The Expert Podcast

So in real estate what is a deed to a property and how does it differ from a title to a property? Property deed, property title - are they the same, are they different? Well let's take a look at what they are.

A real estate deed or a property deed is a piece of paper. It's a recorded document that evidences an event. That's why it's like a deed - think of the word deed. What does that mean in everyday life? Good deeds, he did the deed, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, right? A deed is an action that's taken. A Real Estate Deed is an action - it's a transfer of a property or maybe part of a property or some rights in a property from one party to another property another party.

The parties are called grantor and grantee. Grantor is exactly what it sounds like - you're granting property rights. The grantee is receiving property rights. It's a piece of paper that says on this date this person granted rights to this other person for this property. Has to identify the property, has to have a legal description not just an address. It says when it happened, why it happened.

It also has to be very carefully verified. You can't just sign it and file it - it has to be notarized, you have to have witnesses because it's talking about real estate which is a large asset. There's certain requirements every county has to make sure it's actually legitimate, it's not a fake deed. So that's what a deed is - that's a piece of paper.
What is the title? Well a title is not any one particular piece of paper. A title is more of a analysis of what's going on with that property. For example, if you filed a real estate deed today selling a property 12 main street from you to John Smith, that deed goes in a book in the land records says that event happened, that deed took place. If two years later John Smith sells the property to Sally Jones, they put another deed in another book for that day to say the property was transferred.

So let's say you're going through the books and you find the first deed - wait you sold the property to John Smith so John Smith must be the owner - unless you look at the other deed and all the records for that property you won't know who's in title, you won't know who is currently the vested owner of that property.

So a title to a property or a title search is the process of looking through all of the historical records of a particular property and analyzing them to determine who appears to be currently the owner of this property after all said and done, all the dust is settled, all the Deeds are kind of chained together - Joe to Sally to Mary to Bob - who is the person who now has rights to this property.

So that's what title is, but there's no piece of paper that's an official document in the land records that says title. Unlike a car which has a piece of paper that's a title, real estate doesn't have a piece of paper that's a title. They have deeds and they have a title search or title abstract, but a title abstract is just one person's or one company's opinion or evaluation of what all the land records are and what it means for ownership.

So if you need to know who owns a property you want to run a title search or a title abstract. If you want to look for the events of one particular transaction you want to look at a Real Estate Deed, right? See the difference?

So there's more information on our website you'll see that below. Also if you want more direct consultation about any particular real estate transaction real estate documentation, we are a certified real estate title examiner abstractor and you see the link below you can click and do consultation about your particular case, one-on-one private consultation they can go into this more detail.

And also there's other types of Records like leans, there are tax leans, there are quit claim deeds, right? There's mortgages, there's release of leans and mortgages, there's all kind of documents that affect the property besides just the deed. And there's different types of Deeds - there's a warranty deed, there's a quit claim deed, there's a probate deed, so all of these are a little bit different. There's also right to survivorships, there's a trust deed, there's a life estate - all of these have different effects on a property.
So knowing what the final result is for a real estate title is an important way to make sure you're protecting yourself if you're buying or even selling a property.