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A deed problem is not the same as a title problem

Worth separating these before anything else, because sellers use the words interchangeably and they lead to different fixes.

A deed is a document. It is the instrument that transferred the property on a particular date. A deed problem means something is wrong with that piece of paper: a misspelled name, a bad legal description, a missing signature, a defective notarization.

Title is the state of your ownership. A title problem means something is clouding your right to convey: an old loan never reconveyed, a judgment lien, an unknown heir with an interest.

A bad deed usually creates a title problem, which is why they get conflated. But the repair is different. Deed defects are fixed with a corrective document. Title defects are cleared by releasing, paying, or litigating the thing that clouds them. If your issue is the second kind, our guide to selling with title issues is the more useful page.

Grant deed or quitclaim, and why it matters now

California uses two common deeds and the difference matters when you sell.

A grant deed carries implied warranties: that the grantor has not already conveyed the property to someone else, and that they have not encumbered it in ways they did not disclose. It is the standard instrument in an arm's length California sale.

A quitclaim deed conveys whatever interest the grantor happens to have, with no warranty at all. If they had nothing, you received nothing, and you have no claim against them.

Quitclaims are everywhere in family transfers, divorces and estate planning, precisely because they are quick and free. That is fine until someone tries to sell. A house that came to you by quitclaim from a relative may be perfectly good, or it may carry whatever defect existed at the time, and you have no recourse against the person who gave it to you.

If you took title by quitclaim, order a preliminary title report early. It is the fastest way to find out which of those two you are in.

The errors that are cheap to fix

Most deed defects are clerical and fixable in weeks, not months. The usual suspects:

• A misspelled or inconsistent name, for example the deed says Robert and the ID says Bob, or a married name that never matched
• A wrong or incomplete legal description, or a transposed APN
• A missing middle initial that makes the grantee look like a different person from the grantor on the next deed
• A vesting that says something nobody intended, like tenants in common where joint tenancy was meant

These are corrected with a corrective deed, sometimes called a deed of correction, signed and recorded by the original parties, or by a deed of reformation where a court blesses what the parties actually intended.

The catch is not the document, it is the signature. A corrective deed generally needs the original grantor to sign. When that person is cooperative, this is quick and cheap. When they are estranged, unreachable or dead, a simple clerical error turns into the next section.

The errors that are not

Some defects cannot be papered over, and it is better to know which one you have before you list.

A forged deed is void. Not voidable, void. It conveys nothing, and in California it conveys nothing even to a later buyer who paid fair value and knew nothing about it. If a signature in your chain was forged, the transfer never happened as a matter of law, and unwinding it takes a court.

A missing spouse. Where property is community property, a conveyance generally requires both spouses to join. A deed signed by one spouse alone can be challenged by the other, sometimes years later.

A stale or defective power of attorney. A deed signed under a POA that had been revoked, or that had already terminated on the principal's death, does not do what it appears to do.

A defective acknowledgment. A notarization that was never properly taken can make a deed unrecordable, and a deed that was never validly recorded does not give the world notice of your ownership.

A wild deed. A deed recorded outside the chain of title. It is in the county records, but a title search following the chain will not find it, so it does not give constructive notice to anyone.

The fix for most of these is a quiet title action: a lawsuit that asks a court to declare who owns what. Realistically that is several months and several thousand dollars, longer if anyone contests it. Worth starting sooner rather than later, because the cost does not improve with age.

The deed you never recorded

This one is common in family transfers and it worries people more than it should.

An unrecorded deed is generally valid between the two people who signed it. Recording is not what makes a transfer effective. What recording does is give notice to everyone else.

The exposure is real but specific: California's recording system protects a later good-faith purchaser who pays value and records first, without notice of your unrecorded deed. So if the grantor were to convey the same property again to someone who recorded, that later buyer could take priority over you.

Practically, an unrecorded deed sitting in a drawer means the public record still shows the old owner. Any sale will need that cleaned up. Record it, and do it now rather than at closing, because problems found while recording are far cheaper to solve before there is a buyer waiting.

Your timeline with My Home Sold

Step 1: Send us what you have

The deed, however imperfect, plus anything else in the file. If you are not sure what you have, tell us how the property came to you.

Step 2: We pull the chain of title

A preliminary title report shows what the record actually says, which is often not what the seller believes it says.

Step 3: Written offer in 24 hours

We tell you honestly whether it is a corrective-deed fix or a quiet title situation, and price accordingly.

Step 4: We handle the cure

Corrective deeds and reconveyances we sort through escrow. Where a court is genuinely required, we will say so rather than pretend otherwise.

Your options compared

The tradeoff, plainly: we buy below retail, usually 10–20% depending on condition and market. If the defect is a misspelled name and the original grantor will happily sign a corrective deed next week, fix it and list normally. You will net more, and we will tell you so on the call.

The cash route earns its discount when the signature you need belongs to someone estranged or deceased, when a quiet title action is the honest answer, or when a financed sale has already fallen apart once because the defect surfaced in escrow.

Compare the routes in our guide to selling a house fast in California.

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