Warranty Deed Question....

mgehbauer profile photo

Hello everyone,

I have a question that I'm hoping you will be able to help me answer. My husband and I are trying to learn the short sale business, in hopes of actually pursuing a short sale early this year.... I have a question about warranty deeds.

According to my understanding, a warranty deed is a form for the conveyance of interest in real property. To be effective, a Warranty Deed must have a "grantor" (person conveying the property), a "grantee" (person receiving the property), be in writing, be signed by the grantor, and must be delivered to and accepted by the grantee. The grantor's signature does not have to be notarized to be effective, but must be notarized to allow its recordation. Recordation is important to give "constructive knowledge" to the world that the grantee has received title to the property, so that the grantor can not, for example, sell the same property to more than one person.

Based on my understanding, does just obtaining a signature from the grantor protect me from having the grantor back out on a deal in which I've put considerable time and effort (i.e. the grantor changes his mind, another investor wants to work with the grantor, etc.)? OR, is it only binding if the warranty deed is signed and NOTORIZED? I know that the deed cannot be RECORDED unless it is notorized. I simply do not want to start working on a deal, putting a lot of time and energy into it, unless I know the grantor is serious about working with me. Would what I have suggested here protect me?

Any thoughts would be appreciated...

Thanks,

Michele Gehbauer

Comments(4)

  • TheShortSalePro17th January, 2005

    If you are going to pursue preforeclosure shorts... you may want to rethink your position on snatching the deed. It's unnecessary, and flies in the face of most mortgagee approvals.

  • mgehbauer17th January, 2005

    ShortSalePro, why is this unnecessary? Have you actually done a short sale? If so, what steps did you take to have a successful sale?

    Thanks!

  • mgehbauer17th January, 2005

    ShortSalePro, the reason I'm asking about getting the deed is because I recently purchased a seminar on Short Sales Made Easy by Ron LeGrand and Jeff Kaller. They highly implore investors to GET THE DEED FIRST! They say you need to do this to gain commitment from the seller. What are your thoughts and experiences on this issue?

  • TheShortSalePro17th January, 2005

    I've been involved with more than 2,000 shorts over the last 20 years or so. My experience and point of view must differ from the Gurus'.

    Try what you've learned. Did the course include a copy of an actual mortgagee letter of ss approval?

    When the Seller is required to confirm that they have done nothing to effectuate a transfer of title to a third party... as a condition of ss approval in a HUD1 controlled transaction... remember this post.

    If the Sellers lie about it... it's tantamount to fraud. If you encourage them to lie about it.... well, just connect the dots.

    If you have proposed to the Seller a mutually beneficial transaction that they agree to, and enter into a contract, then you should have no problem.

Add Comment

Login To Comment