Video Summary
What are some of the most common types of deeds? Well, the deed that I get questioned about the most is what some people call a quick deed when they are really referencing a quit-claim deed. A quit-claim deed is simply a deed that says I transfer to you whatever interest I have on a particular property and that is used whenever there’s uncertainty as to what your ownership may be.
The other most common deed that is used in real estate transactions whenever you’re selling something is a warranty deed, and that’s a statutory warranty deed. As it indicates, there are warranties in that you warrant of something – that you have good title to the property, you have a right to transfer possession, all these warranties go with it. There are seven of them which come through the common law and are adopted in our Florida statutes. I can’t give them all to you, but everybody now pretty much relies upon the title insurance in conjunction with the transfers under a warranty deed since you can sue the seller under the warranties. But if you have title insurance, well, you’ve got a solvent company and you don’t have to go looking for the seller or worry about whether the seller still has any money for you to sue them. So that’s the second or probably the most common deed that is used as far as selling real estate.
Also, what we’re seeing more and more of life estate deeds, and that’s sort of hard to explain, but it’s a deed whereby a person conveys to someone the property, however reserves a life estate. Well, how do you measure a life estate? Well, the person who does the conveying says, “Well, look, I’m gonna keep the property during my lifetime, and so you really don’t have any interest in this property until I die.” And so that is a life estate deed.
You may have heard the word Ladybird deed. That is a name that was affixed to what they call an enhanced life estate deed, and that was put on a publication and the person named the deeds after famous people, and that was named after Ladybird Johnson. Well, what is a Ladybird deed? Well, a Ladybird deed says that I convey to you this property after I pass away. However, I reserve the right to sell the property during my lifetime, mortgage it, or transfer it, change my mind, and I don’t have to give you any of the money if I sell the property. So it’s really considered an enhanced life estate deed because you’re just not retaining a life estate. You’re also reserving certain power. So those are probably the three most common deeds that I deal with on a day-to-day basis.
There are any number of other types of deeds that are used: special warranty deeds, trustees’ deeds, guardianship deeds, the simple deeds.
So the big thing is is if it’s a deed, it has words of conveyancing, which says that I hereby transaction, I hereby convey, I hereby quit-claim. These are all words of conveyancing, and so when they’re contained in the deed, that means they are transferring the title and the property. So if you have any questions about deeds, well, give me a call at (727) 847-2288.