Warranty Deed

After your Warranty Deed has been recorded at the County Clerk's Office, it can be sent to the grantee. However, any person or corporation can be designated as the recipient of the recorded Warranty Deed.

To sign over property ownership to another person, you'll use one of two deeds: a quitclaim deed or a warranty deed.

It's important to note that a warranty deed does not actually prove the grantor has ownership (a title search is the best way to prove that), but it is a promise by the grantor that they are transferring ownership and if it turns out they don't actually own the property, the grantor will be responsible for compensating

The mortgage company usually prepares this deed as part of the loan package and delivers it to the title company for you to sign at closing. The title company is commonly the trustee to the deed and holds legal title to the property until the loan gets fully repaid.

The original deed is returned to the owner of the property from the office of the recorder after proper entry. The office of the Recorder of Deeds maintains a set of indexes about each deed recorded, for an easy search. Almost all states have a grantor-grantee index including a reference to all documents recorded.

A statutory warranty deed is different from a warranty deed because it is a shorter form made available through your state's statutes and it may not outright list the promise that the title is guaranteed to be clear. Instead, because it is a statutory form, this guarantee is implied and is still legally enforceable.

If you've recently married and already own a home or other real estate, you may want to add your new spouse to the deed for your property so the two of you own it jointly. To add a spouse to a deed, all you have to do is literally fill out, sign and record a new deed in your county recorder's office.

Adding someone to your house deed requires the filing of a legal form known as a quitclaim deed. When executed and notarized, the quitclaim deed legally overrides the current deed to your home. By filing the quitclaim deed, you can add someone to the title of your home, in effect transferring a share of ownership.