The purpose of a deed is to reassign real estate possession from one entity to another. A California property deed does just that. The property in question could be land, a home, or a business. In a basic situation, the owner is looking to sell, but there are certain circumstances in which the property has been forfeited and its owner is forced to sell or has it taken from them.
Property deeds are legal documents requiring specific information from each interested party. A California property deed may be considered invalid if there is not a proper signature from the grantor. The grantor is the person legally able to sell the property. The grantor also has to be of sound mind. There are several kinds of deeds. The general warranty deed being one in which most people are familiar. With a general warranty deed, the property is not under any sort of lien or debts as far as the seller knows. The seller has full rights in which to sell the real estate. A good idea before entering into this agreement is to execute a title search. This will prevent purchasing a property in which the grantor does not have full rights to sell.
Another sort of California property deed is a deed of trust. With a deed of trust, the person does not hold a mortgage, but rather it is held by a company until loan payments have been fulfilled. With this sort of loan, the title and property is transferred to the buyer after payments have been completed.
In some cases, property is transferred from one person to another under special circumstances. This sort of deed occurs most often among members of a family, where property is being transferred outright. It is seen with divorce quite a bit. There are no guarantees, as there would be with a warranty deed, that the title is clear. All interest in property is given up by the grantor. Back taxes are another reason why property may be transferred under a quitclaim deed. If property has been reclaimed by the state, it can be auctioned off for owed back taxes. Once the auction is complete and the state has covered their interest, the property is deeded over to the party that has won the auctioned property. No matter what the situation, the deed itself is considered legally binding in the majority of cases.