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Residential Real Estate Frequently Asked Questions

 
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These Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) are explanatory only and do not supplement or modify any obligations imposed by statute or regulation. Please refer to the Anti-Money Laundering Regulations for Residential Real Estate Transfers rule (Residential Real Estate Rule), available at www.fincen.gov/rre, for further details. The FAQs published below supersede any prior FAQs that have been issued. FinCEN expects to publish further guidance in the future. Questions may be submitted on FinCEN’s Contact Us web page.

Read the PDF version of the FAQs

A. General Questions

A.1. What is the Real Estate Report?

A.2. Who can access Real Estate Reports? 

A.3. Will FinCEN disclose Real Estate Reports to members of the public under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)?

B. Residential Real Property 

B.1. What is residential real property? 

B.2. Does residential real estate include property located in U.S. territories and Indian lands?

B.3. Can an apartment building be residential real property? 

B.4. Can a condominium be residential real property? 

B.5. A transferee entity or trust receives undeveloped land in a non-financed transfer. If the transferee is undecided on how the land will be used, does the land meet the definition of residential real property? 

B.6. A developer uses a transferee entity to purchase multiple vacant lots in a non-financed transfer. The vacant lots will be developed as a community and eventually a single-family home will be built on each lot. However, the developer will not be the eventual builder; the builder will be a third party. Do the vacant lots meet the definition of residential real property? 

B.7. A developer uses a transferee entity to purchase one large parcel of land in a non-financed transfer. At the time of the purchase, the developer intends to subdivide the land in order to build a community with single-family homes. Does the large parcel of land meet the definition of residential real property? 

B.8. Is the transfer of a timeshare property considered a transfer of residential real property? 

C. Non-Financed Transfers 

C.1. What is a non-financed transfer? 

C.2. Are partially financed transfers reportable? 

C.3. How can I determine if a lender has an obligation to maintain an anti-money laundering program (AML) program and a requirement to file Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs)?

C.4. Transfers of residential real estate are not reportable if they involve an extension of credit to all transferees by a financial institution that has both an obligation to maintain an anti-money laundering program (AML) and an obligation to report suspicious transactions. What are examples of such institutions?

D. Reportable Transferees 

D.1. What is a transferee entity?

D.2. What is a transferee trust? 

D.3. Does the definition of a transferee entity or transferee trust take into account where the entity or trust is incorporated, registered, or otherwise located? 

D.4. May a reportable transfer have more than one transferee entity or transferee trust?

D.5. What if there are multiple transferees, some of which are excepted? 

D.6. Is an Individual Retirement Arrangement (IRA) considered a type of transferee trust? 

E. Reportable Transfers

E.1. Under what circumstances must a Real Estate Report be filed? 

E.2. What is a transfer of residential real property? 

E.3. What types of transfers are not considered reportable? 

E.4. Are sales of residential real property under a certain dollar threshold exempt? 

E.5. Is a transfer of residential real property reportable if it is a gift?

E.6. Are all like-kind exchanges exempt?

E.7. Is a transfer of an assignment contract reportable?

E.8. Are sequential transfers to trusts reportable?

F. Beneficial Owners

F.1. Who are the beneficial owners of a transferee entity?

F.2. Who are the beneficial owners of a transferee trust?

F.3. How many beneficial owners can a transferee entity or transferee trust have? 

F.4. Can a minor child be a beneficial owner? 

F.5. When is beneficial ownership determined? 

F.6. Can a transferee entity provide a FinCEN Identifier in lieu of having its beneficial ownership information reported on a Real Estate Report? 

F.7. How should a reporting person collect information about beneficial owners? 

F.8. Does a reporting person need to submit or retain a copy of the beneficial owner’s identifying information? 

F.9. Who qualifies for an exception from the beneficial owner definition?

G. Signing Individuals

G.1. Who are signing individuals? 

G.2. How many signing individuals may there be? 

G.3. Does a reporting person need to submit or retain a copy of the signing individual’s identifying information? 

H. Reporting Requirements

H.1. On what date do reporting persons need to begin filing Real Estate Reports? 

H.2. What is the due date for a Real Estate Report? 

H.3. What is the definition of “date of closing”?

H.4. What type of information is reported via a Real Estate Report? 

H.5. What type of information does a reporting person report about itself? 

H.6. What type of information does a reporting person report about residential real property? 

H.7. What type of information does a reporting person report about a transferee entity? 

H.8. What type of information does a reporting person report about a transferee trust? 

H.9. What type of information does a reporting person report about a beneficial owner? 

H.10. What type of information does a reporting person report about a signing individual? 

H.11. What type of information does a reporting person report about a trustee of a transferee trust that is a legal entity? 

H.12. What type of information does a reporting person report about a transferor that is an individual? 

H.13. What type of information does a reporting person report about a transferor that is a legal entity? 

H.14. What type of information does a reporting person report about a transferor that is a trust? 

H.15. What type of information does a reporting person report about any payments made? 

H.16. Can a P.O. box be reported as an address? 

H.17. What address should be reported if an entity lacks a principal place of business? 

H.18. Are reporting persons required to report the addresses of individuals that participate in an Address Confidentiality Program (ACP)? 

H.19. A Real Estate Report must include a “unique identifying number” for each legal entity, trust, or individual. What type of unique identifying number is required for each legal entity, trust, or individual? 

H.20. A Real Estate Report must include an address for each legal entity, trust, or individual. What type of address is required for each legal entity, trust, or individual? 

