How to Prepare a Deed to Transfer Real Estate Property into a Living Trust

Often times, people who hold a living trust are advised to transfer the title of their primary residence and their investment properties into their trust estate. To do so one will need to have a quit claim deed prepared and recorded with the local county office. You can either find a real estate attorney to have a deed drawn for you or you can prepare one on your own. If you opt to do the latter, I have come up with a few general guidelines to help you along the way. Remember, however, for specific guidelines in preparing deeds and any other legal documents, you should always consult with an attorney to seek for his or her legal advice.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• A Living Trust
• A pre-printed Deed
• The original deed of your property
• Notary Acknowledgment from notary agent

1. First, you need to obtain a pre-printed deed. You can either download one from the internet, or you can purchase one from a stationery store. Either of these contain basic boiler-plate language that convey real property from one party to another. However, it is up to you to ensure your deed has the proper format and language customized to meet your state and county requirements.

2. Because each state has its own set of recording guidelines pertaining to the document format, it is imperative that you follow the guidelines of the state in which your property is located. Usually they are listed on the local county website, if not, a call or a trip to your local recording office should get you the information you need. Also, find out in advance what the recording fees are, and if there is any additional documentation that is required when submitting your deed for recording. Make sure that the format of your deed is in adherence to your county's standard so that your document will not be bounced back to you at the last minute.

3. The body of the deed mainly contains the following: the name(s) of the grantor(s), the purpose of the transfer, the name(s) of the party to whom you are conveying the property (the grantee), the legal description of the property, the date of the document, the signature block, and the notary acknowledgment. The grantor(s) is/are the individual(s) that currently hold title to the property. After you have input the name of the grantor(s), it is always a good practice to add the marital status (e.g., John Doe and Jane Doe, husband and wife, or John Doe, a single person as his separate property).

4. After filling out the grantor's information, the next line shows "for and in consideration of __________________". This is where you state the purpose of the transfer. In this case, it is generally sufficient to put "to transfer property into living trust".

5. Next, your pre-printed form should have language similar to the following: "convey, transfer, grant, release, remiss, and quit-claim". When drafting a deed I always include the verbiage "convey" because I know from experience that it is a requirement by my resident state, but other states may have slightly different requirements.

6. Now is the time to name your grantee, in this case, your trust. The trust information can be typed in the following order: the name of the trustor(s) or trustee(s), the name of the trust, and the date of the trust (e.g., John Doe and Jane Doe, trustees of the John Doe and Jane Doe Family Trust dated January 1, 2001).

7. Under the statement "the following described real estate situated in the County of ___________, State of _________", be sure that you fill out the correct information. At this point you will also need to provide a complete legal description of your property. One way to accomplish this is to copy the legal description directly from the deed that you received when you first purchased your property, assuming you have no reason to doubt its validity.

8. The next step is to input the date of the deed, and then to print the name(s) of the grantor(s) under the signature line. DO NOT SIGN THE DEED AT THIS POINT. You will need to pay a visit to a notary agent and sign the deed in front of him or her. After your notary agent has completed the notary acknowledgment and stamped it with a notary seal, the deed is then ready to be taken to your local county office to be recorded.

Tips & Warnings

• Obtain a pre-printed deed.
• Find out the recording guidelines from the local county office.
• Input the grantor information.
• Input the purpose of transfer.
• Input the trust information.
• Input the county, the state and the legal description of the property.
• Input the date of the document and the names(s)of grantor(s) under the signature line.
• Sign the deed in front of a notary agent and have him/her complete the notary block.
• Take the deed to the county office to have it recorded.
• Please note the instructions given in this article are intended to be served as general guidelines in preparing a deed for the conveyance of real property into a trust estate. The author of this article is by no means responsible for the validity of any deeds prepared by the viewers of this article, and shall not be held liable for any court claims or lawsuits resulted from any person’s use of the instructions given herein. For specific guidelines in preparation of deeds and other legal documents the viewers are advised to seek legal counsel from an attorney.

Resources

• Link

[HouseWifeMafia]

on 5/26/2009 awesome article!

[Kilogramm]

on 9/23/2008 Lots of great info in this, I learned alot, 5 stars!

[taskeinc]

on 8/26/2008 Very informative article .. this will certainly come in handy for people in and around the Atlanta area, and throughout the US .. thanks for sharing.