When it comes to selling your house, there are a lot of different factors that can affect how smooth and quick the process is. You can go with selling your house with a real estate agent or selling your home by owner, but then you can add on top a bunch of other factors like quitclaim deeds.
If you need to sell your house for whatever reason but want to use a quit claim deed, there are a few things you’ll need to know before you move forward.
Selling a House With a Quit Claim Deed
Before we dive into how to sell your house with a quit claim deed, it would be beneficial to know exactly what that is. A quit claim deed is a legal document and type of deed that essentially relinquishes the seller’s interests in selling the home. In other words, the property owner releases their ownership without saying why they’re doing so.
It’s a type of deed that doesn’t say whether the grantor ever officially owned the property. Still, it does prevent them from attempting to obtain legal ownership of the property in the future.
Once the grantor transfers the home with a quit claim deed to a new owner, they cannot later return to the homeowners saying they are interested in the property when it’s not for sale. It’s a great document to have in place as a new owner.
People typically use quit claim deeds for a property transfer between family members. It’s not an official sale per se, but it ensures the grantee that the grantor cannot come back later and claim any rights to the house or property.
Thanks to the quit claim deed transfer, those who now have ownership of the house can either keep the house or choose to sell it. One of the best parts about these is that the new owner can avoid liens with their new property.
Quit claim deeds are different from your traditional deed, warranty deed, or special warranty deed. These deeds are helpful for property sales and can provide the grantee with a higher level of protection.
Quit Claim Deeds Are Actually Quite Quick
Even though quit claim deeds aren’t used specifically to sell a house, they can be helpful when you are trying to sell a house from a family member or ex-spouse who no longer has ownership interest. All processes regarding real estate can take time, but the best thing about quit claim deeds is that they surprisingly move quickly.
You’ll need the help of a real estate attorney or other professional who can walk you through obtaining a quit claim deed. Once you do that, the process moves quickly. Their legal advice will help ensure you follow the right steps and get this done quickly. If you can, it’s one of the best things to do to sell a house fast.
Quit Claim Deeds Advice and Information
Quit claim deeds aren’t for everyone. Certain situations are best. Some situations when to use a quit claim deed include:
- Do you want to move the title into a living trust
- The current owner no longer has an interest in the house
- During estate planning
- You want to transfer ownership to a family member or soon-to-be ex-spouse
Can You Sell a House With a Quit Claim Deed
You’re probably wondering if you can actually sell a house with a quit claim deed. Since the real estate transaction isn’t protected, how can you sell a piece of property without legal ownership? The good news is that you can sell a house with this type of legal document, but is it that different from a traditional sale?
How To Sell a House With a Quit Claim Deed
So, since you can sell a house with a quit claim deed, how do you go about it? Let’s say you bought a home or property with a quit claim deed, and you no longer want it, or you’ve lived there for years, but it’s time to move on. Even with this property deed, you can still sell the house as you traditionally would.
You can sell the house as normal with a quit claim deed and a realtor because even though the deed affects the ownership rights of the house, it doesn’t change whose name is on the mortgage. Here’s how you can sell a piece of property with a quit claim deed.
1. Understand Quit Claim Deeds
Before you do anything to sell the house, you need to understand what these deeds are. We’ve provided you with a general overview of them, but you’ll want to look into who originally had ownership rights, who signed those over to the next person, etc.
2. Verify the Title
Until you verify the house’s title, you can’t list the house for sale, whether you’re selling by owner or using a real estate agent. To do this, you can do a quick title search for the property’s address.
This should provide you with all the house’s title information and prevent any future title issues. Buyers will want to know as much information about the quit claim deed and property title before putting in a cash or non-cash offer. You can look up the title at the county recorder’s office, the county clerk, and sometimes online.
3. List Disclosures
Like a traditional home sale, you’ll want to list any disclosures. This step is almost more important in a quit claim deed sale since a quit claim deed form doesn’t offer any warranties, and buyers want to know everything they can about the home before purchasing. This also includes your mortgage payments if there are any still for the house.
4. Decide on an Asking Price and Prepare the House
If you’re working with a realtor, then they’ll be able to help you determine the best-asking price for the quit claim deed property. They’ll do market research on similar homes in the area compared to the amenities you have at your home. If you aren’t working with one, you can do this research independently to determine the best-asking price you want.
Once you have your asking price, you need to get the house ready to sell. This includes cleaning, any repairs you plan on making before selling, etc. Whatever you do to prepare the house, go into it to improve the home, make it appealing to buyers, and match your asking price.
5. Officially List the Property
You can list your property online in various outlets. Be sure to include a legal description of the property and any other information that would appeal to home buyers.
6. Find a Buyer
Now that your quit claim deed house is listed online, you can start to search for the right buyer. Not everyone is interested in buying a home with a quit claim deed because they’re worried about title issues in the future.
Still, as long as you’re upfront and transparent throughout the process, you’ll get offers from people. Your real estate agent or we can help you find a great cash offer for your property.
7. Negotiate the Sale
After you find a buyer that you’re interested in, you need to negotiate the sale. Depending on what dollar amount they offer you for the home, you can either say yes or see if you can persuade them to offer a higher amount or if you can do any repairs/changes to the house that would make them feel comfortable offering more.
When you agree on the sale price, you’ll need to discuss a closing date and any contingencies that must be written out in the sales contract.
8. Create a Sales Contract and Make Sure the Buyer Understands Quit Claim Deeds
You’ll want to hire a real estate lawyer to help you draft the sales contract. Your buyer should already know by now that you’re selling the house with a quit claim deed, but this would be a great time to offer them any insight into this type of deed transfer in case they’re not aware of how it exactly works.
This is very important to ensure that the sale goes through smoothly. When they’re unsure and hesitant because they don’t fully understand quit claim deeds, it can cause the sale to fall through or delay it longer.
9. Sign the Contract and Sell
You can finally sign the sales contract as long as all goes well and begin the official title transfer process. Be sure to use a notary public to make the contract legitimate and file it with the county clerk.
Conclusion
Whether you’re trying to sell a house fast in Memphis with a quit claim deed or booking for cash home buyers in Bartlett, we buy houses Tennessee owners need to sell. Contact us today to learn how we can help you sell your house with a quit claim deed stress-free and get the best offer possible.
