Deed vs. a Deed of Trust

When dealing with real estate, you may come across documents entitled deed, warranty deed, quit claim deed, special warranty deed and disclaimer deed.

A deed transfers ownership from one party to another.  The various types of deeds have special conditions about the nature of what is transferred from one party to another.

Quit Claim Deeds merely state that the grantor, (the party transferring its interest in the property) is making no promises that they own all or some part of the property.  They are only saying that, whatever they own, they transfer to the other party, the grantee.

Warranty Deeds warrant or promise that they hold good title to the property and that they will be responsible for matters that show they do not hold full legal title to the property.

Special Warranty Deeds limit the grantor’s responsibility for only the time that they owned the property.

Disclaimer Deeds are statements that the signer of this deed does not have any legal interest in the property.

Deed of Trust is another real estate document.  This document is similar to a mortgage in that it informs the public that the beneficiary of the deed of trust is owed money by the property owner.  If the property owner does not pay the money to the beneficiary, then the beneficiary can foreclose on the property, taking title away from the owner through a trustee sale process.

A poorly written deed that does not describe the property correctly can create many problems for both the seller and the buyer in years to come.  A title insurance company may not insure title to your property when the deeds are written in a confusing manner.

Richard L. Klauer, is a real estate attorney and a licensed Arizona real estate broker.  We can assist you with matters involving deeds, including the purchase or sale of real estate and preparation and choice of deeds.  Call us if we may assist you with a real estate matter.