"Transfer on Death". - Posted by Sara_CA

Real Estate Investing
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Posted by JT-IN on September 05, 2009 at 14:16:28:

All well and good if you want to transfer the property to a joint party. However, it is not always smart thing to do.

Think in terms of Parent and adult child… There are reasons why the parent may not wish to transfer joint ownership to the son or daughter. But a TOD Deed transfers the property immediately upon death; case closed.

Sure, your example is great when dealing with H and W… not so good when dealing with Mom and Son, for a lot of reasons to numberous to cover here.

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“Transfer on Death”. - Posted by Sara_CA

Posted by Sara_CA on August 31, 2009 at 23:24:00:

“Transfer on Death”. Did anyone have experience with this document before? What was the outcome?

I am not familiar with this document, “Transfer on Deathf”. An county official in New Mexico explained to me. He said this document is only valuable if the owner dies. During the owner’s life time, if he sells property, this document is not worth the paper it is printed on. But if the owner dies without selling the property, then all you have to do is show the death certificate at the recorder’s office, and the property is will be recorded in your name. Simple. Probate avoided.

Is this correct? Did any of the seasoned experts here do this? Does this document apply to California?

Thank you in advance to the experts who give your insights. Thanks to this great board too.

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JTWROS? - Posted by blogger

Posted by blogger on September 05, 2009 at 13:48:42:

In many states a deed is routinely used called Joint Tenant With Right of Survivorship by husband and wife or parents with kids.

So on death of first JT (H usually) surviving JT (widow) is survivor and has full title w/o probate.

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Thank you. - Posted by Sara_CA

Posted by Sara_CA on September 03, 2009 at 24:13:09:

Thanks Herbster and JT-IN. I am convinced the Transfer on Death Deed can not be done in California no matter what condition the estate is in. Fortunately this subject property is in New Mexico, so we are good. Lucked out on this one. Thanks again.

BTW. I couldn’t find the old thread JT-IN mentioned in the archives about the TOD. I remember it was a very informative thread about title vesting.

Thanks to this great board and all who contribute here.

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Re: “Transfer on Death”. - Posted by JT-IN

Posted by JT-IN on September 01, 2009 at 21:22:09:

You rec’d a fairly accurate description of the TOD. It is a type of deed, or a clause within a deed that authorizes the TOD provision, and YES, it does bypass probate. All that is needed is a the Death Cert… and then the property will transfer to the heir stipulated in the TOD Deed.

Last count only 9 or 11 states allowed for the use of TOD deeds. CA had ruffled the feathers heavily as if they were going to approve the provision but the Bar Assn asserted their pressures, as Attys would stand to lose lots of $$$ by eliminating the probate on these valuable assets now avoiding probate.

As I recallm, this was discussed in a thread maybe 2 months ago where you were researching the best way to transfer a property that a parent was living in… (if I remember correctly)… and the TOD deed was discussed then so you might wish to search out that thread as it may now make more sense to you…

Here is a fairly good description of the process from an Attys website:

http://www.abanet.org/rppt/publications/magazine/2007/ja/KirtlandSeal.shtml

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Re: “Transfer on Death”. - Posted by Herbster

Posted by Herbster on September 01, 2009 at 06:22:19:

Some questions:
How many heirs?
Who is executor of the estate?
How was the will written?
Avoiding probate? Doubtful.
But what do I know, I’m in MI.
Herbster