H.21. A legal entity sells a house to an individual in a non-reportable transfer and the individual deposits the payment into an escrow account for the benefit of the legal entity. The legal entity subsequently purchases a different house, with the payment being transferred from the same escrow account to the seller in a reportable transfer. What account should be listed as the source of funds in the reportable transfer? 

I. Reporting Persons

I.1. Who is required to file Real Estate Reports? 

I.2. What is the reporting cascade? 

I.3. Can a homeowners’ association be a reporting person? 

I.4. Are there any exemptions from being a reporting person? 

I.5. Can a party to the transfer file the Real Estate Report? 

I.6. How does the reporting cascade take into account split settlements? 

I.7. What if title insurance is purchased after the settlement or closing? 

I.8. What is a designation agreement? 

I.9. Can a “blanket” designation agreement be used for multiple reportable transfers? 

I.10. Can a third-party vendor be designated as a reporting person? 

I.11. Do potential reporting persons need to also implement an anti-money laundering (AML) program?

I.12. I am a real estate agent. Am I a reporting person? 

I.13. The third tier in the reporting cascade is the person that files with the recordation office the deed or other instrument that transfers ownership of the residential real property. Would a third-party courier or delivery service that only delivers a deed or other instrument to the recordation office on behalf of a client be considered a reporting person? 

I.14. The fourth tier in the reporting cascade is the person that underwrites an owner’s title insurance policy for the transferee with respect to the transferred residential real property, such as a title insurance company. Would the reporting person be the agent providing services related to the underwriting of the title or the insurance company providing the actual financial underwriting? 

I.15. The sixth tier of the reporting cascade is the person that provides an evaluation of the status of a title. What does it mean to evaluate the status of a title? 

I.16. Can sole practitioners, solo escrow officers, or sole proprietorships be a reporting person? 

J. Reporting Process

J.1. How do I file the Real Estate Report? 

J.2. What are the available methods for filing the Real Estate Report?

J.3. Is there a fee for submitting a Real Estate Report to FinCEN? 

J.4. Can a reporting person file an incomplete report if a party withholds information required to file a complete and accurate report? 

J.5. A reporting person filed a Real Estate Report for a reportable transfer. What should the reporting person do if they learn of an inaccuracy in the previously-filed report? 

J.6. A reporting person filed a Real Estate Report for a reportable transfer. What should the reporting person do if they discover new information about the reportable transfer? 

J.7. A company that performs a function described in the reporting cascade has multiple “doing business as” names (D/B/As). Does the company and each D/B/A need to set up a separate BSA E-Filing System account or can they use/share one BSA E-Filing System account? 

J.8. Who can file a Real Estate Report on behalf of the reporting person? 

J.9. Will a reporting person receive confirmation that a Real Estate Report has been successfully filed? 

J.10. How can a reporting person confirm a Real Estate Report filing status if they have authorized a third-party to submit the Real Estate Report on their behalf? 

J.11. I am a third-party provider and want to submit Real Estate Reports on behalf of multiple reporting persons. Can I create a Supervisory User account for my company and file all my clients’ Real Estate Reports through this account? 

J.12. Are third-party filers required to maintain records certifying that they are authorized to file on behalf of a reporting person? 

J.13. A builder uses a transferee entity to purchase several lots in a subdivision in a non-financed transfer, intending to construct new homes on each lot. Does the reporting person submit one Real Estate Report, reporting the transfer of all of the lots, or multiple Real Estate Reports, one for each lot? 

K. Recordkeeping Requirements

K.1. What records must a reporting person keep? 

K.2. Are there record retention requirements for other real estate businesses involved in a reportable transfer? 

K.3. Is the reporting person required to retain a copy of driver’s licenses, passports, or other identifying documents? 

L. Compliance/Enforcement 

L.1. What penalties may a reporting person face for violating Residential Real Estate Requirements? 

L.2. Is a reporting person responsible for ensuring the accuracy of the information that it reports to FinCEN, if the reporting person obtains the information from another party

L.3. I am a reporting person for a reportable transfer. What should I do if a transferee fails to cooperate in providing information about a reportable transfer?

L.4. Can I file a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) in place of a Real Estate Report? 

L.5. In what instances may a reporting person consider filing a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR)?

L.6. If a reporting person voluntarily decides to file a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR), can the reporting person notify the party that a SAR has been or will be filed due to their refusal?

L.7. During an internal audit, a reporting person realizes it did not report a reportable transfer. What should the reporting person do?

A. General Questions

B. Residential Real Property 

C. Non-Financed Transfers 

[Issued February 13, 2026]

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D. Reportable Transferees 

E. Reportable Transfers

RRE Reportable Transfer Infographic

A Real Estate Report must be filed on any reportable transfer. A reportable transfer is defined as occurring when all of these four conditions are met:

  1. Residential real property (see Section B) is transferred (see Section E); and
  2. The transfer is non-financed (see Section C); and
  3. The property is transferred to a transferee entity or transferee trust (see Section D); and
  4. No exception applies (See Section E).

The person required to file the Real Estate Report is known as a reporting person (see Section I). The reporting person must report several different types of information (see Section H), including information identifying the beneficial owners of the transferee entity or transferee trust (see Section F) and the individuals signing documents on behalf of that transferee (see Section G).

See Section J for information on how to file, Section K for recordkeeping requirements, and Section L for information on compliance and enforcement.

[Updated March 10, 2026]

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F. Beneficial Owners

G. Signing Individuals

H. Reporting Requirements

I. Reporting Persons