Aging Client Transfers Deed and Responsibilities of Home Ownership to Son

A client recently came in to our Walnut Creek office to prepare her Living Trust. She’d been diagnosed with breast cancer, and while both she and her doctors were optimistic about her long-term prognosis, the disease created a sense of urgency, causing her to think about her life, her priorities and how she wanted to spend her remaining years. While 68, she was very active, self-employed and still worked full-time, yet she wanted to make sure her estate was properly divided between her two grown children, avoiding Probate should she die prematurely.

Time to reevaluate and prioritize

She owned her own home in Walnut Creek as well as a small vacation home at Bass Lake, in Madera County. She had many wonderful memories of lazy summers at the Lake when her children were small, but now it represented a taxing 3-hour drive each way and the property’s maintenance and upkeep were becoming burdensome. She wanted to give this home to her son and his family, knowing that his small children would love spending their summers at the Lake, just as her own had. She also liked to think about visiting her family at the Lake, but without the responsibilities of ownership.

In order to transfer ownership, she needed to transfer the home’s Real Estate Deed to her son, which would remove her name from the document and replace it with that of her son.

In other cases, title transfers are necessary to accommodate a new mortgage or a refinance.  Perhaps a husband and wife are currently on title, but only the wife is creditworthy; the bank will insist that the husband come off the title so that that the wife can pursue the loan on her own. We can help with this and coordinate the details with the mortgage broker for you.

Grant Deed: A straightforward process that can often be completed in a day

We helped our client prepare a Grant Deed that includes a legal description of the property. To make the Deed legally binding, it was signed by our client, notarized and filed with the County Recorder’s office in the county where the property is located.

The notary and filing are included in all of our Deed Transfer services. California Document Preparers can often execute the Deed process in a single day; and you can start the process on our website. Once the Deed is filed and recorded, the process is complete. The new property owners receive the new Deed in the mail—generally a 4-6 week turnaround. We can prepare deeds for any county in California.

Transferring ownership, by changing the name on a Deed, is a relatively simple process. Contact California Document Preparers at one of our three Bay Area locations. We’re here to help.