Preparing and recording deeds requires knowledge, experience, and abilities. Turner Law Firm, PLLC assists people throughout the preparation and recording of deeds. Whether it’s adding or removing a name from the title, selling the property, gifting the property, creating a life estate, inheriting the property or filing a confirmatory or corrective deed, we can help.
What is a Deed?
A deed is a written instrument which transfers title to real property from one person or entity to another. The person or entity transferring title is known as the “grantor”, and the person or entity receiving the title is known as the “grantee”. A deed must be in writing and must be signed by the “grantor”. To be effective against third persons and subsequent purchasers, the deed must be recorded in the land records of the county in which the property lies.
The deed must contain, at minimum, an identification of the grantor and grantee, consideration (usually the amount of money paid) and a legal description of the real estate. It may refer to the real estate by lot number as shown on a recorded plat or by a lengthy metes and bounds description prepared by a surveyor. A new survey usually is not required prior to every transfer of real estate, unless there is a discrepancy or there are special circumstances. Many states have special requirements in order to record a deed, such as, the payment or recording fees, the payment of all outstanding taxes and assessments, applicable transfer taxes must be paid, and certain specific information must be provided.
Types of Deeds
Collapse AllExpand All
General Warranty Deed
A general warranty deed is a type of deed where the “grantor” (seller) guarantees that he or she holds clear title to a piece of real estate and has a right to sell it to the “grantee” (buyer). The guarantee is not limited to the time the grantor owned the property, rather it extends back to the property’s origins.
Special Warranty Deed
A special warranty deed is a type of deed where the “grantor” (seller) guarantees that he or she holds clear title to a piece of real estate and has a right to sell it to the “grantee” (buyer). The guarantee is limited to the time the grantor owned the property.
Quitclaim Deed
A quitclaim deed is a way to transfer ownership of property that is fast and relativity easy to do. When you execute a quitclaim deed, you are relinquishing your ownership of real estate. A quitclaim deed is valid if you, the grantor, have ownership of the property in question, but there is nothing in the document that confirms that you do. With a warranty deed, you promise or warrant to the grantee – the person to whom you are transferring your ownership — that you own the property in question.
Life Estate Deed
A life estate deed is a type of deed in which an interest in real property is limited in duration to the lifetime of the grantor or some other designated person and upon the death of that person; the real property automatically passes to another person.
Executor’s Deed
An executor’s deed is executed by the person appointed to administer the estate of a deceased person to transfer an interest in real property. The probate court must approve any sale, transfer, or distribution of property by the executor.
Confirmatory or Corrective Deed
A confirmatory or corrective deed is a conveyance made to correct a mistake or discrepancy in a prior deed.
Various Types of Deeds Used In Real Estate Transfers
To effectively understand what gets transferred or conveyed by signing a deed, it is important to understand the interest owned by the grantor of the deed. In most real estate transactions involving a purchaser, seller, and lending institution, the type of interest being conveyed is called Fee Simple Interest.
General Types of Fee Simple Interest:
Collapse AllExpand All
Absolute Fee Simple Interest
This is the unrestricted power to sell the real estate. This is the type of interest most sellers have and convey to purchasers.
Defeasible Fee Simple Interest
This is an interest conveyed in real estate which can be defeated/cancelled upon some future event. This is the type of interest that purchasers convey to their lending institutions. They convey their unrestricted power to sell the real estate and re-acquire the right once they pay in full their mortgage obligations.
Equitable Interest
Purchasers by contract to purchase agreements, land contracts, and lease agreements acquire interest less than fee simple in nature. They do not have an unrestricted power to sell the property, but they do have rights to sell, mortgage or inhabit.
The purchaser in a traditional sale is acquiring from the seller, all of the seller’s right, title and interest in the property, including the unrestricted power to sell the property in the future. Without these matters, what would the purchaser be buying and what would its value be? Likewise, a lending institution loans money to the purchaser based on the value of the collateral. If the collateral (property) cannot be sold for the value assigned to it, then the lender takes a different approach to lending the purchaser the money. The Lender therefore, requires the Purchaser to acquire the unrestricted right to sell the property and to convey that right to the lender in the case where the purchaser does not meet the lender’s requirements in their loan documents (i.e. Payments and other conditions).
Types of Vesting
Easily confused with types of ownership interests and deeds is the manner in which a grantee is said to hold title to property. We call the manner in which someone “holds” title vesting or tenancy. Here are some of the ways an owner can hold title:
Collapse AllExpand All
Tenancy in Common
Where two or more individuals hold title in respective fractional interests, and can convey them separately or jointly to third parties. The death of an individual does not transfer the ownership interest to the other party, but is subject to distribution pursuant to the law of descent and distribution or their will.
Survivorship Tenancy
Where two or more individuals hold title in respective fractional interests and cannot convey their interests separately to third parties, but only jointly. If the interests are equal, then we call this Joint Survivorship Tenancy. Upon the death of a survivorship tenant, the interest of the decedent passes directly to the surviving tenant and not pursuant to the law of descent and distribution or their will.
Transfer on Death Tenancy
When a grantee takes title to property and it discloses a beneficiary(ies) upon their death, then the beneficiary has interest in the property only upon the event of death of the grantee and like the Survivorship Tenancy it is not subject to will or Probate considerations.
Dower
While never appearing on a deed, a spouse of an owner of real property has a unique interest known as dower. Like the Transfer on Death Tenancy, the right of dower lays dormant until the happening of an event like death or divorce. When the owner dies or divorces, his spouse receives an undivided 1/3 interest in a Life Estate in all real property owned by the owner during the marriage. This “inchoate” interest rises and falls in an instant. If there was property during the marriage that the spouse did not release their interest in when it was conveyed, then the dower attaches to the property, and the new owner or lender will have issues to deal with.
Turner Law Firm, PLLC can confidently explain and assist in the various ways and facets of deeds.
