June 2016 // Real Estate & Home Builders Guide // 13E
Quitclaim deed, living trust
transfer home ownership
By Ilyce Glink
and Samuel J. Tamkin
Tribune Content Agency
A
By Ilyce Glink
and Samuel J. Tamkin
Tribune Content Agency
Q
Q
: I’ve had a shock. I just
discovered that both names
-- mine and my husbands -- were
never put on our house deed
when we bought the property
over 40 years ago.
I just happened to go to
the county website where we
live in Ohio, and saw only my
husband’s name. I called the
ofice, thinking an error had
been made, and was told no, that
only he owned the property. We
were both shocked.
I need to know how to
remedy the situation. I have left
messages at a local title company
but haven’t received a call back.
The real estate agent who sold us
the property is long gone. Any
help will be appreciated. Thank
you.
: When we get a question
like this, it’s typically
from an older parent who has
a paid-off home that he or she
wants to leave to the kids. In
that scenario, the question about
adding someone to title is really
a question about the best (and
least annoying and/or expensive)
way to inherit property.
In your case, the question is
about titling an asset that should
have been held by both of you
but for some reason is listed in
only the husband’s name.
What happened to you isn’t
surprising. Forty years ago,
there was rampant sexism in
real estate. It was generally
assumed that the husband was
putting forth all the money and
property would be titled in his
name. Ilyce remembers going for
her irst loan and being told that
her income (which was $15,000
per year in the late 1980s) was
inconsequential and didn’t
matter.
When you closed in your
town in Ohio, you and your
husband should have been listed
as co-owner, and chosen how to
hold title to the property. While
Finding REO lender may
take a little bit of sleuthing
: A house we are interested in
was sold at a sheriff’s auction.
The big box lender bought it back.
How do you get information on
when the house will be sold by the
bank, or how do we contact the
bank to let them know that we are
interested in buying house?
: It seems to be a big dark
secret when it comes to getting
any information from big box
lenders. Everyone always wants to
know when a lender’s Real Estate
Owned (REO) department will
put a house up for sale, but it’s
quite hard to get that information
from the lender directly. We don’t
know why lenders are so secretive
about this information but we’ve
found that the only real way to
obtain information about upcoming
properties for sale is to know the
real estate company and agents that
the big box lender uses to sell these
properties.
Let’s start at the beginning:
When a homeowner fails to pay
his mortgage, the lender has the
right to foreclose on the home.
Depending on the state in which
the property is located, the lender
may have the right to sell the home
at a sheriff sale without a court
judgment. While in other states,
the lender would have to go to
court, get a judgment against the
borrower with the home eventually
sold at a sheriff sale.
In either case, the likely
outcome would be that a potential
homeowner looking to purchase a
distressed property could purchase
the home at the auction or other
similar sale. If the sale does not
ind any buyers, the lender bids
what it is owed on the loan and gets
title to the home. Once it has title,
the lender can market the home
for sale and even list the home for
sale in the local multiple listing
services.
That’s why it’s important to
ind out the name of the real estate
agent or real estate company that
represents the big box lender and
see when the home will go on the
market. If there are other homes
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your name isn’t on the property,
your husband can execute a
quitclaim deed, which would
transfer the property from his
name into both of your names,
from a sole owner to join tenants
with rights of survivorship.
If he executes this deed,
and then iles it with the local
recorder of deeds, the property
will be transferred from his
name into both of your names,
and you will be the co-owner
of the property. We assume you
don’t have a mortgage on the
property. If you did, you could
still transfer the title into both
of your names, but the mortgage
would still be in your husband’s
name alone.
Should your husband die
before you, you would own
the property outright. If you
died irst, he would again own
the property. But you would
be protected and the property
would transfer cleanly, without
going thru probate.
There are other ways to
handle the situation. Your
husband could put the property
into a living trust, naming both
of you as the beneiciaries. You
could then name secondary
beneiciaries, such as your
children (if you have any), and
the property would transfer
without going thru probate.
It’s fortuitous that you found
out now about this issue. We’d
suggest you talk to a real estate
attorney or estate attorney to
igure out what might be best
for you, your husband and your
children. You should be able to
do this for very little money, and
it will certainly bring you great
peace of mind.
One caveat is that in some
states, recording a change of
ownership can be expensive
and cause changes in the
assessed value of the home. If
the recording of the deed is very
expensive or will cause the local
taxing body to re-evaluate the
value of the home, you may have
to igure out what your local
taxing body will allow you to
do to ix your issue. Some states
will allow conveyances into
living trusts for estate planning
purposes without triggering
some of the negative issues of a
transfer of title by deed.
Good luck.
in the neighborhood that were also
sold at auction and associated with
the same big box lender, you might
want to call the listing agent of
those homes and see if they know
more about the property you are
interested in.
If you don’t have much luck
inding the agent, you might try
talking to real estate agents that
work in that neighborhood. Those
agents may know the company
that specializes in sales of REO
properties. Frequently, brokers in
the area know who the real estate
agents are that specialize in REOs.
Again, the real estate agent you
ind can help you with the purchase
or you can try to get to the REO
agent directly.
Finally, we should caution you
that buying an REO property isn’t
always the same thing as buying
a property that is listed on the
market by caring homeowners.
Many REO properties have
signiicant issues and you should
be careful if you decide to buy an
REO home.
Typically, if sellers go into
foreclosure, they’ve been broke for
some time. Commonly, you see
that foreclosed owners do not care
for the home during the last months
they lived in the home. So, you
could have plumbing problems,
mold issues, broken appliances (or
missing appliances), and deferred
maintenance issues that could cost
you dearly. And, we’ve seen and
heard of cases where pipes have
frozen and caused huge issues
in homes, roof leaks that weren’t
repaired, so be very careful and
plan for extra expenses.
Good luck in your quest to ind
the broker that may list the home
and in the home buying process.
(Ilyce Glink is the creator of
an 18-part webinar+ebook series
called “The Intentional Investor:
How to be wildly successful in
real estate,” as well as the author
of many books on real estate.
She also hosts the “Real Estate
Minute,” on her YouTube channel.
Samuel J. Tamkin is a Chica-
go-based real estate attorney.
Contact Ilyce and Sam through her
website, ThinkGlink.com.)