyor references, lot and block numbers, or metes and bounds, and it has to be copied onto the new deed exactly. Small transcription errors create title problems later.
Also prepare a certification of trust, sometimes called a memorandum of trust. This short document confirms the trust exists, identifies the trustee, and states the trustee’s authority to hold property, without disclosing the full trust terms. County recorders, lenders, and title companies usually accept it in place of the complete trust document, which keeps your estate plan private.
Prepare and Notarize the New Deed
The new deed moves title from you individually to you as trustee. The grantee line would read something like “Jane Smith, Trustee of the Jane Smith Revocable Living Trust dated March 15, 2026.” A grant deed or warranty deed is typical; a quitclaim deed also works in some states but makes no guarantees about title quality. You sign the deed in front of a notary, who verifies your identity and applies their seal. Most states cap standard notary acknowledgment fees between $2 and $15 per signature; remote online notarization can run up to $25.
Record the Deed
File the signed, notarized deed with the county recorder or register of deeds in the county where the property sits. Recording is what makes the transfer official. Fees for a single deed typically run from $15 to $150 depending on county and page count. Some jurisdictions also charge documentary transfer taxes, though many states exempt transfers into a trust where you remain the beneficiary. Ask your recorder’s office about local requirements before you file.
What It Costs
The largest expense is usually the attorney. A nationwide survey of more than 900 law firms found that estate planning packages — a revocable living trust, pour-over will, powers of attorney, and a single property transfer — typically run between $2,500 and $3,500, with a median around $2,700. That covers planning and document preparation, not just the deed.
The hard costs beyond legal fees are modest. Recording runs roughly $15 to $150. Notary fees are generally under $25. A title insurance endorsement to add the trust as an insured often costs $50 to $200. Together, these rarely exceed a few hundred dollars.
If the Home Has a Mortgage
Homeowners worry that moving the house into a trust will trip the loan’s due-on-sale clause. Federal law prevents that in the ordinary case. The Garn-St. Germain Depository Institutions Act of 1982 bars a lender from enforcing a due-on-sale clause when you transfer your home into a living trust, as long as you remain a beneficiary and the transfer doesn’t change who occupies the property.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 12 USC 1701j-3 – Preemption of Due-on-Sale Prohibitions
The statute uses the term “inter vivos trust” and does not distinguish between revocable and irrevocable. The two requirements are that the borrower remains a beneficiary and that the transfer doesn’t relate to a change in occupancy rights.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 12 USC 1701j-3 – Preemption of Due-on-Sale Prohibitions In practice, someone transferring into an irrevocable trust is often giving up enough control that the lender’s concern becomes legitimate. If that is your plan, talk to the lender first and get written approval before recording.
Tax Consequences
Income and Property Taxes
A revocable trust does not change your income tax picture. The IRS treats you as the owner of everything in it, so you report income, deductions, and credits on your personal Form 1040 exactly as before.2Internal Revenue Service. Abusive Trust Tax Evasion Schemes – Questions and Answers
Property taxes can be trickier. In some jurisdictions the transfer can jeopardize your homestead exemption, because the county treats it as a change of ownership requiring a fresh application under the trust’s name. Call the county tax assessor’s office before you record. In many counties, a simple form filed alongside the deed is enough to keep the exemption in place.
Capital Gains and Step-Up in Basis
While you are alive, a home in a revocable trust still qualifies for the primary residence capital gains exclusion: up to $250,000 of gain, or $500,000 for a married couple filing jointly, provided you have owned and used the home as your principal residence for at least two of the five years before sale.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 121 – Exclusion of Gain From Sale of Principal Residence Because the IRS treats the revocable trust as yours, your ownership and use periods carry over.
At your death, property in a revocable trust receives a stepped-up basis. Your beneficiaries inherit it at its fair market value on the date of your death rather than at your original purchase price, which can wipe out a large capital gains bill if they later sell. The statute specifically covers property transferred during the grantor’s lifetime to a trust where the grantor retained the right to revoke.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 1014 – Basis of Property Acquired From a Decedent
Irrevocable trusts are more complicated. The IRS ruled in Revenue Ruling 2023-2 that assets in certain irrevocable grantor trusts do not receive a stepped-up basis at the grantor’s death if those assets are not included in the grantor’s taxable estate. Heirs who later sell can face capital gains calculated from your original purchase price. That is one of the biggest differences between the two trust types.
Gift Tax on Irrevocable Transfers
Moving a home into an irrevocable trust is a gift for federal tax purposes, because you have permanently given up ownership. If the transfer gives beneficiaries only future rights rather than immediate access, the annual gift tax exclusion ($19,000 per recipient for 2026) generally does not apply, and you must report the home’s full value on IRS Form 709.6Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 709 Most people will not owe anything, because the reported amount reduces your lifetime estate and gift tax exemption, which is $15,000,000 for 2026.7Internal Revenue Service. What’s New – Estate and Gift Tax A transfer into a revocable trust is not a gift at all, because you keep full control.
Medicaid Protection Requires an Irrevocable Trust and Time
A revocable trust offers no protection from Medicaid estate recovery. Because you retain control, Medicaid treats the home as your asset and states can pursue it after your death. If that is your concern, a revocable trust is the wrong tool.
An irrevocable trust can work, but timing drives everything. Federal law imposes a 60-month look-back. When you apply for Medicaid long-term care benefits, the state reviews every asset transfer you made in the previous five years. A home moved into an irrevocable trust inside that window counts as an improper transfer and triggers a penalty period of ineligibility.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 1396p – Liens, Adjustments and Recoveries, and Transfers of Assets The penalty length equals the transferred value divided by the average monthly cost of nursing home care in your state. A $400,000 home in a state where nursing care averages $10,000 a month produces 40 months of disqualification. Transfers aimed at Medicaid protection need to happen at least five years before long-term care is likely to be needed, which usually means working with an elder law attorney who knows your state’s rules.
Update Your Insurance After Recording
Call your homeowners insurance agent as soon as the deed is recorded. The trust should be added as a named insured, with the name matching the trust document exactly. If you skip this and file a claim later, the insurer can argue that the named insured — you, individually — no longer owns the property, creating a coverage gap at the worst possible moment. Ask for written confirmation.
Do the same with your title insurance company. Your existing policy names you personally. Request an endorsement adding the trust as an insured so the policy continues to protect against title defects, liens, and other claims. Residential endorsements typically run $50 to $200. Skipping the endorsement does not cancel the policy, but it can complicate a future claim.
Back the Trust with a Pour-Over Will
Families get caught by this: someone creates a trust, intends to put the house in it, and never signs the new deed. At death the home is still in their individual name, and it has to go through probate — the thing the trust was built to avoid.
A pour-over will is the safety net. It names your trust as the beneficiary of your probate estate, so anything you forgot to transfer during your lifetime eventually lands in the trust and is distributed under its terms. Those forgotten assets still pass through probate first, with the court costs, delay, and public filing that come with it. The pour-over will ensures your wishes are honored; it does not deliver the speed and privacy a funded trust does. The real takeaway is to fund the trust now. Sign the deed, record it, and confirm the transfer went through.